I spent a good part of 2013 on deployment, and so missed my chance to see Ender’s Game in the theaters. But I had a few hours to myself today and decided to watch it.
My opinion? The movie is subtly disappointing. Not that it’s a bad movie, it is in fact well made, very true to the source material, and visually stunning in many ways. But…there was something missing. It felt like a big budget kabuki theater production, rather than an organic story that would suck the audience in. Possibly this is because I know that depth of acting chops that Harrison Ford and Sir Ben Kingsley can reach, and the roles they played seemed…confining. Possibly that is what the director intended, but that’s like having a Ferrari and a Porsche being confined to second gear….
I think it was also missing Ender’s actual friendships with Bean and Petra, which were treated like an afterthought. I could have used five fewer minutes of space combat to have Ender explain that he got his name because his sister couldn’t pronounce “Andrew” properly and it came out “Ender” when Bean explained how he got his name. Possibly those small details would have fleshed out the characters more thoroughly. As it is Petra simply likes him and Bean simply likes him, despite the fact that they had nothing in common until they met.
I guess it is appropriate to say that the 2013 movie saw Ender Wiggen as a type of Paul Atreides, someone born to fill a role, who then goes on to fill that role, however Ender seems much more aware of those external expectations.
So, not a bad movie, one actually worth watching. But it also didn’t go far enough in several ways, and ends up being good rather than great.
Wandering Through The Night 