Ender's Game (2013)

In the future Earth is nearly destroyed by an alien race of bug like creatures, but we were saved by a great hero that wasn't Casper Van Dien but Gandhi (Ben Kinsley). Children play video games to see who will become the next war leader. The overly robotic Ender Wiggen (Asa Butterfield) is on the fast track to become that leader, trained by Han Solo (Harrison Ford).The film is magnificent in its graphics. The characters are fairly dry as in too many science fiction films which are theme driven. Written in 1985 the film looks at the "First Strike" debate. Should you attack your enemy first if you believe you are about to be attacked? This was debated in the 1980's and during the 1930's. It became policy in Iraq and is still debated today, the reason why Hollywood chose to make this film now. The film also touches on population control and structural society for the common good.The multiple adult themes have been dummy downed for the young target audience who are surely more enthralled by the computer games than any under lying meaning. If "Ender's Game" reminds you of other modern films it is because they copied from it, or the book upon it was based. In that regard this feature is similar to "John Carter." a film that was not as popular as those it inspired.Worth while viewing for the kids. Adults might find themselves at times bored during the formulaic plot.

Ender's game I think a nice film is about an intelligent child studying in space and heading to a fleet to save the world from the aliens. I would recommend this building very good in terms of visuality.

Ender's Game is a very poor film with a lazily written plot and a cast that all seem to be eagerly anticipating their paycheck. It makes no effort to really pull its audience in and tell a properly engaging story. I had a complete lack of care or remorse for every character in this and the situation they were in.It is immensely cliched, not doing anything new or interesting, clearly borrowing material that worked in other Sci-Fi or adventure movies, but not doing them in a way that is half as inspired. It boasts a very decent cast, but it saddens me to say that they are all delivering some of their blandest performances. The likes of Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley and Harrison Ford have certainly proven their worth in previous roles, but they can not do anything to save the immensely poor dialogue here. Did nothing to engage or entertain me. Stale and uninspired, it is in your best interest to give Enders Game a miss. A talented young boy is recruited to lead a battle against a dangerous alien race. Best Performance: Harrison Ford / Worst Performance: Abigail Breslin

I am guilty of watching something purely because it's sci-fi which was the case with this. If you're wondering if it's worth your time, it probably isn't. Perhaps because it was trying to summarise a book there were leaps in plot that didn't make sense, and the characters felt very shallow - they started as stereotypes and stayed that way. There was never a satisfying explanation why a bunch of youths were treated as great military leaders. There seemed to be no reason for lead-psycho-kid to make his leap of understanding about the aliens. The film didn't take time to build a world that matters with a plot that goes straight into a sterile spaceship. I didn't care if they won or lost or how they went about it. The spectacle was OK, with good-enough looking shooty space-bits, but it wasn't enough.