Ender's Game (2013)

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70 years after a horrific alien war, an unusually gifted child is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future invasion. (imdb)

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Directed By: Gavin Hood

Written By: Gavin Hood, Orson Scott Card

Starring: Ben Kingsley, Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, Abigail Breslin, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Nonso Anozie, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tony Mirrcandani, Aramis Knight, suraj partha, khylin rhambo

Genres: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Action, Adventure

Country: USA

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Ender's Game belongs to 27 collections

1. Spacecraft setting (collaborative: moderated by djross - 15 stars)

2. Aliens (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 12 stars)

3. #1 at the US Box Office (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 10 stars)

4. Big-time Hollywood science fiction (public: djross - 7 stars)

5. Availability: Netflix Canada (collaborative: moderated by geohawk - 5 stars)

6. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)

7. Failed Franchise Attempts (collaborative: moderated by Hailey - 4 stars)

8. Wikipedia's list of dystopian films (collaborative: moderated by ND Geek - 4 stars)

9. Young Adult novel adaptation (collaborative: moderated by nauru - 3 stars)

10. Top 1000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 3 stars)

11. Cinema Sins (collaborative: moderated by Phantom Nook - 2 stars)

12. INFJ movies (collaborative: moderated by sboden - 2 stars)

13. Black List Films (public: jimmyjazz - 2 stars)

14. Top 2000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 2 stars)

15. film puanlamalarım (collaborative - 1 star)

16. Space Operas (collaborative: moderated by CosmicMonkey - 1 star)

17. Franchise Killers (collaborative: moderated by Hailey)

18. İzlenebilir (collaborative: moderated by tumu90)

