Ender's Game (2013)

You know how you sometimes read those annoying reviews by people moaning about how the film is nothing like the book? Well I'm not going to do that. I am going to say that they made as good a film as possible without changing anything significant (other than the ages of the recruits which they obviously needed to do to make the story filmable.)

Ender's Game was much better than I expected and surprisingly so given the years it has been in development hell with various names attached to it. As it turns out Gavin Hood was the director to bring this to life. The design and production values are excellent and I especially liked the animated sequences where Ender enters the computer game crafted uniquely for him. The cast was pretty much perfect and they all played with conviction. I was impressed from the start by the way the film makes clear that Ender progresses so quickly because he is a brilliant strategist and Asa Butterfield is a good enough actor to convey this without resorting to over-acting.

The film does not shy away from the brutality of the lives that these young recruits lead, at least not within the confines of a 12A film, and the ending is as shocking and moving as it should be. My only real criticism of the film is that it's too short, not something you normally hear from me. Ender just seems to progress too quickly and we miss some of the nuances and real difficulties he encounters along the way. Unless sequels are planned then we could probably have done without Ender's family background and relationship with his sister and brother and devoted more to the Battle School.

Overall though, this film was worth the long gestation period. It delivers more than we had a right to expect. Orson Scott Card may be homophobic but the powerful message at the heart of this film says much more than the average Hollywood film is capable of delivering.