Young adult with a sci-fi flavour

Rating: 5/10 (3 June 2016)

Another week, another young adult novel adaptation, this time a novel by Orson Scott Card. I haven't read it - I'm not into science fiction literature so much - so watching ENDER'S GAME was a whole new experience to me; I had little idea of what to expect.
It turns out to be a fairly average movie with both good and bad elements throughout. The main character is a young cadet who joins a military training program in order to combat the threat of an alien invasion. The premise that kids are better disposed to be military commanders than adults is a frankly ludicrous notion that's never properly addressed, but this film just expects you to go with it which is fair enough.
Much of this film is about training in the academy and the relationships that go with it. I enjoyed the scenes of Ender squaring up to various bullies and rivals as well as the adults in the installation. I didn't realise it was the kid from HUGO at first, but Asa Butterfield is acceptable as the lead character. They throw in a bone for adult viewers with a likable Harrison Ford in support, although Ben Kingsley must be the oddest choice to play a Maori ever.
Where ENDER'S GAME falls down is in the training sequences. Most of them are weightless and they make the actors involved look rather ludicrous as they giggle and float around. Later, things progress to pure CGI adventures and simulations, and as usual, the CGI space stuff is bland and formulaic. It's a pity, because there are some good twists here and a neat ending, and a halfway-decent movie emerges somewhere along the line; you end up wondering what could have been.