19. Young Adult (YA) Surge (collaborative: moderated by amazedemon)

20. Video Game Movies (collaborative: moderated by HaileyS)

21. Read the Book and Seen the Movie (public: SirStuckey)

22. Movies I've Seen In Theaters (public: SirStuckey)

23. Must see sci fi (public: nauru)

24. Tom's 2013 Movie List (public: tomwalsh)

25. Movie Collection (public: BeeDub)

26. Seen, Not Rated (public: SageSledge)

27. Luna6ix saw in theaters (public: Luna6ix)

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All Ratings | With Reviews

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TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
8	BeeDub	82 _50th
Not bad by any means, but a lot of the novel's emotional depth and provocative ideas have been needlessly lost, leaving us with just another YA adaptation that should have been much more.
7	Bunken	40 _25th
Could have been a great trilogy - instead it feels like Ender moves from earth and up the ranks to save the world in a week or so. Sad - since this could have been Harry Potter in space.
5	cagedwisdom	75 _65th
Quite good, but as with many book to film adaptations the pacing suffers, and so does the tone. Ender's Game gets dark too rarely and too briefly, and ethical themes that hit you in the first chapter of the book are touched upon only for a minute or two halfway through and towards the end of the film. A bit disappointing, but overall a very enjoyable bit of sci-fi. Feels like it should have been a half hour longer.
5	frederic_g54	5 _21st
They really dropped the ball with this one: the performances are frightfully unconvincing (though the direction and casting are mostly to blame here) and its video game-inspired visuals were anything but appealing. You can also tell they were aiming for some dramatic depth that only a 14 year-old in the midst of puberty would find remotely affecting.
4	td888	20 _9th
What is this? An adult movie for kids or a kids movie for adults? Either way, it sucks.
4	Cinema_Asia	60 _30th
The future chosen one savior is a prepubscent Hitler youth'ish looking white boy who is adept at video games. On the whole I found the film to be unrealistic because pre-teen gamers would be too busy calling each other "dirty nigger" over their space headsets to be able to work together to save the universe. Forget about understanding the end. All we know is that Chief Wiggins suddenly developes feelings for the space ants after they mind meld with him through his ipad..they is peoples too!
4	thegreyfox	75 _62nd
For 2/3rd of this film it is pretty much an uneventful and undemanding remake of StarShip Troopers minus Dina Meyer (Shame!) and any satire. Lots of unison shouts of "Sir, Yes Sir!" accompanied by heel clicking, Stereotypical 'bad guy' characters shouting, posturing and generally acting "boot camp" dumb. The books more cerebral ideas tend to lose out (as they do in many films) over "action" but the last 20 minutes was extremely well done, and made up for 90 minutes of fairly humdrum build up.
3	djross	30 _13th
Plays out the fantasy according to which it turns out that being addicted to videogames is really a form of "training" for something that really means something, that is, for war. The guilt-ridden hero, having perpetrated genocide, gets to have things both ways: he is promoted to admiral but is "left alone", and is thus able to "make amends" without having to really question or renounce his involvement in a genocidal power structure, a resolution that beggars belief for more than one reason.
3	TheRealJ-Ro	80 _70th
I'm glad at least one other reviewer (props to afrogsk8) made note of how rushed the movie felt. Given the source material of under 400 pages, I wouldn't have thought that the near two-hour run time would be insufficient to flesh out the plot. Despite the pacing problems, Butterfield's "Ender", along with pretty realistic performances from kids and adults alike, and the skillfully-displayed (if transparent) theme of war morality pushes this Sci-Fi feature to a high score. Definite recommend.
3	magdabag	75 _28th
This movie surprised me. I really didn't think this movie would be as good as it was. I mean it had action, emotion, and Harrison Ford. It's not a great movie, but it definitely wasn't bad.
2	Filligan	82 _48th
I recommend Ender's Game. I do so not because it's very exciting, though it did keep me watching, and despite it making questionable choices few audience members would be willing to be believe in. I do so because in a world of tasteless special effects extravaganzas that are worthless, Ender's Game dares to care about great filmmaking, acting, and, above all, real themes and messages that could - should - inspire thought. Is it the best example of this? No. But it's no Transformers.
2	KasperL	70 _65th
Like with most adaptations of novels, it feels as though the plot is playing on fast-forward. The film is severely lacking in some regards (finesse, fleshing out Ender's relationships) but, as everything wraps up convicingly, its deficiencies are made up for by a strong final act. Two more observations: Ben Kingsley looks really silly! Very nice score!
2	lumpnboy	25 _9th
The vast bulk seems like an uncritical, self-reflection-free, non-parody 'Starship Troopers', a parade of militarist virtues and benevolent authority and such, though without the explicit invocation of fascism or 20th century European history. Then suddenly there is a perfunctory critique of genocide, with the last surviving member of the destroyed alien race turning to the war criminal in question - a 'cadet' of some kind, of course - with open trust that he will help save the species.
2	moraesfelipe	54 _40th
Ender's Game addresses competition as a tool to depict the loss of innocence -- and it looks dark and violent unlike any blockbuster this year. Unfortunately, it takes ages to take off and to truly show what it wants -- a powerful anti-military speech about the danger of making wars in the present in order to avoid future mayhem, which is what American governments have been doing for decades. A videogame-inspired version of Full Metal Jacket.
