Cast: As a Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin, Moises Arias,

Director: Gavin Hood

Synopsis: Ender is a third in his family, breaking the law that each set of parents is only to bear two children. Colonel Graff and Major Anderson, part of the government, watches Ender’s every move, and then makes a surprise visit to his house. Ender is asked to serve in the battle against the buggers, where only the smartest of children in the entire world are chosen to fight in the battle that depends on everyone’s existence on Earth.

Review:

Gavin Hood brings yet another astonishing, breathtaking movie to the big screen. In this movie, Ender’s Game, we see a few familiar characters, yet new ones have been introduced to the audience as well. The storyline comes with many conflicts, but the solutions are what truly make the movie. The ending is the best part, leaving the audience feeling touched and sympathetic.

When Ender’s tracker is taken out, everyone looks down on him. Many from school, even his older brother, Peter, at home bully him. Peter treats him the worst of everyone. He punches him, fights him, and almost suffocates him. He reminds Ender of a killer, a brutal human, who wants to just kill everyone. But then, Colonel Graff, captain and teacher from the Battle School, attempts to recruit him and take him along to Battle School with him, where Ender will train to fight in the battle against the buggers. When Ender agrees, everything changes for him. He is forbidden from seeing his sister, Valentine, the only one he feels truly loves him, and is forced to train for almost every hour in the days that go by. He gets so little sleep and is tired after everyday of training. In the times that he does get to sleep, he often dreams have Valentine and seeing her in a strange, unfamiliar place. There are buggers around, and the place looks wrecked entirely.

Ender gets promoted to being a captain of his own army, the Dragon Army, the only army with the reputation of never winning one battle. But as Ender takes over as their leader, he teaches them strategies that help them to succeed against the only undefeated army, the Salamander Army. Ender and his army are taken to the next level to fight in a practice battle against the buggers. All of it was computerized. Or was it? Ender directs his army what to do, and they celebrate their victory in the end, for their leader has made very smart decisions to lead them all the way to their success. But it seems they have interpreted their success the wrong way.

Colonel Graff reveals to Ender that they really have destroyed the buggers. It wasn’t just another one of the training battles. It wasn’t fake. They were really gone. And even though that was the goal all along, there was something in Ender that reminded him of Peter, a killer, and he loathed that feeling so much. He hated the idea of being anything like Peter. He did not want to be a killer or someone who hurt others. That was not who he was.

The movie is very different from the book. There were parts that were added and parts that were taken out throughout the entire thing. In my opinion, I think the movie was better. Even though usually, books explain more about the storyline than the movies, some parts of the book got confusing and hard to follow. The movie was easy to understand and since it was mostly little kids talking, it was even easier. One of the most important parts in the story was when Ender made contact and communicated with the queen bugger. But that part was only shown in the movie, it didn’t talk about it in the book. If that part especially were in the book, for me, the book probably would’ve been better because I know already it would’ve talked a lot about it.

Another reason I think the movie was better than the book was because I think the anxiety of everyone made it even better than it probably was. Since we read the book in class, I think everyone got really exhilarated and thrilled to finally get to watch everything that we just read. Everyone had thought the movie would be super good, so that’s why it was, because we thought it would be. I think almost everyone could agree that the movie was better than the book, and everyone enjoyed this kind of read the book then watch the movie kind of thing.