'Ender's Game' is a compelling adventure with a good message

'Ender's Game' stars Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, and Ben Kingsley. 'Ender's Game' is based on the sci-fi novel by Orson Scott Card.

|
Richard Foreman/Summit Entertainment/AP
'Ender's Game' stars Asa Butterfield (l.) and Harrison Ford (r.).

An anti-bullying allegory writ on the largest possible scale, "Ender's Game" frames an interstellar battle between mankind and pushy ant-like aliens, called Formics, in which Earth's fate hinges on a tiny group of military cadets, most of whom haven't even hit puberty yet. At face value, the film presents an electrifying star-wars scenario – that rare case where an epic space battle transpires entirely within the span of two hours – while at the same time managing to deliver a higher pedagogical message about tolerance, empathy and coping under pressure. Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works, as director Gavin Hood pulls off the sort of teen-targeted franchise starter Summit was hoping for.

Card's novel assumes a situation where, in the wake of a massive Formic attack, the world's children are somehow best suited to protect their planet from an imminent second strike. The most promising young recruits train on elaborate videogame-like simulators while a pair of officers – Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) – monitor their techniques in search of "the One," a child with the strategic instincts to save his species. The leading candidate is Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a runt-like outsider whose behavior toward his aggressive classmates reveals his true potential.

Like "The Hunger Games," the pic peddles the unseemly idea of watching kids thrust into life-and-death situations. Though they're not instructed to kill one another, these moppets' prime directive should also give parents pause, raising the stakes from hand-to-hand combat to the potential genocide of an unfamiliar race. Fortunately, Hood (who also penned the adaptation) factors these weighty themes into the story without making them the primary focus. Between the officers, Graff's agenda is more complicated than he lets on, while Anderson represents the voice of reason, remarking, "It used to be a war crime to recruit anyone under the age of 15." But these are not soldiers, per se, but highly skilled Junior ROTC types, training on virtual conflict scenarios.

Butterfield  who has grown into his big blue eyes, if not the rest of his body, since "Hugo," makes ideal casting for Ender: He's scrawny and physically unimposing, yet there's an intensity to his stare that suggests he might indeed be masking deeper (or darker) gifts. It's nothing so powerful as the Force, or Neo's Matrix-bending abilities, though "Ender's Game" dedicates nearly its entire run time to Battle School, where our hero and his fellow recruits practice various drills, including an anti-gravity game (the rules of which aren't terribly clear) that looks like the next best thing to Quidditch.

Despite the obvious "be all you can be" subtext, "Ender's Game" manages to make these training sequences compelling without veering into pro-military propaganda, doing so by focusing on the interpersonal dynamics between the various squad members. Though Card may have publicly revealed his own prejudices, the casting department has assembled a wonderfully diverse group of young actors – male and female, they come in all colors, shapes and sizes – to serve alongside Ender.

So much youthful energy onscreen makes Ford seem tired and weary by comparison. Still, it's a treat to discover Han Solo all buttoned up and back to do more space battle – not that anyone here is quite as lively or memorable as the characters B-movie fans discovered in "Star Wars" three dozen years ago.

Butterfield's "Hugo" co-star Ben Kingsley also pops up for a late cameo, sporting an Australian accent and an elaborate Maori tribal tattoo across his entire face (a poor man's Darth Maul, perhaps?). It might not seem fair to compare what Hood has created to someone as visionary in all things sci-fi as George Lucas, and yet, considering the sizable budget expended on "Ender's Game," one could have hoped for something a bit more groundbreaking.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Ender's Game' is a compelling adventure with a good message
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2013/1101/Ender-s-Game-is-a-compelling-adventure-with-a-good-message
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe