Rating: 13/20
Plot: The titular child is brought to Battle School to be trained to lead the International Fleet in the second war with the Buggers who in this movie are called the Formics for some reason. Colonel Graff, using controversial means, works to form young Ender into the leader the world needs while he gets some help from a few of his peers and, later, Mazer Rackham, the hero from the first war with the insectoid alien race.
I'll admit--I actually gave this movie bonus points just because a guy I know named Bryan didn't like it. The guy's a tool, and I don't want to agree with him. I don't think it's a sci-fi classic by any means. Honestly, I didn't like the book very much either. The book is very drawn out and adds a lot of political stuff with Ender's siblings. This almost removes the siblings and their importance to the story entirely, probably because there just wasn't enough time for all that. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there was enough time for a lot of plot details that added some depth to the characters, and without a lot of that depth, I'm not sure a lot of what happens in this really resonates. In fact, I'm not entirely sure a lot of it would make much sense. It really does feel like a Cliff Notes version of the story, but since the story's a little bloated anyway, maybe that's not a terrible thing. Of course, the truncated storytelling came at the expense of the characterization. Even the main character was a little too flat to make any of this work as well as it should have. I did like the kid who played Ender, Asa Butterfield, a performance that would have seemed a little stiff if it wasn't exactly how I pictured him in my head when I read the book. He does get a few big emotional moments to show off including one where he faces off against Harrison Ford and holds his own. Hailee Steinfeld's in this, too, and she's good though underutilized. Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley are also maybe underutilized, but they also seem sort of out of place to begin with. I did like one kid, Moises Arias who played Bonzo (a name with a pronunciation the actors can't seem to remember). If I ever get my movie about the making of the television series Growing Pains off the ground, he's going to be my Boner. He looked a lot like the late Andrew Koenig, and it would be cool if he had both Bonzo and Boner on his acting resume. And no, you don't need to tell me what a terrific idea a movie about the making of Growing Pains would be. It's my idea, and I already know how awesome it is. Ford was also fine as Graff although I'm not entirely convinced he wasn't phoning it in a little. I thought the special effects were phenomenal--the no-gravity battle room stuff was so good that I actually could have stood to see more of those scenes and the outer space explosions are just as good as you'd expect them to be in a movie from 2013. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't believe every YA book needs to be stretched into a trilogy, but in order for Orson Scott Card's (idiotic homophobe and author) to really connect and having any meaning, this should have been at least two movies. In this abridged form, the characters are forgettable and the meanings behind their decisions just doesn't have much impact.
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