2	spleen	68 _37th
Harry Potter stars in "Starship Troopers".
2	afrogsk8	60 _58th
Was a bit rushed. I thought the characters should have been more developed, and they glossed over some important relationships and time periods, but they didn't stray far from the book and it was visually impressive. Great story, although paraphrased. Overall a satisfying adaption.
2	NothingsGood	5 _3rd
One of the most confused, unfocused, unbalanced adaptations ever made. Obviously there's a lot going on in the book. You can tell by how little everything makes sense in the movie.
2	Daph_NL	71 _91st
In this movie, not all the acting is on the same level. But this movie seems to be different then other sci-fi movies lately. The graphics are believable, and the story is well thought out. It even came up with a surprise or two. A great movie overall. 71/100.
2	ribcage	20 _6th
Handing the helm over to Gavin Hood was a guarantee that nothing meaningful from the book would be successfully conveyed in the film. And that it would still just suck as a movie anyway, regardless of source material. The ending in this adaptation is foreshadowed very poorly. The story is told as dully and emotion-free as possible. It commits the cardinal crime of being just plain boring. There's no moment where you feel anything is at stake for anyone.
2	Leonardis	79 _31st
Never read the book to be honest, so I don't know how the development looks here, but I did enjoy Ender's Game for (most of) the acting and the story. Some of the cast is questionable, but the cliffhanger ending obviously leaves it open for another. The acting is alright and I didn't think it was bad at all.
2	mkellins	30 _11th
A thought-provoking sci-fi novel turned into a bootcamp movie with angsty teenagers. I was immensely disappointed by the film, escpecially the casting. None of the kids (or the adults) were convincing. The book deserved better.
2	Ryan Lueders (ReelRyan)	90 _87th
Is this the beginning of the Ender's? Yes. I also thought they did a great job with this film. Honestly, I couldn't help comparing it to Harry Potter. Even though it came out way before Harry had his scar. Asa Butterfield did great, although puberty stinks as his poor little voice kept cracking in dramatic scenes... [Full Review]
2	tomwalsh	23 _2nd
In the first few minutes, you learn the main character's name is "Ender", his sister is too touchy-feely, and his brother's too belligerent. Oh, also the world is maybe in peril. Hey, did you guess that he's going to "End" this peril by averaging out the qualities of his brother and sister, while playing a "Game"? HOW DID YOU EVER SEE THAT COMING????
2	TheEscapist	77 _84th
On rewatch this is actually a lot better than I thought. Granted, the acting is generally not the strongest, aside from Harrison Ford and a few others. The visual design is kind of generic, but it does look nice and is effective. Its strongest point is the story, though perhaps in order to truly appreciate it you'll first have to see this film once, or need to have read the books. Great final act!
2	TC Mercado	70 _32nd
Charming and entertaining but poorly made. Despite some good child acting the tone is inconsistent, the screenplay is sloppy in trying to encompass a larger story, and it's rushed awkward scenes just sort of move to the next in a checklist fashion. The result is a movie that feels forcibly finished, and not something people cared too much about making.
2	PluggedIN	80 _82nd
After a consequence-laden battle, Colonel Graff tells his young charge, "We won, that's all that matters!" But the conflicted Ender retorts with, "No. The way we win matters." With that kind of tug and pull, Ender's Game challenges us to wrestle with the politics of winning wars while mulling over what constitutes moral rights and wrongs in a time of crisis. And that's a significantly thoughtful challenge coming from the pages of YA sci-fi. (pluggedin.com)
2	Sheldrake	80 _86th
Pretty much the perfect Millenial/Baby Boomer encapsulation film, with a very thinly veiled Iraq War analogue demonstrating how dehumanizing (and damning) an eternal 'us vs them, winner takes all' mindset can be. Good acting, impressive special effects.
1	Kojiless	58 _61st
Angry boy with angry brother is trained by angry general to destroy angry space bugs. Angry that the movie ends on a sigh? Start saving your space pennies for part two of Angry Game, coming soon to a theater near you. ANGRY!
1	Ytadel	3 _28th
I mostly enjoyed the character arc and military rise of Ender Wiggin, though almost all the other characters felt thinly-defined to varying degrees. The "mind game" scenes are also intensely cheesy to the point that it's completely impossible to take them seriously.
1	Carpetgiant	80 _35th
I like to imagine that when they were brainstorming the cast of "Ender's Game", someone misread the name Colonel Graff as Colonel Gruff, then everyone immediately thought to contact Harrison Ford for the part.
1	Ju_St	20 _6th
What a disappointment. I get that it's not always easy to translate a book into a movie, but wow...they really messed up almost everything you could mess up with this one!
1	HunterKing	80 _47th
Whole movie whizzes by hardly giving you a chance to form an opinion one way or another. I didn't really have any issues with it, and everything was done reasonably well, but everything was so skimmed over.
1	r.Din	50 _16th
Like Starship Troopers but with kids.
1	Derekstar	50 _27th
Almost a watchable movie, but derailed by the young actor who plays Bean. Man. Some Jake Lloyd caliber acting, there. Also, I mean, I'm a giant fan of the book, and I was really disappointed that the Dragon Army section was completely summarized in two scenes. It's easily the best part of the book, and probably the most crucial to understanding how and why Ender is a great strategist. This oversight, along with some horrendous child acting, soured the movie for me.
