Ender's Game

The enemy's gate is down.

As most of you know, Ender's Game is based on a book written by Orson Scott Card. While with some movies based on books, it is necessary to read the written works before viewing the film, this is not the case for this one.

Set in the future, Ender's Game follows the tale of Ender Wiggin, a young boy recruited into the International Military to fight a race of aliens that once attacked Earth. Those aliens (who look like overgrown ants with wings) are called Formics. To help train Ender and his fellow recruits, they are stationed in orbit around Earth aboard a space station, where they go through various exercises and drills to prepare themselves for a potential threat.

One such exercise is what essentially boils down to a futuristic paintball match in a sphere with no gravity, called the Battle Room. This, while looking like a heck of a lot of fun, serves to train the cadets in battlefield tactics and planning. The recruits are separated into different armies and compete for points and rankings to determine the best, and this serves as one of the main plot threads throughout the film.

Part of a fight in the Battle Room

The story is pretty easy to follow, which is good considering that it moves fast. It gets going and doesn't let up til the end. The only real complaint I have with the story (or the film in general) is that there isn't a whole lot of back story or explanation for some things, like why Ender's parents had to get permission to have a third child (Ender).

Other than that though, the film is great. The visual effects are beautiful. The music is great, and the acting is spot on. And because there are at least 7 books total, there is plenty of source material to fuel potential sequels.

Ender's Game is close to perfection

Due to the fact that the only knock against it I have is the lack of back story (which doesn't affect the overall story much), Ender's Game gets an almost perfect rating of 9½ stars. If there was a bit of explanation for certain things, the rating would be perfect.Regardless, I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone out there who was maybe a little skeptical about it. It will definitely be worth your time.

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