Review: Ender's Game

My conservative friends have always told me that any way movie is an anti-War movie, especially if the audience is paying attention.  War is never pretty, and sh-t happens. A lot.  And that's even if the war goes well.



I think I'm going to need to up my connection soon, especially since I'd want to load up the videos and graphics and pictures to go with the review. I may have to upgrade to a bt broadband package before I crash the website.



Welcome to Ender's Game.  Premise: the Earth was attacked by a bug-like species that nearly destroyed us.  We rebelled the invasion by the skin of our teeth, and a little luck.  However, in order to prepare for the next battle, the planet has decided to think differently.



And, in order to do that, we need children.



The concept of children as soldiers is not a new concept.  Just go and watch 300 if you don't believe me. In the world of Ender's Game, these children are trained for warfare via video games, and then glorified groups of lazer tag, and finally full warfare simulations.



And then, we meet Andrew Ender Wiggin, a third child in a world where offspring are regulated to control population growth (the book was writtin in the 1970s, when the world would be overrun by 1995).  He thinks in three dimensions and fights three steps ahead of everybody else.



If you've read the books, you know how the movie goes.  The film took the novel almost page by page, with some liberties taken for time compression and standard movie reversals -- and they've deleted a subplot involving Ender's brother, for which we can all be grateful.



At the end of the day, the movie was surprisingly well-acted, and not just by Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley. I've never seen a 10-year old who can roar back at Indiana Jones. 



And the special effects.  Oh Lord, that was well done.  The special effects, the three dimensional tactics, the execution of the material .... I was surprised.



It was a very well done piece of work from director Gavin Hood -- who made a cameo appearance just long enough to be killed -- and I can't recommend it enough. Ignore the artificial controversy about the author and his political views, they seriously have nothing to do with the film.  It's a great summer movie .... I'm just trying to figure out why they put it in November.