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.