Film Review: Ender's Game
Time for another film review and this week it is the science fiction film Ender's Game released in 2013 and based on the 1985 book of the same name by Orson Scott Card. Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin and Ben Kingsley.
Before I go further I will say that there will be spoilers, so if you intend to watch the film and don't like spoilers wait to see the film first.
In the future, humanity is preparing to launch an attack on the homeworld of an alien race, called the Formics, that had attacked Earth and killed millions. The Formic invasion was stopped by Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), who crashed his fighter plane into Formic queenship at the apparent cost of his life. Over the course of 50 years, gifted children are trained by the International Fleet to become commanders of a new fleet for this counterattack.
Before I go further I will say that there will be spoilers, so if you intend to watch the film and don't like spoilers wait to see the film first.
Cadet Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) draws the attention of Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) based on his aptitude in simulated space combat. After a fight he is seemingly kicked out of the program and confesses his guilt to his older sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin) while he is harassed by their older brother Peter, both were kicked out of the programme themselves Peter is too violent and Valentine too compassionate. Graff arrives at Ender's house saying he was being tested and is taking him to Battle School he hopes he can find the balance between his siblings emotional extremes as he displays them both. Battle School buts the cadets in squads who perform training games against each other, along the way Ender befriends an older cadet Petra Arkanian (Hailee Steinfeld) who takes him under her wing training him in their free time. Ender makes an enemy of his second squad commander Bonzo repeatedly embarrassing him but impressing Graff who makes Ender the commander of his own squad who beat his previous squad and two others in a training game. After this Bonzo attacks Ender in the bathroom, Ender wins but seriously injures Bonzo, distraught over this he prepares to quit Battle School, however Graff gets Valentine to convince him to continue.
Ender is take to humanity's forward base on a former Formic planet near their homeworld where Ender meets Mazer Rackham who did not die as had been implied. Ender and his team, made up of various squad mates including Petra, train in various computerised simulations to master the weapons they have including an MD device that can disintegrate matter. Ender's final test arrives and it is an attack on the Formic's homeworld, using all his skills and training Ender sacrifices thousands of troops to protect the MD device which he uses to destroy the Formic's planet. Afterwards Ender is shown it was not a simulation but real and that Ender is a war hero, he is horrified and outraged at the genocide believing he will only be remembered as a killer. Ender discovers a dying Formic Queen in a structure not far from the base, she forgives Ender as all she wanted was peace and gives him a Queen egg that she has been protecting. Ender is promoted to Admiral and given a small ship following the end of the war, he sets off to form a new formic colony in deep space.
I really enjoyed this film it was interesting and thought provoking, in particular the ending it gives a different type of winning a war and makes you think about who the bad guys really are. I found the overall story line really interesting with the simulations and anti gravity battle room to teach and train the children. The way Ender thinks and figures everything out is incredible, his mindset is that it's not about winning it's how you win, for example in the fight at the beginning there is a group of bullies but he fights the leader and once he knocks him down he kicks him repeatedly the reason for this was so the others didn't take him on. He applies the same logic throughout his training and in the simulations it works most of the time, this is why he is so outraged after the final test because while thinking it was a simulation he wasn't killing anyone but when he realised he had killed thousands of his own people and a complete race it was completely different. However the redemption he feels he can find by restarting the race starts to help him. I also found the fact that Ender had to balance the personalities of his siblings as he displayed the flaws in both of them but managed to find the middle ground which made him excellent at figuring out how to beat the Formic's but also not wanting to be remembered as a murderer.
This leads nicely to who the real bad guys are, consider Ender is only twelve so this is a lot of responsibility for him and it also means he is easily manipulated. Although the Formic's attacked the earth 50 years earlier and killed many humans they have not since yet the humans are dedicating everything to the war with them. However they go about it by training children and manipulating Ender into wiping them all out by supposedly using simulations to train him, all of this adds up to make it look like both are the bad guys at different points but the question remains, would the Formic's have continued fighting if the humans had not followed and attacked them?
I thought the acting in this film was brilliant, for a fourteen year old Asa Butterfield really brings out the personality traits of Ender incredibly and really makes you identify with him but also feel sorry for him, especially at the end. The choice of actors for the other main characters Colonel Hyrum Graff, Major Gwen Anderson and Mazer Rackham were also brilliant as Harrison Ford, Viola David and Ben Kingsley are all great actors and I have enjoyed seeing them in every role I have seen them in and they definitely played these roles perfectly.
Overall I thought this was a brilliant film and presented a different kind of science fiction, I will definitely watch it again and when my son is older I can imagine him enjoying it too.
My rating for Ender's Game is 8/10
Ender is take to humanity's forward base on a former Formic planet near their homeworld where Ender meets Mazer Rackham who did not die as had been implied. Ender and his team, made up of various squad mates including Petra, train in various computerised simulations to master the weapons they have including an MD device that can disintegrate matter. Ender's final test arrives and it is an attack on the Formic's homeworld, using all his skills and training Ender sacrifices thousands of troops to protect the MD device which he uses to destroy the Formic's planet. Afterwards Ender is shown it was not a simulation but real and that Ender is a war hero, he is horrified and outraged at the genocide believing he will only be remembered as a killer. Ender discovers a dying Formic Queen in a structure not far from the base, she forgives Ender as all she wanted was peace and gives him a Queen egg that she has been protecting. Ender is promoted to Admiral and given a small ship following the end of the war, he sets off to form a new formic colony in deep space.
I really enjoyed this film it was interesting and thought provoking, in particular the ending it gives a different type of winning a war and makes you think about who the bad guys really are. I found the overall story line really interesting with the simulations and anti gravity battle room to teach and train the children. The way Ender thinks and figures everything out is incredible, his mindset is that it's not about winning it's how you win, for example in the fight at the beginning there is a group of bullies but he fights the leader and once he knocks him down he kicks him repeatedly the reason for this was so the others didn't take him on. He applies the same logic throughout his training and in the simulations it works most of the time, this is why he is so outraged after the final test because while thinking it was a simulation he wasn't killing anyone but when he realised he had killed thousands of his own people and a complete race it was completely different. However the redemption he feels he can find by restarting the race starts to help him. I also found the fact that Ender had to balance the personalities of his siblings as he displayed the flaws in both of them but managed to find the middle ground which made him excellent at figuring out how to beat the Formic's but also not wanting to be remembered as a murderer.
This leads nicely to who the real bad guys are, consider Ender is only twelve so this is a lot of responsibility for him and it also means he is easily manipulated. Although the Formic's attacked the earth 50 years earlier and killed many humans they have not since yet the humans are dedicating everything to the war with them. However they go about it by training children and manipulating Ender into wiping them all out by supposedly using simulations to train him, all of this adds up to make it look like both are the bad guys at different points but the question remains, would the Formic's have continued fighting if the humans had not followed and attacked them?
I thought the acting in this film was brilliant, for a fourteen year old Asa Butterfield really brings out the personality traits of Ender incredibly and really makes you identify with him but also feel sorry for him, especially at the end. The choice of actors for the other main characters Colonel Hyrum Graff, Major Gwen Anderson and Mazer Rackham were also brilliant as Harrison Ford, Viola David and Ben Kingsley are all great actors and I have enjoyed seeing them in every role I have seen them in and they definitely played these roles perfectly.
Overall I thought this was a brilliant film and presented a different kind of science fiction, I will definitely watch it again and when my son is older I can imagine him enjoying it too.
My rating for Ender's Game is 8/10
Comments
Post a Comment