REVIEW:
DVD review: Ender’s Game
(Icon, M)
Author Orson Scott Card’s science fiction novel Ender’s Game was received well when it appeared in 1985 and it has become popular with American teens in the nearly 30 years since.
If Card, who wrote and co-produced this film adaptation, has been faithful to his own source material it’s not hard to see why.
For while Ender’s Game is set in a near future world where alien invaders had been repelled from Earth whose inhabitants fear their return, this film is all about character. That is the rookie Ender Wiggin and his struggle to get into the International Military from where he can serve and protect his home world.
Actor Butterfield, now 17, was perfect for the role when he was chosen for filming last year.
There’s a teenaged awkwardness to him and his sticky out ears which is perfect for Ender Wiggin, a reject in his own family and quickly among those he is training with. But there’s also a geeky genius about him that makes you want to cheer him on from the side lines as he learns and grows.
At times this feels like Horatio Hornblower, which is a whole different genre of course, in Earth orbit.
Ender reports to Colonel Graff who director Gavin Hood perfectly cast Harrison Ford to play. When Han Solo/Indiana Jones barks an order you just want to jump, but he does it with that famous Ford glint in his eye.
And then there’s Ben Kingsley’s part Maori character who comes with a full face moko emphasising the warrior aspects of that culture. The Oscar winner does a great job, accent and all, but you can’t help wondering why the likes of Temuera Morrison wasn’t cast.
Game of Thrones’ own Xaro Xhoan Daxos also makes an appearance with actor Nonso Anozie appearing as the mountainous Sergeant Dapp.
If Ender’s Game has one downfall it is its special effects. They feel like a modern version of the 1984 film The Last Starfighter which boasted some of the earliest computer generated effects. Now I am not saying that Ender’s Game’s effects are as basic as those 30 year old effects but they are as crisp and clean. So much so that they pull you out of the story at times. Where are those annoying dents and scrapes from George Lucas’s “used universe” of Star Wars Or the human imperfections of the hand made miniatures in the Star Trek series and films Ender’s Game looks good, too good to be believable.
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