The Critic Consumes: A Review

As the end of the year approaches, a plethora of long-awaited movies are about to be launched.
---and now I realize the irony of my subject, because it was only yesterday that I explained to you my hopes in learning to love books again just as much as I love films.

But I do love films.

As a psychoanalyzer, I enjoy the complexity of a cinema production. In a book, you have pages upon pages to sprawl luxuriously upon. You have a broad band of elasticity in which your character(s) can grow and change. There is no time limit, and your words have power only in the mind of the reader. It's up to them to formulate what you yourself have put upon the page. In a way, you are freed from that particular responsibility.
With film, the director, writers, and producers are given a generalized amount of time in which they are to present a scenario to capture interest, intrigue, and conflict that appeals to the emotions of the audience. A posse of characters have to have full development by the time your 180 minutes is up. The process of combining cast members, editors, concept artists, set designers, and hundreds of other elements to produce a sustainable piece of work that captures human emotion is outrageously complicated. All of this under a tightly belted time restraint and a budget to match. Even after completion, after each thousandth upon thousandth frame has been poured over and carefully crafted, after anticipation and commercialization, the final step in film making has nothing to do with the creators, but with the critics.
Many have undertaken the grueling task of "movie-maker", but few have anything to show for it.

I love to critique. I enjoy sifting my thoughts out, panning through the details, and formulating my conclusion over what has been presented to me. Granted, I know very little of anything and claim ownership to an extremely sophomoric outlook (haha, I just made an inside joke with myself). 

And now we get to the meat of things. I present to you, Asa Butterfield's beautiful eyeballs Ender's Game. 

i gif stuff now. gifs are cool. (props to you, ninja girl, for explaining to me how simple it was!!)

 I'll be the first to stand up on my chair and proclaim: I haven't finished the book yet. 

Because of that small particle of insight, you may want to write off this review entirely.

Ender's Game, like so many other young adult fictions, is often compared to The Hunger Games. Children fighting. Political conflict. Young-hero-must-stand-under-extreme-pressure-to-save-humankind.
To be noted: I think it would be correct (correcterer?) to compare The Hunger Games to Ender's Game, rather than vise-versa. The book was written in 1985, and is senior to Katniss Everdeen's plight by a big fat 23 years.
Timestream aside, we are left with two stories about two young people who are forced to take action and become figureheads. They are both educated in combat, warfare, and the government's sickening screwed-upness. As a result, both are forced to deal these problems using their best (but untested) judgement.

That will be where I end the parallels, seeing as their are too many perpendiculars to get in the way of any other similarities. An issue that never rests when it comes to the two "Gameses" (as I choose to call them), is the ages of the characters.
Children. Children fighting. Children dying. Children trying to be adults.
This is a main object in both books that is meant as (1) an attention grabber and (2) a way to reflect and play upon our society's feelings. Or society has a lot to say about children. Being a children myself, this is kind of weird to discuss. But when a story takes children and throws them into a place of turmoil and an adult situation, the reader/watcher/listener will be sympathetic. Emotions are sharpest of a storyteller's tools, and with them, whole nations can be moved to action. History can attest to that.

So we have young people. And because of the young people, we have sympathy. With old people (ha.), we would still have sympathy, but not as much. Also, the young readers will more easily relate, and the plot, if narrated by a juvenile, suddenly holds the a more innocent, and possibly richer, contrasted outlook.

...But whoa now, Ender Wiggin is HOW OLD?? Six years old?! Whaaaat?

say wut?

That's where we come to the first pro of the movie. They had the decency (or audacity, if you disagree) to move Ender Wiggin up a notch in the age-game, starting him out at twelve years old, and scrunching up his life. This meant packing everything into a neat little 114 minute happy meal.

Personally, and as a moviegoer, not book reader, I think this was okay. As previously mentioned, movies can't exactly afford wasted time or a stretched out plot. In a book, you might cut away clean with this, but in a movie, there's no room for it. Each minute costs money, and each minute could be your only hope of securing an attentive audience.

But I agree with the complaint argued before me---it's rushed.

see? he's obviously in a rush.

 Nevertheless, I liked having twelve year old Ender and not six year old Ender. No offense, but six year old brain childs who are capable of taking over the world are creepier than twelve year old brain childs who are capable of world domination. That is my own humble opinion.

