Better than all the other sci-fi rubbish of 2013

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2014)

First off, I am not a fan of CGI. There is a very short list of movies that I thoroughly enjoyed that had a lot of CGI.
This film, however, is easily the most enjoyable movie I have ever seen with a lot of CGI. And I mean a lot.
I thought this movie was as visually great as Gravity, if not better, as the cinematography added a lot to the CGI, especially the 2001-like circular shots. The CGI also works because this is a fantasy world. It makes more sense in this situation, whereas in GRAVITY it was supposed to look real.
I still cannot get over how brilliant that combination of cinematography and CGI turned out. I have not seen it before or since, including GRAVITY. It was a visual feast.
Of course, there is more to this movie than the great CGI. The battle-games, while they seemed random and irrelevant, at first, were again brilliantly captured by moving shots as the kids floated around.
The acting and dialogue was solid, from Harrison Ford and Viola Davis to the young Asa. What was especially great was the confrontations between this triangle of characters, and the lack of repetition within these confrontations.
Each time they felt tense, because it was tense in the movie. Every time, an argument or confrontation had a point. Add this to the grit that Asa somehow put into his performance despite his baby-face like features. This came to the fore when he is confronted by fellow cadets who don't take a liking to him. It was a strong combination of solid acting, from all the cast.
Another big plus was the lack of a meaningless, distracting 'love-interest'. Perhaps that is because it is based on a novel, but it certainly does the movie a favour.
The ending was also meaningful, it was thought-provoking while not being a silly 'Sixth Sense' twist, and its emotional strength stands this movie above most others, especially regarding sci-fi.
This was a very solid film, better than all the other sci-fi rubbish that hit the screens in 2013, by a stupendous margin.
Fantastic!