Film Review: Ender’s Game

Ender’s Game. Rated M (science fiction themes and violence). 114 minutes. Written and directed by Gavin Hood.

Verdict: A compelling study of the moral dilemmas associated with resolving conflict.

With Earth’s population recovering from near-annihilation at the hands of an alien invasion, the military – led by Harrison Ford’s Colonel Graff – decide to recruit young video game-playing geniuses to develop a defensive strategy that will not only protect the planet from the next invasion, but eliminate the threat entirely by exterminating the hostile alien species.

Led by an outstanding performance from young Asa Butterfield (Hugo, Nanny McPhee Returns, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) as technology wiz Ender Wiggin, Ender’s Game makes no apology for feeding the brain as much as it dazzles the senses. Hood’s script skilfully covers the important and topical issues of generational change, bullying, peer pressure and survival strategies – resulting in compelling character studies that are equal to the stunning visual environment, confidently directed by Hood and expertly photographed by veteran Australian cinematographer Donald McAlpine.

Like it’s siblings The Hunger Games and TRON, Ender’s Game explores its moral imperatives (and ambiguities) within a complex gaming environment that is increasingly the exclusive domain of the next generation.

Ford is at his best espousing the rules and regulations of militaristic and moral fundamentalism, while Viola Davis (Prisoners, The Help, Doubt) is excellent as his colleague, who is charged with determining what psychological impact the relentless preparation for conflict is having on their young warrior.

While the militaristic motivations are relatively easy to comprehend (no-one wants to perish in an alien invasion after all), the film’s penultimate battle sequence is not only a tour de force of visual effects mastery, but one that generates an extraordinary moral dilemma. It is here that Ford’s Colonel and Butterfield’s Ender absolutely nail the film’s central conflict, resulting in a scene of immense power that challenges us to contemplate the film’s lasting message – which is how conflict of any kind might be resolved through striving for mutual consideration and respect as opposed to brutal aggression.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Rated PG (mild themes and coarse language). 129 minutes. Directed by Stephen Daldry. Screenplay by Eric Roth. Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Verdict: Lovers of great drama will be richly-rewarded by this compelling exploration of grief, hope and the power of imagination.

One of the major issues involved with making a film about the events of September 11 is the fact that the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center were so widely broadcast – and witnessed by people around the world – in real time. Most of us remember where we were and how we felt – and the analogy at the time (an attempt, perhaps, to make sense of the incomprehensible horror), was that it was like watching a movie.

The challenge, then, for filmmakers taking on “the worst day” is as simple as it is complicated: what are you going to tell us about this preposterous act of terrorism against a country’s civilians that we haven’t already been told? How, ten years later, are you going to further illuminate the events and/or the lasting legacy of what happened on September 11?