Average, Enjoyable Film with a Brilliant Young Lead

Rating: 8/10 (25 April 2015)

Ender's game is an imperfect film but has some moments of brilliance. Among its flaws I would count its writing. The film moved to fast, rushing through each of the stages of Ender's journey particularly past his emotional change after the severe injury of Bonzo. With a running time of under two hours I feel this film could have been improved by adding length. Another issue I have with the film is some of the supporting characters, such as Valentine, were not very strong.
One Aspect of the film I thought was incredible was the acting of Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin. His performance showed an emotional maturity well beyond his years. In particular, the scene at the end when Ender discovers he killed an entire species, Asa was able to communicate the journey from joy to confusion to realisation to anger and pain without opening his mouth. Incredible. He will have a bright future in this industry.
All in all I found this film enjoyable to watch. Although it is not a work of art and could have greatly been improved, I have watched it a number of times and would watch again.