Disc Reviews

Ender’s Game Blu-ray Review

5th Mar 2014

Ender’s Game comes with a strong, if unlikely, premise. In the future – Children are used to plan and execute combat in time of war.

The fact that the premise was thought up so long ago is what makes it stand up so well today – what with the way that gaming has gone in the past 20 years (and the slow realisation it has had on adult crowds that gaming isn’t always an excuse not to do any work, but does in fact build skills in children that grownups are past developing). This aside, you could pretty much view the young characters in Ender’s Game as adults in the military. The treatment they receive by their peers and by each other are a strong imitation of what we have come to accept in military cinema since the likes of Full metal Jacket.

Ender’s Game also comes with a strong ending that will perhaps have much more of an impact on adults than it will on younger audiences, but is a brave choice to have in a mainstream film.

Harrison Ford and Viola Davis do most of the adult heavy lifting. Davis provides a more sympathetic view-point on, and for, the children; whereas Ford is adamant about playing the tough leader right through to the finish. Ben Kingsley shows up much later on and has more of an impact with the way that he looks (something out of Moby Dick by the looks of him) as opposed to what he has to offer in the way of tutelage.

It is then down to the young cast to make the bulk of the drama work. The swift pace that Ender gets promoted from one class to another helps the film move but constantly finds Ender at the next level having to adapt constantly. As a result we rarely get a chance to spend much time with the personality of the boy, only watch him react to the next hurdle in his way. True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld comes to the rescue as one of his team members, but largely the young cast are 2-diminsional takes on bad adult clichés to be found in war movies.

The Blu-ray comes with a few extras. There are two commentaries (Directors and producers), a 50 minute making of and a handful of deleted material: An Ample amount to keep any fan happy.

Ender’s Game looks and sound great and is a scary ideal to even want to consider believing could happen. But it is this scary idea that makes the film as watchable as it is and is keeping Science Fiction relevant. Your move, Riddick.