Pleasantly surprising, but ends in the wrong place...

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2014)

I have a bit of an aversion towards films with kid-heavy casts. It has the potential to go so wrong, and I'll admit for the first third of the film I had a hard time getting into it. I mean they all acted pretty well - better than the limited adult cast I'd say - but I guess there's just something unsettling/uncanny about seeing children expressing adult emotions.
Anyway, with all of that said I found myself starting to enjoy watching Ender grow and use his diplomatic and tactical skills in dealing with some of the other commanders in training, and some of the space battle simulator sequences were really impressive (I'm a fan of Homeworld so...ya know...).
Now, what really irked me about this film was the way it began to weave together a more complex sub-plot about the nature of the alien threat, and some kind of psychic connection, and just as the film starts to build up a nice pace and we feel like it's all going to come together...Ender sets off into the endless void of space and the credits roll. I've seen this in a number of films recently; it's like the writers don't quite know how to finish the film, or they run out of time to develop a final act, OR they're under pressure to leave the movie open for potential sequels. Whatever the case may be, it's annoying. There's a fine line between leaving a little to the viewers imagination to keep them thinking after the movie finishes, and just robbing them of an ending. I feel that's what happened here, at least partly.
All of that said, I enjoyed the movie more than I thought I would. And the message it delivers - about understanding your enemy, perhaps even coming to sympathise with them - is a really important one that loses some of its impact due to the slightly limp ending.