ENDER'S GAME (2013) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

ender's game (2013) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   114 minutes

Released         |   1 November 2013 

cast

Asa Butterfield ... Ender Wiggin
Harrison Ford ... Colonel Graff
Hailee Steinfeld ... Petra Arkanian
Abigail Breslin ... Valentine Wiggin
Ben Kingsley ... Mazer Rackham
Viola Davis ... Major Gwen Anderson
Aramis Knight ... Bean
Suraj Partha ... Alai (as Suraj Parthasarathy)
Moises Arias ... Bonzo Madrid
​Khylin Rhambo ... Dink Meeker

director

​Gavin Hood

writer

​Gavin Hood ... (screenplay by)
 
Orson Scott Card ... (based on the book Ender's Game by)

cinematographer

​Donald McAlpine ... director of photography (as Donald M. McAlpine)

music

Steve Jablonsky

film editor

​Lee Smith
Zach Staenberg

---

box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​​​​125,544,024

Australia                 $​​​​​​2,281,002

North America       $​​61,737,191

---

movie minutiae

Digital Domain, the visual effects house behind this movie (and movies like IRON MAN 3 (2013) ) created a demo reel of the battle room before production that helped the producers successfully raise financing independently.

​According to director Gavin Hood's commentary, several planned scenes were cut due to financing problems when one of the investors backed out of the project. The same happened with planned CGI effects when one of the CGI studios working on the movie went bankrupt during production.

​During the game at the beginning of the movie, the ship piloted by Ender closely resembles the Millennium Falcon, the ship piloted by Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in the Star Wars film franchise.

---

related movies

STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997)

ENDER'S GAME (2013) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

ENDER'S GAME (2013) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Ender Wiggin, a brilliant young strategist, is recruited by the International Military to lead the force defending Earth from a genocidal alien race bent on annihilating humankind.

ENDER'S GAME (2013) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 31 October 2013

​​Pop Movee Rating

ENDER'S GAME is a superior science fiction film compared to what audiences have been offered throughout 2013. Does that make it a good film? The answer is yes.

Given the film’s strong source material, it would have been difficult to make ENDER'S GAME a bad film. The film is strongest when it is focussed on the relationship between 'Ender' Wiggin, played by Asa Butterfield, and Colonel Hyman Graff, played by Harrison Ford. Ford’s character identifies Ender as one of the elite youth capable of helping Earth to victory in its pre-emptive attack on alien race known as the Formics. Graff pushes Ender further and harder in a series of unrelenting war games and high-pressure situations that test Ender’s physical and mental capabilities.

Alongside Graff is Major Gwen Anderson, played by Viola Davis. Her character is responsible for the psychological well-being of the youths who are selected to participate in the futuristic ‘Battle School’ program. Gavin Hood, the film’s Director & Writer, had this to say about the relationship between her character and Ford’s Colonel Graff:

“Anderson tries to go along with Graff’s notion that it is necessary to psychologically manipulate children for the greater good, but ultimately she can’t. In the end, this is what sets her and Graff at odds. She is more interested in Ender’s personal well-being than the ultimate goal. Harrison and Viola embrace those two points of view and clash fantastically in the movie.”

In addition to Butterfield, Ford & Davis, Gavin Hood is blessed with talent in his supporting cast, principal among them being Ben Kingsley and Abigail Breslin. Kingsley plays Mazer Rackham who is mentioned a lot throughout the first part of the film, but does not make his on-screen entrance until after the half-way point. Rackham provides Ender with a different perspective on the task at hand and demonstrates to him that the application of brutal force requires attention to detail and thought. Breslin plays Ender’s sister, Valentine. She is an important touch-stone for Ender and it is Valentine who convinces him not to recoil from the horror of his own actions. Breslin had this to say about the film:

“I hope the fans really like it. Everybody involved in the movie loves the book and wants it to do it justice. Gavin (Hood) is so passionate about the story that he had the fans in mind the entire time. It’s just a really cool movie. There are parts of it that are scary and parts that are sad. All the emotions that you go through when reading the book are there in the movie.”

Hailee Steinfeld also plays a major role throughout the second and third acts of the film as Ender’s fellow ‘Battle School’ participant Petra Arkanian. Even after Colonel Graff has isolated Ender from every other student, Arkanian extends the hand of friendship and teaches him how to navigate the physical and mental obstacles in his way. In addition to Steinfeld, fellow teen actors Aramis Knight, Suraj Parthasarathy, Conor Carroll and Moises Arias provide an ensemble of characters that help define Ender. In terms of entertainment, the second act of the film, where all these talents merge together, is the most enjoyable. The third act relegates them to functionaries of Ender’s game plan to win his final test.

In addition to the strong story, ENDER'S GAME has great production value. The film itself cost $110 million to make and many millions more to market around the world. Production Designers Sean Haworth and Ben Procter, who between them have worked on films such as AVATAR (2009) and THOR (2011), brought a high level of skill and experience to Gavin Hood’s film:

“Ben and Sean’s designs are not stereotypically sci-fi and futuristic,” says Hood. “They are very grounded in the world of the military. When we’re in Battle School, it’s like we’re on an aircraft carrier. Their attention to detail is superb. They give amazing dimensionality and texture to the sets.”

Not only is the production design outstanding, the manner in which it is captured is equally stunning. The film was shot with digital cameras by Australian Cinematographer Don McAlpine; the second time he has collaborated with Director Gavin Hood. McAlpine’s career extends back to the early 1970s where he lensed the Australian classic THE ADVENTURES OF BARRY MCKENZIE. His other credits include Hood’s X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (2009), MOULIN ROUGE (2001), MRS. DOUBTFIRE (1993), PATRIOT GAMES (1992), PARENTHOOD (1989), BREAKER MORANT (1980), DON'S PARTY (1976) and the Schwarzenegger science fiction classic PREDATOR (1987).

Hood was extremely pleased to McAlpine back for ENDER'S GAME and spoke glowingly about the man he considers his mentor:

“He’s full of warmth and enthusiasm. He and his chief lighting technician, Steve Matthis, are brilliant at lighting. Because the battle school has low ceilings, Don and the production designers integrated the lighting into the sets. Everything was wired through a computer system, so it could be customised and we could change the mood within the space. But the lights you see on the set are actually lighting the scenes. It was far more complex than you would imagine.”

ENDER'S GAME is a first class film that captures the key themes and concepts of its source material. The story is mature and the performances are above-average lead by Asa Butterfield in the lead role as Andrew ‘Ender’ Wiggin. There is a scope to the film that warrants viewing in the cinema, especially the ‘Battle School’ sequences set in zero gravity.

The biggest concern for ENDER'S GAME is that it fails to find an audience, fighting for space between current cinema goliaths THOR: THE DARK WORLD and ‘THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE. It certainly deserves a first-look in cinemas, as it gives movie-goers something to think about while being entertained by a first-rate film with a first-rate story & cast.

ENDER'S GAME (2013) USEFUL LINKS

Ender's Game (film) - Wikipedia
​Ender's Game (2013) - IMDb
​Ender's Game (2013) - Rotten Tomatoes​

digital updates delivered

facebook

instagram