It's all right ... but ...

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2014)

I was very much looking forward to seeing this film as the trailer had much in it that would appeal to anyone seeking a film with a lot of CGI effects and action sequences. From this standpoint it was very good and through most of what we see we are not disappointed. From a story point of view, however, it leaves much to be desired. Drama has never been a really strong point with Harrison Ford, though what he did with "Regarding Henry" was exceptional. Ford needs actions flicks to really shine. Here there was action but he wasn't a part of it. He played to it and as a result he appeared a weak character. No, the action was all on the part of the young people that were involved and while they were into it, sort of, even here things fell a little flat. Of course the plot centred on Ender and from the moment he was recruited to be a "warrior" it seemed as if he knew what he was and was to be about. We were never, until moments from the end, given to understand that he merely looked at the whole of his role as a mere "game" though the title should have told us otherwise. Yet when the end rolled around, and that happened far too fast, suddenly we see a young man filled with seeming righteous indignation that he should have been used to wipe out an entire "species" of life. Yet this is precisely why he was recruited in the first place. Why did he feel this way? We have no idea but suddenly he's off into the nether reaches of space as a peace ambassador. And why? I doubt we'll ever know.