A gorgeous adaptation of a classic of sci-fi

Rating: 8/10 (31 October 2013)

If this movie had attempted to portray the entirety of the 384-page book on which it was based, it would have been a six-hour film. With a running length of 1:54, the writers and directors were forced to create a gorgeous highlights reel and depend on the audience's familiarity with and love for the book. Those fans, me among them, have been waiting nearly 30 years for a movie that the author approved of, and we can fill in the gaps.
The visual effects were awesome, and I use that word in the traditional sense. The scenes in the battle room of the Battle School and the Command School simulation rooms were as finely wrought as any FX I've seen and took my breath away. The sense of fear, tumult, and finally horror in the final battle scene is something visceral that no description can truly convey.
What time there was for emotionality at the end was well played by Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford. For a newcomer, Butterfield nailed the impact that responsibility for genocide would have on an 11-year-old. Ender's Game may not win any converts to the sci-fi genre or to Card's quintet of books about Ender's universe, but it will win the hearts of those who've read his works and waited for a movie to do justice to the first one in the series.