ViewGuide

Created Nov 30, 2013 09:24PM PST • Edited Jul 13, 2015 10:20AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Nice try, but Ender’s Game is barely a winner. Perhaps Orson Scott Card was right in saying his lauded SciFi novel is unfilmable.

   BrianSez and other fans of Card’s novel and its sequels may like it better than a newbie like me. I had trouble warming up to it because much of the movie takes place in slow motion training exercises and its deeper themes were little more than suggested. Plus some supporting actors didn’t offer enough support.

   That said, it is provocative and features a solid star turn from the estimable Harrison Ford. That’s enough.

4. Acting

   OK 2.5

   Asa Butterfield is little more than OK as Ender, IMO. He’s not convincing in the clinches. More importantly, he’s mostly called upon to deliver an internal performance, but appears merely blank-faced.

   Harrison Ford’s gruff Colonel anchors the movie. Ford’s well developed gravitas is perfect for roles like this, especially in SciFi.

   The support cast ranges from barely OK to good.

   • Hailee Steinfeld as one of Ender’s fellow kid soldiers.
   • Abigail Breslin as his sensitive sister.
   • Ben Kingsley as a legendary officer.
   • Viola Davis as a brainy military shrink.
   • Moises Arias as a rival cadet leader. Arias simply doesn’t come across as a boy that other boys would follow. He was better cast as the sexually confused twerp in The Kings of Summer.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars OK 2.5

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars Barely OK 2.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    This has been a benchmark year for SciFi visualizations. Even though its story is deeper and therefore more provocative, suffice it to say that the visuals in Ender’s Game won’t be mentioned in the same breath as Gravity or Europa Report.

11. Direction OK 2.5

    Gavin Hood is a decent SciFi director, little more, as he first demonstrated with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music OK 2.5

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.6

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 2.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.4

    The U.S. Marine Corps recommends the novel as part of its Professional Reading List. The Marine Corps University says it offers “lessons in training methodology, leadership, and ethics as well.” Source: Wikipedia

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Supernatural 4.0

24. Physical Supernatural 3.1