A Remarkably Well-Done Adaption

Rating: Null/10 (2 November 2013)

Overall, I am really impressed with how well-executed this film is. It takes the source material, streamlines it, and maintains the focus of the story with brisk pacing, great design and excellent acting. Could it have been better? A little, but mostly, it could have been A LOT worse. As it is, Ender's Game is one of the better recent sci-fi films in its own right, and succeeds in being a thoughtful, meaningful film, not just action or special effects.
The story is tweaked in a few ways, and some of it is cut out. But in my personal opinion, most of the changes have been the right ones in the interest of translating the story to film.
The visual design and effects are great, and the music works well. It is the acting, though, that is the key. Asa Butterfield is superb in the lead role, and the rest of the main cast is about as good as one could dream of having for a film like this. The script is a bit low on finesse a lot of the time, but it works because it is economical and straightforward. This story has a lot of psychological and ethical currents, and amazingly, it succeeds in translating the crucial ones.
Oddly enough, the one part that I feel to be a bit clumsy is the key moment. I will not spoil it, though.
Finally, I feel compelled to make a comparison between this film and Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Both are based on classic, fairly short and quick-reading novels. But whereas The Hobbit takes a simple, easy-to-adapt story, bloats it with unnecessary additions and stretches it out ad nauseam (my personal opinion), Ender's Game takes an arguably difficult-to-adapt story and (also in my personal opinion) pretty much nails it with economy and effective brevity. What a breath of fresh air, for a change.
Ultimately, I feel that this is just about the best adaption that could have been hoped for, which is to say that it does justice to the book while being a good film in and of itself.