And, a child shall lead them

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2014)

The Earth was almost devastated 50-years ago by the Formics, a superior race bent on destroying all on Earth. Only by a heroic action by Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) was the earth saved and the Formics retreated. Earth has now regrouped and 11-year old Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) trains to lead a team of Children Warriors to once and for all defeat the Formics so they would never again be a threat to Earth.
Why the decision to go with youth? As Col Graf (Harrison Ford) explains, "we need a new kind of soldier. One who doesn't think the way we think." Hmmm.seems to make sense.
We find out why Ender was picked in the first place by Col Graf. We follow the training of all the young warriors, monitored, of course, by Col Graf. Cameras are everywhere. We see some hazing by upper-classmen, and friendships made.
The acting all around is good and we are riveted. In his free time Ender plays a game on his tablet but doesn't understand why a certain a bird-like creature appears in the game and lures him to a collapsed building. That was not part of the game. He stops the game.
The title of this movie being what it is, I thought that Ender Wiggin had a game plan and just needed to complete training to implement that plan when the war was really on. That is what I thought when I watched. But, sadly that is not the case and you will see how wrong I was. But, what happens is very clever. No doubt about it. Yeah, there is a twist here kind of somewhat.. almost.. and it may shock you.
The CGI visuals, cinematography were simply outstanding. This may be one of the first futuristic Sci-Fi stories/movies that acknowledge computer tablets and email. Star Trek never did that.
At the end of the movie we see Ender realize something and now knows why that bird-like creature appeared in his game on the tablet. (7/10)
Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.