Ender’s Game, 2013.
Directed by Gavin Hood.
Starring Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley and Viola Davis.
SYNOPSIS:
Young Ender Wiggin is recruited by the International Military to lead the fight against the Formics, a genocidal alien race which nearly annihilated the human race in a previous invasion.
Another week, another novella giving the Harry Potter/ Twilight treatment and big-screen transition. Created in the 1980s, Ender’s Game has been on the Hollywood development table for a long while. Finally released last autumn to mediocre returns and reviews, it like many others has tried to replicate the success of the aforementioned franchises. But where some saw tills ringing and franchise rights a-booming, Ender’s Game fell into the “shot missed” category, along with other misfires like The Golden Compass or The Mortal Instruments.
Not that there isn’t at least something at least some appeal to avid fans of the book, or indeed those other book-to-screen adaptations, but what strikes the most when watching Ender’s Game is just how very average it all is.
Sure, it looks pristine and beautiful, heavy on the CGI though it is, there is always something to grab the attention on show here, but for the most part it is a fleeting distraction from the blandness of the rest of the film. The war aspects of the film are suitably stirring, with lots of fighting, shooting and blasting, but never really gets the heart pumping or the fear factor going.
In amongst all the crashes and bangs, there are some decent, more quieter moments which work well enough, mainly thanks to the gravitas of Ford, Davis and Kingsley, but you can’t help but think throughout proceedings that this, particularly said of Ford and Kingsley, that this is mere paycheck work, rather than anything more substantial. They have their fair share of stern words and stirring speeches to dish out to Asa Butterfield’s dreary leader of the human race, but outside of that they seem happy to continue on autopilot.
Gavin Hood, who brought us the superb Tsotsi before following it up with the god-awful first Wolverine solo outing, directs with enough gusto here without really doing anything spectacular. But after the critical and audience-based mauling he and his fellow partners in crime took for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, you’d be forgiven in thinking that Hood perhaps plays safe here, because quite frankly that is seemingly what he has done here. Indeed, the biggest flaw in the film is just exactly is it’s target audience, it’s too serious in tone to be a kids film, but not thoughtful enough for adults. Go figure.
Some flashy visuals and a few decent flickers of excitement cannot mask the fact that Ender’s Game, while well intended, is only a mildly rousing film, and even though the likes of Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley feature, there are better examples of their work to be seen that this.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★
Scott Davis
Originally published March 10, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
