****
Based on a novel of the same
name, Ender’s Game is the story of
Ender Wiggin, an exceptional young man given the daunting task of defeating an
alien race which nearly destroyed Earth fifty years previously.
One of the main features of Ender’s Game is the use of child
soldiers to battle the enemy, a debate illustrated excellently by Asa
Butterfield, who plays the eponymous Ender. In some sequences, he seems as
powerful as any adult, and then in other scenes he appears to us so physically
underdeveloped that you cannot help but wince at the task set before him. The
use of children in combat creates rifts between Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford)
and Major Anderson (Viola Davies), but the morality of using young people is
not provided to us in a black and white way – we are shown both sides of the
argument throughout, and the implications of such a strategy are not shoved
down the throats of the viewer. Butterfield plays Ender as an ultimately angry
and confused young man, but with a vulnerable and almost ancient soul – he is a
‘misfit’ from start to finish. Paired with such an acting great as Ford, it
would have been easy for Butterfield to become side lined, but he holds his own
masterfully throughout, his engaging and expressive face endearing us to him
from the very start. The other child actors are similarly good, which is a
great relief as the film could’ve easily fallen on its face had the majority of
the cast been lacking.
Visually, the film is superb –
there is an infinite amount of detail in almost every frame, which makes the
film immediately immersive. The mind game which Ender plays during his training
looks like a game as opposed to the ‘real life’ world of the spaceships, which
creates an excellent dichotomy between practice and the actual conflicts.
There are, however, faults.
Firstly, why did the casting director choose Ben Kingsley to play an
Australian? Surely there are plenty of Australian actors out there who could’ve
played this role without torturing us with such a painful accent! Secondly,
some parts of the film feels very rushed. In a novel, you can spend several
pages detailing the progress of a character, whereas in this film, Ender’s
progression from one level to the next were extremely accelerated so we didn’t
have time as an audience to gage his development. The graphics are without a
doubt exceptional, but the constant ‘swirling’ motion of the various spaceships
and the camera made me feel a little motion-sick, so in some of the anti-gravity
scenes I had to shut my eyes briefly to re-orientate myself. Perhaps this was
an intentional choice on behalf of director Gavin Hood to prove how difficult
the conditions were for the cadets, but it wasn’t easy to watch.
Once the film starts, the pace
doesn’t let up for a moment, which mirrors Ender’s whirlwind experience from
recruit to Commander. The last ten minutes are perhaps a little rushed, and
there are moments during the framing section where I wanted more information,
but overall this is a pretty solid film, with an interesting moral dilemma at
its heart.
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