1	joseywales	65 _44th
Darker than expected with lots of impressive eye candy, but the pacing keeps this from being a great film.
1	evrana	48 _13th
Another sci-fi masterpiece butchered by Hollywood... It felt like the director read an 2 page executive summary of the book instead of the book, because the movie was more like "Things that happen in Ender's Game" rather than an adaptation of the book. Actually I seriously doubt if you can understand the movie, if you haven't read the book. I hope that someone else will give it a try to adapt it again, this is one of my all time favourite books; it deserves better than this.
1	Bunyas	70 _61st
i liked it somehow.. :) Far better than Gavin Hood's Wolverine Origins!
1	AFlickering	1 _4th
unforgivably toothless, explicatory and the pacing is all kinds of terrible. i'm just glad i haven't read the book it shat upon, but the deviations i've read about were all compromises.
1	martryn	66 _41st
Some decent visuals. The film is heavily flawed, though. The ending was rushed, the film had terrible pacing, and the entire movie felt like an hour too short. There is a lot to like about the movie, but most of it is frustrating because of what it should have been.
1	prowler	33 _27th
i think it's as good an adaptation as we could realistically hope for. you can't really count on these big budget Sci-fi monsters to be too creative
1	Jarmann	50 _16th
Took the soul out of the story.
1	muutanet	57 _46th
First we had The Hunger Game and now Ender's Game. Kids and killing games. I thought that forcing kids under age to work is a criminal act. I was somehow entertained though I'm way out of the target audience.
1	Vandelay1	15 _9th
bad movie
1	INDYATMN	64 _16th
Young boys may enjoy this but everyone else'll have 2 sit through a series of Harry Potter-like training games that all take place in the same setting: a gravity-free solarium. It's pretty, but boring. If those training games don't tire you, get ready 2 sit through several simulations, the last of which won't fool anyone given how many of them we've seen. The point of all this is the iffy and sophomoric idea that if one truly understands their enemy, they learn 2 love them. Wars solved!
1	choicetoes	60 _7th
Boring.
1	elmakebabi	25 _5th
I am really annoyed with creating a super hero from a spoiled brat. Half of the time, the film tries to prove how awesome, how superior, how special Ender is. Give me a break. By the way, I hate ants.
1	jordanlige	100 _51st
very neat and very cool 10 out of 10
1	Stewball	70 _54th
Except for doing a "3-2-1 NOW!" countdown every 3 minutes, it was a lot better than it's miserable excuse for a trailer. The story was pretty much fill in the blanks boilerplate predictable up through the climax, where at lest the very end gives you something to chew on. But then again, what was he supposed to do?
1	Giuseppe	62 _17th
All that's left from the book is something that feels like a fast, disjointed and confusing mess. I think Stanley Kubrick once said he thought the Lord of the Rings was an unfilmable story. While in the end that was proven wrong, perhaps it's true for Ender's Game.
1	mfidler1	70 _29th
Its good but not all that great.
1	SirStuckey	85 _87th
This is about as good of an adaptation as could be done in one movie. I thought the acting was solid, the effects were quite nice (saw it in IMAX and it was worth it), and besides some clunky dialogue and voice over stuff I didn't love I very much enjoyed myself. That being said I loved the book so I may be biased. If it was good I was going to like it more and if it was bad I was going to hate it more.
1	Okkervil	30 _21st
The story flounders hopelessly in the hands of a director as limited as Hood. The whole film feels uneven and uneventful; lacking in concept, character and emotional development. There was clearly masses of potential here but Hood squanders it at pretty much every turn. Most of all "Ender's Game" lacks any sort of distictive style or personality and ends up feeling overly sanitised and insipid.
1	mwgerb	48 _40th
It's an abridged, but loyal, adaptation of the book. Unfortunately, the parts that were missing weren't cut under the principle of making the best possible movie, but were removed just to make the story filmable. As a result, some of the darkest and most powerful moments are gone, and the scope has been drastically reduced. A great, insightful novel has been abbreviated into something simply meant to entertain.
1	chemtrails	40 _24th
Number of times somsone says 'at ease' : 31
1	Tavington	4 _88th
'All war is deception' - Sun Tzu; Although many dislike this movie due to involvement of kids and videogames, I think it carries very good message, outweighing most negative remarks. And as such it deserves good rating.
1	Velvet Crowe	22 _14th
Nice visual imagery aside, the movie sucked as much as the book did. For starters, the premise is utterly retarded. Why is it that a military with plentiful trained personnel would rely on a group of kids that they themselves are training to win a war instead of... I dunno... fighting in the war themselves? That's not to mention the painfully contrived ending, mary sue nature of Ender and lame side characters. At least it didn't have the moronic "kid rules the world with the internet" subplot.
1	bookhouseboy	23 _14th
Less subtle than a game of whack-a-mole and not that much more interesting, at least not until some more redeeming qualities the last 10 mins or so - but that's too little too late. Preview: #14#, popcorn, story, (cast).
1	MontyCircus	60 _68th
Looks great. Felt a bit rushed, but on the other hand it didn't drag. Pretty good.
1	Ressa	94 _75th
