My expectations for Ender’s Game were already high and mounting during my journey to the movie theatre when the film opened. A film with interesting concepts and based on an amazing book couldn’t do me wrong. Yet I can’t help but feel as if my expectations were suddenly destroyed when the movies credits started to roll. Let me elaborate.
Ender’s Game was an original idea don’t get me wrong, but I can’t help but feel as if they squandered an opportunity to make something great. The story was always moving and never really let you have a second to sit back in your seat and say, “Wow that was cool,” because it never really got to that, “that was cool,” moment.
We follow the story of Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) as he expresses his intelligence and courage in a series of “space-combat-trainings,” for lack of better word. During this time of training, Ender meets some friends, who are never truly flushed out. Some of them get hurt, some of them befriend Ender, but none of them truly hold the appeal to make themselves meaningful or draw any emotion from the viewers as a result of their actions.
The plotline and scenario of the movie was very interesting. And don’t get me wrong, there were some scenes that truly pulled the viewers’ attention and tugged at the strings of their emotions. They just happened too quickly; too many symbolic scenes were happening before any meaningful characterization was made.
Trying not to reveal any spoilers, the final plot twist and further conclusion of the story was not only satisfying but the one part of the story where we got to see Ender for a little more than what he was, how the book actually wanted Ender to appear. Ender’s choices and emotions were clearly in a whirlwind-like vortex in which Asa Butterfield portrayed phenomenally.
Understandably, the story couldn’t get up to this point of emotion immediately, and as a matter of fact, the story itself is meant to always be building up just like the enemy that Ender faces. Much like this enemy, the movie is also very misunderstood, not only by me. My friend and I speculated over the screenplay and decisions that the directors used on the car ride home. The placement of overseeing of Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford’s character) was very symbolic, yet the directors allotted hardly any time to elaborate on the exposition of his character as a foil to Ender. This left us wondering, “Why weren’t those characters bonding more?” Perhaps it was just the design of the overall movie to leave the antagonists ambiguous.
There wasn’t anything missing from this film. There was action and there was emotion. There just wasn’t enough. The commercials made the film seem like it was a space action adventure– that’s if you consider a bunch of children floating around in space freezing each other “space action.”
