Director: Gavin Hood.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin.
Running Time: 114 minutes.
Certificate: 12A.
Synopsis: The International Military seek out a leader who can save the human race from an alien attack. Ender Wiggin, a brilliant young mind, is recruited and trained to lead his fellow soldiers into a battle that will determine the future of Earth.
ENDER’S GAME is one of those movies that has literally been publicised to death over the past few months. The film had a huge presence at this past summer’s San Diego Comic Con with a huge tent parked opposite the city’s convention centre for the entire duration of the con. Following that, you’ve had the usually press-shy Harrison Ford flogging the film to death both in public appearances and television guest spots weeks prior to the film’s release. In fact the film has been so over-exposed, the warning lights were starting to go off before a frame was flashed before our eyes.
The story is set in the near future where inhabitants of the planet Earth are still getting over two, too-close-for-comfort attacks on our home planet by a mysterious alien species that were intriguingly called ‘Buggers’ in the original source material (no, really). Intent on not letting the third time to be lucky for said Buggers, known as Formics in the film adaptation, Harrison Ford’s Colonel Hyrum Graff embarks on a mission to find Earth’s saviour, and finds it in young Battle School attendee Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield). After passing dozens of demanding tests thrown at him trough an intense training regime, Ender is entrusted to lead a band of brothers into battle to determine the future of the planet.
Orson Scott Card’s ENDER’S GAME has been determined to be adapted for the big screen for many years, and after a number of false starts due to the complexity of the material, the film finally makes its way to screens courtesy of Gavin Hood, who pens the adaptation and also directs.
Putting every pre-conceived perception of the cinematic product out of my mind, including the comments that were made above, and author Card’s opinions of homosexuality which appeared in the press prior to its Comic Con launch, I judge the film on its own merits, having not read the book, although I hear it is actually very good. This film is not.
Any trip to see any kind of decent picture should provoke some kind of emotion. I am always very vocal of films that are of a certain quality that I don’t enjoy, and I rate them accordingly. If I laugh at a comedy or am touched by a drama, thrilled at an action movie or am singing along to a movie musical, then I’m already halfway there. ENDER’S GAME has to be one of the only films this year that has failed to bring out any kind of emotion in me whatsoever, and I would call myself a fan of the sci-fi genre.
For the all of the good that he did in IRON MAN 3 earlier on this year, in my eyes, Sir Ben Kingsley has undone some it with this film, and is completely wasted in the role of Maori hero Mazer Rackham. He appears in what seems like just a couple of scenes two thirds of the way into this very overlong movie experience. Harrison Ford is back in space for the first time since RETURN OF THE JEDI and seemingly phones it in as Colonel Graff. The young actors, Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin and Hailee Steinfeld, who play the three central characters in the movie, try their very best, but although their combined actions are potentially enough to help save the Earth is not enough to save the movie and overcome the boredom I felt from very, very early on.
Should have been so much better. Hugely disappointing.
ENDER’S GAME is released in UK cinemas on 25th October, 2013 and the US on 1st November, 2013.