The CGI is very good and you can sense that the book behind Ender's Game is a fantastic Sci-Fi story. Unfortunately it's not unravelled in this movie. Everything is going to fast, and there isn't time to dwell and breath in, or time for character development. Should have been an hour longer or so. Too bad, because this one could've been fantastic. Instead it ends up being just another drop from the, at the moment, very Sci-Fi productive Hollywood.
1	Fides	75 _26th
It is the right movie to watch when you are tired and want to eat pop-corn.
1	hajikarimi	93 _82nd
1212: i love it, except the ending!
1	alix	40 _3rd
It's like watching a two hour-long trailer; what a disappointment! I don't think you can understand what is going on if you haven't read the book; and if you have, there's nothing new this movie brings - not even cool special effects. It's a shame a good story like this waited on the shelf for almost 30 years only to be brought out and made into a movie that tells no story.
1	damil	65 _54th
This adaptation is serviceable, but nowhere near as good as the book. The nuances are missing and we just don't get to experience the story through Ender's eyes in a movie version. The film's strengths lie in what's already in the book - there's not much new brought to it. Everything was fine, from a technical standpoint. The cast is good. Not bad, but I'd probably prefer to just read the book again.
1	xacviant	74 _35th
Decent adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel, efficiently put together and thankfully clear in style. However, a strong third act aside, it's never more than that. Asa Butterfield shows a little more life here than in HUGO, but it's the adult actors--Harrison Ford as Graff, Viola Davis as Anderson, Ben Kingsley as Rackham--who keep up the dramatic end. Hailee Steinfeld isn't bad either. Technically very satisfactory; Gavin Hood's direction is as efficiently undistinguished as his writing.
1	DougieD	65 _28th
An entertaining Sci-Fi effort that has some intriguing ideas about the morals in war and how to use soldiers (in this case children). It drags at times and there isn't much of a sense of urgency, but the cast is in top form and there are some really neat visual effects sequences. It's easily digestible popcorn cinema that is enjoyable but not all that memorable.
1	progre2	19 _3rd
The worst movie since ... I don't even know when, holy crap, this is so terrible.
1	bakcheia	23 _26th
This was all over the place and super atrocious.
1	eCitizen	80 _83rd
Imagine a future with the worlds most brilliant military mind in a prepubescent boy. Add to that a movie title that helps tip off the ending. They stretched the bounds of believability to a near breaking point and threw in some dream nonsense. However, it is a fun ride. I liked the zero gravity games and most of the special effects. The ending was too tidy and somewhat sentimental. Still entertaining and left wide open for a remake.
1	beebeedeedop	85 _50th
Unbelievable effort for tackling a book of such complexity and maturity. Unfortunately, this means one of the most entertaining subplots in scifi history was lost in the filmic adaptation, as well as several emotive and plot-related themes.
1	hotsake	76 _86th
Pretty good overall for an adaption but still lacks the depth missing for this to really work. Everything seems rushed and non of the characters have a lot of time spent on them not even Ender himself.
1	o_rety	75 _56th
All of the parts taken separately seem decent enough, but the overall sum looks somewhat underwhelming. I'd put the main blame on the length as there was no space to properly flesh out the story, but I'm afraid the child cast was probably the weakest link here.
1	csdk	78 _77th
Despite some plot holes and some parts not explained enough (why a barely trained teen is appointed as commander of the whole fleet?), the movie was enjoyable, entertaining and felt real. Acting and special effects were great. I'm probably going to read the book, because the story seemed interesting and I want to understand it better.
1	LookJabba...	3 _14th
Ender's Game is one of the most underwhelming Sci/Fi's I can recall in recent years. I knew nothing of the source material, but initially the promotional material looked promising and my interest grew. And more than anything I was somewhat intrigued to see Harrison Ford return to the Sci/Fi genre. But this is unbelievably dull. I struggled to invest myself in Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford just isn't interested and the set pieces are lackluster also. Tonally this just didn't appeal to me.
1	CianM	71 _31st
The film looks great, and I feel it captures most of the books characters well enough, but it doesn't give them enough to form any meaningful relationship with the audience. The middle section of the film is rushed making the finale a non-event.
1	Ljusbus	4 _18th
I'll start by saying I'm unfamiliar with the book. On the plus side, it looked great and felt like a proper sci-fi. However, the child actors, whilst being decent for the most part, brought it down a step or two. I also felt like it tried too hard to be intelligent, accomplishing only the opposite. There were also things I found unclear, such as why was he chosen; and why, 70 years later, they didn't already have a formidable fleet, etc. Kinda enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable and flawed.
1	eritsuku	80 _52nd
Never read the book, so I didn't have any expectations to be dashed (as if often the case with book-to-film translations). Definitely felt fast-paced, not allowing for much character development beyond the ok job done w Ender. Special effects were great; child actors did well enough for child actors; and there were a couple, few great messages to be gleaned. Really not a bad experience at all.
1	Catnip	50 _34th
much better than expected, but it felt too rushed.

Average Percentile 37.61% from 2379 Ratings