Orson Scott Card might be one of the most controversial novelists
of all time; while he's a talented writer, he's also a son of a bitch that
really hates gay people. That aside, I remember Ender's Game being a really
good book. I read it back in the tenth grade and thoroughly enjoying it, I
thought it was very interesting. So when I heard that a film adaptation was in
the works I was immediately interested. Plus the movie had an all star cast
ranging from Academy Award winners to promising up and comers. But how did it
turn out you say? Meh. Ender's Game take place several years from where a
mysterious alien race attacks earth and nearly wipes us out; but do to the
bravery of one of our best generals, we survived. Since then the governments
around the world have green lit a program involving the training of young
children in the hopes of finding great military minds. Fifty years after the
first attack, a young genius named Ender has gained the attention of some high
ranking military officials. So they pull him out of an intermediate training
facility and send him to battle school where he will learn to fight and then
lead. While smarter than everyone else in the room, Ender is somewhat shy and
desires the acceptance of his peers. After single-handedly winning a war game
for his assigned team, he is given control of his own squadron. And after
further success with his new team the people in charge of the facility agree
that he is mankind's best hope. And it's decided that he is to begin command
training to prepare him for a real military battle. Even though he just wants
to go home, he realizes that he must survive the grueling training because he
knows the reality of the situation; he is humanities last chance. My biggest
problem with Ender's Game is that it is remarkably uninspired. People loved the
book back in 1985 because it was original and unique, but the film just turns
into a really unoriginal sci-fi action movie. From the plot to design, it's
stuff we've seen before and seen done better. The visual effects are good for
the most part but pretty generic. Lots of neon lights, human ships are silver
and shiny, aliens look like bugs with brown almost organic looking ships, ect.
It doesn't bring anything new to the table. But while the movie overall isn't
anything special, it's certainly a bit of fun. Almost everyone gives a good
performance, especially the kid who plays Ender. But Harrison Ford's (who
co-stars) performance does feel a little phoned in. The battle scenes are
pretty awesome, you got thousands of ships on screen at once fighting and it's
pretty cool. The writing is alright, typical sci-fi stuff; but there are some
pretty good one liners. One of the larger problems affecting the movie is that
at times it feels rushed. It's always hard translating the words of a book to
the silver screen, but there are a lot of movies that have done a better job of
pacing than this one. At times five chapters of the book will translate to five
minutes in the movie, but sometimes they'll focus way to long on a certain scene.
Ender's Game is a certainly enjoyable movie, but it's not perfect. What was a
unique and interesting book almost 30 years ago has been turned into a run of
the mill sci-fi action movie. If you really liked the book I would suggest the
movie because it does a good job following the source material; but if you
haven't read the book or aren't sure if you really want to see it, there are
still a lot better movies out right now.
Pros: Pretty good acting from cast, cool space battles,
very enjoyable.
Cons: Uninspired, very generic at times, feels
rushed, Ford's performance feels phoned in.
3.5/5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment