Ender's Game (2013)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 8
If it isn't quite as thought-provoking as the book, Ender's Game still manages to offer a commendable number of well-acted, solidly written sci-fi thrills.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 0
If it isn't quite as thought-provoking as the book, Ender's Game still manages to offer a commendable number of well-acted, solidly written sci-fi thrills.
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User Ratings: 44,833
Movie Info
In the near future, a hostile alien race (called the Formics) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of his school to
Nov 1, 2013 Wide
Lionsgate Films
- Official Site
Cast
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Asa Butterfield
Ender Wiggin -
Harrison Ford
Colonel Hyram Graff -
Hailee Steinfeld
Petra Arkanian -
Abigail Breslin
Valentine Wiggin -
Ben Kingsley
Mazer Rackham -
Viola Davis
Major Anderson -
Moises Arias
Bonzo -
Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak
Peter Wiggin -
Suraj Parthasarathy
Alai -
Conor Carroll
Bernard -
Khylin Rhambo
Dink -
Aramis Knight
Bean
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All Critics (26) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (8)
Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works, as director Gavin Hood pulls off the sort of teen-targeted franchise starter Summit was hoping for.
Top CriticUltimately as much a polemical as tentpole entertainment, "Ender's Game" is a rare example of filmmaking with a scalpel at a scale that usually demands a hatchet.
Yet another intriguing, complex, strangely unlikeable big-budget experiment destined to thrill the fans and befuddle the rest of us.
Almost thought provoking, shiny and glum
This gripping adventure shows Hollywood hasn't given up on thoughtful sci-fi just yet. A spectacular film and a surprising one.
My soul was never stirred. My spirit did not soar. My intellect did twitch a bit in ways that made my heart ache disagreeably, however.
The Last Starfighter meets Heart of Darkness.
Successfully translates most of the book's more pertinent themes to the screen, while making enough storytelling fumbles to hint why it was considered unfilmable for nearly three decades.
The film has been designed to appeal to the very instincts it pretends to criticise. How else to deliver the spectacle and thrills considered vital to the movie's prospects with its target demographic?
Hood's film is thankfully more successful than his last Hollywood outing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but for all its lofty ambitions it never quite fulfils its potential.
Game on.
Having been the father of three 12-year-olds, I'm not sure I would have put them in charge of the family hamster, let alone the future of the planet. But what do I know?
Despite the solid performances - and an admittedly intriguing final 10 minutes - Ender's Game is an underwhelming sci-fi that makes poor use of its thought-provoking material.
The moral complexity may come across as muddled, but rising star Asa Butterfield and rejuvenated veteran Harrison Ford give this sci-fi fable significant heft.
Ender's Game is a cut above a lot of sci-fi action films for teenagers, confronting them not just with special effects, but with a decent debate concerning the morality and politics of war.
The result is a thought-provoking flick that's smarter than the average blockbuster, but one that never quite fulfills the potential of the book on which it is based.
The movie's apocalyptic finale indicates that it's bitten off considerably more than it can chew in terms of ideas, but it looks good, and the story rattles along.
Gavin Hood's film is as windily solemn as the theme is, or could be, bewitchingly topical.
The movie has a ready-made answer to what looks like its major limitation - what's at stake, if all we're doing is watch geeky prodigies show off at video games?
Whatever you make of the book's widely derided author, Ender's Game is one of 2013's more thematically original stories, with a compellingly icy lead performance from Asa Butterfield.
Since this entire story centres on virtual-reality gaming, it's tricky to feel any sense of what's at stake here.
Audience Reviews for Ender's Game
Thanks to their reliance on unconvincing CGI and lack of involving storylines or relatable characters, modern sci-fi blockbusters are often accused of resembling video games rather than movies. 'Ender's Game', adapted from Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel, takes this criticism to its literal extreme; most of its running time really does consist of kids playing video games, in this case military simulations. I haven't read the source book but having cast my eyes over its synopsis, I can say that little of the original content has made it to the screen. To cater for a young audience, there's been a lot of toning down and much of the plot has been excised in favor of a "Harry Potter in space" movie, consisting solely of Ender's military training aboard an orbiting Hogwarts. Because Ender spends the movie playing training simulations, rather than being put in real danger, there's zero tension throughout. The short shrift given to Ender's siblings (who apparently play a huge role in the novel) leaves us scratching our heads as to the point of these characters.
We've become used to single books being split into two movies as a cheap cash grab lately and the entire plot of this, the first in presumably a planned series, could have been condensed into a 40 minute first act, allowing time for a real story to be developed from one of the later novels. A final twist may have the film-makers patting themselves on their backs for pulling the wool over our eyes (and making a clumsy piece of social commentary in the process) but it unintentionally leaves the audience feeling like the victims of a bad practical joke. The parting of one simple piece of information to the viewer would have supplied some much needed suspense. Instead, an attempt to be clever and "meta" renders 'Ender's Game' an explicit example of how not to structure a screenplay.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Ender Wiggin: I'll do everything I can to win this war.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Unless you're a homophobe, go see 12 Years a Slave instead | 2 hours ago | 198 |
| Guess the Tomatometer! | 30 minutes ago | 155 |
| Open letter to Scott Card. Why I won't be seeing Ender's Game. | 5 hours ago | 103 |
| To those boycotting... | 1 hour ago | 60 |
| Will be interesting to see how they pull off the big twist ending. | 2 days ago | 53 |
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Latest News on Ender's Game
August 28, 2013:
Ender's Game Set Visit Report25 things to know about Gavin Hood's adaptation of the YA sci-fi classic.
July 21, 2013:
Comic-Con 2013: Ender's Game Trailer Premieres as Producer Responds to ControversyOn the heels of Thursday's viral video and character posters, fans packed Hall H at Comic-Con...
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Foreign Titles
- Ender's Game - Das große Spiel (DE)
- La stratégie Ender (FR)
