Ender's Game (2013)

Wonderful character development!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I just read Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow and watched the movie right after. There was so much missing that it lacked context, emotion, and heart. It was like it was just hitting the highlights, which does not make for an interesting movie. Kind of reminded me of the pace of The Room ala the flower shop scene ("Oh hi doggie"). It's as disappointing as the movie based on the book "The Time Traveler's Wife" - an abomination. I've now read all the books in the Ender series and they all run from good to great. I think the whole series could be done as a cartoon or some other digital method. It does not need to be done with live people. I hope someone does that someday.

Not only is there a small amount you learn about the characters but the main character is played by one of the worst actors I've seen. The ending is unexpected but not even in a good way but in a disappointing way

Incredibly weak and contrived plot. From the start everything is dumbed-down to appeal to a younger audience. Anytime the heroes are kids, and they have more powers than the adults, you know who the target audience is....Plot seems like a ripoff of Starship Troopers, and a very weak one at that.Decent cast, and they can all do a lot better. Harrison Ford has seen better days and probably just needed the money, or any acting role. Viola Davis was probably trying to break out of being stereotyped in civil rights movie roles. Ada Butterfield was good in Hugo and Hailee Steinfeld was great in True Grit, but here they set their careers back several steps.Heaven alone knows why Ben Kingsley accepted his role. The money must have been REALLY good. His attempt at a New Zealand accent is quite unintentionally funny though, as, instead, he sounds South African. I should know...

I am guilty of watching something purely because it's sci-fi which was the case with this. If you're wondering if it's worth your time, it probably isn't. Perhaps because it was trying to summarise a book there were leaps in plot that didn't make sense, and the characters felt very shallow - they started as stereotypes and stayed that way. There was never a satisfying explanation why a bunch of youths were treated as great military leaders. There seemed to be no reason for lead-psycho-kid to make his leap of understanding about the aliens. The film didn't take time to build a world that matters with a plot that goes straight into a sterile spaceship. I didn't care if they won or lost or how they went about it. The spectacle was OK, with good-enough looking shooty space-bits, but it wasn't enough.