Passable entertainment for those who didn't read the novel.

Rating: 5/10 (28 October 2013)

I had no intention of watching Ender's Game. The trailer didn't excite me beyond a cursory fascination and it was only on the insistence of my companion for the screening, Bag, that I relented. In the event, I enjoyed it more than he.
Part of the trouble is that Bag read, listened to and loved the Orson Scott Card sci-fi novels, whereas I haven't. Part of the trouble is that Gavin Hood's (Tsotsi, Rendition) adaptation isn't very good, it isn't terribly true to the source novel and there's a reasonable amount ropy acting on screen.
Seventy years after Earth has been twice ransacked by an alien race, The Buggers, and foiled by the now-mythical hero fighter pilot, Mazer Rackham, humankind has turned to a new breed of fighting machine: Children. Children have a unique way of viewing the stress and challenges of warfare and are able to approach it in an entirely fresher and superior way to stubborn, caught-in-the-ruts adults. Ender Wiggen (Asa Butterfield, Hugo Cabret in Hugo) is one such child and is removed from his family and transported to the International Military's academy deep in space where he is trained and subjected to all manner of harsh emotional tests in the hope that he just might thwart the Bugger's next attack and be the savior of mankind.
Ender's Game rolls along easily enough. There's plenty to interest the eye and the weightlessness is handled well, though not in the same class as that of Gravity. It will please the kids and pass a couple of hours without too much regret but, by the sound of it, it will really cheese off those who read the novel. Too much has been changed: the parentage of Ben Kingsley's character inexplicably switched, characters in the finale who have long since gone in the novel, and, worst of all for Bag, "the entire point" of the ending and Ender's journey is lost in favour of a more palatable end that will allow for a more filmable sequel than the second novel. Take it from me, he was not best pleased.
I can't comment, only advise, on that matter. The performances, however, are fair game.
Butterfield, excellent in Hugo, has lost his mojo. He might be able to turn on the tears but he sure as hell can't run convincingly. It's a passable performance from a lad carrying the weight of a film but lacks the depth and maturity that he displayed in Scorsese's Oscar-winning delight.
But Butterfield is a positive Laurence Olivier next to Nonso Anozie as Sergeant Dap. We haven't seen ham as overcooked as this on screen since Gerard Butler in Olympus Has Fallen. His performance is not just poor, it's embarrassing.
Viola Davis gives solid support as Major Gwen Anderson but is barely given the time to have an impact. Likewise, Abigail Breslin as Ender's sister, Valentine, makes her self known adequately without coming close to the standard she displayed in this year's The Call.
Thank goodness for Harrison Ford! There's nothing startling about his performance, but it's the Ford of old. He's reliable, entirely watchable and thoroughly enjoyable. He dominates every scene he's in and makes for an imposing officer. He has to; by the looks of it, there are only four in the entire academy, and one of those is Dap.
Ender's Game is passable entertainment for those who have no knowledge of the novels, but don't expect a life-changing event or anything particularly memorable.
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