I won't harp long on Asa Butterfield's performance, but I will say that the kid is a mad genius who has absolutely ruled the stage and screen from age ten, when he starred as lead in book adaption, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (of which I have not read or watched, but only seen a few clips and read a few reviews). I'm serious, this kid knows his stuff when it comes to playing on the swing set of bittersweet.

...although i did miss the brit accent...

 Everybody talks about Harrison Ford. Cool guy. 'Nuff said. He played Graff the Gruff, and did his whole legendary actor thing like always.

I quickly became fond of the rest of the supporting cast too. Petra (Haliee Steinford) was pushing the fondness, as I really couldn't find it in myself to care about her character. Nevertheless, the rest of them were great and I found a place for each in my cupboard of admirable fictional characters almost immediately.

...Although Ben Kingsly's character was a little off... I mean, is he even supposed to be considered as "the supporting cast"?? He hardly made any screen time, and was not necessary in the time that he was there. I'm eager to get to that whole plot twisty-tie in the book.

Perhaps it should be mentioned that I absolutely loved Bonzo.
Bonzo is a good illustration to use in explaining exactly why I must must must see the movie before the book. 

Bonzo:

book: 

described as being good-looking, having Spanish linage, a respectable "you do what I tell you or else you'll taste blood" commander

movie: 

portrayed as a short (like, make 15 year old scrawny Asa Butterfield look like a brawny giant short), muscular, "you WILL do what I say, or else your gut will pay the price" type

As far as attitude and personality stretches---he's identical. However, if I were to read the book and then have watched the movie, I probably would have been a bit miffed at how...different he turned out physically. As it is now: WHOEVER DECIDED TO CAST MOISES ARIAS AS BONZO SHOULD BE APPLAUDED AND GIVE GREAT BUCKETLOADS OF CHOCOLATE. He did a fabulous job, and the fight scene between Ender and Bonzo was one of my very favoritest parts. 

After getting halfway through the book and looking back upon the movie, I am, like other fans, wishing that the movie might have made time for more development concerning Ender's family. 
---but that's just it. Like I was saying: there is no time. There is no time to throw something like that into this production. Process of elimination is tough stuff.

don't worry fandom, we'll make it through the lack of Wiggins-family appearances. just be strong.

Computer graphic imaging.
Mechanics of a film are pretty dang cool. Over the years, technology has allowed ordinary human beings to create something absolutely extraordinary in the line of computer graphics. This movie in particular, attempts to showcase that, in the sense that at least 75% of everything you see is green screen. That acknowledged, I'll take a moment and say props to the artists---you guys are cool, and I wouldn't mind embezzling your job one day.
However...I'd almost prefer to see...well...real stuff. The fact that there is so much green screen time almost makes me feel disappointed.

On the other hand, it makes me love the cast that much more for their vivid imaginations, as they had to play the acting game without the help of a visible set. That alone is pretty impressive.

"and over here, on this green panel, you are supposed have a great view of the entire universe..."

If you know nothing about Ender's Game, you should, at least know that it's very spacey. Like, outer-spacey (not abstract mind spacey). Outer-spacey means no gravity. And no gravity (for this film at least) means wire work. Lots and lots and lots of wire work. Every time I've ever heard an actor on interview questioned about wire work, they always answer the with the same "Oiy, those harnesses are really uncomfortable...". And yes---! They do look very uncomfortable.

 {And awkward.}

But look at how cool that can be!!

...actually, i'm fairly sure this shot is completely digital. but you get the drift.

So far I've gushed on about the coolness factor of this movie. A lot of that is because there is a coolness factor to this movie. There were some great scenes---the Ender/Bonzo fight was well done, the virtual video-game-whatever-you-call-them scenes were intriguing and impressive, and Ender's reaction to the truth at the end...all of these scenes were fantastic.

But, as with all things, there were flaws.

We've already gone over the "rushed" problem, but another issue still surfaces in it's place. There are areas---small patches, mind you---where the dialog becomes awkward. Like the script is hunky or choking out that actor's ability to deliver. It's not terrible, but it is noticeable.
Much of the script was taken directly from the book's text. Obviously, this pleases the Ender fandom, but from a purely film point of view, was this wise? I don't know. I don't know at all. It's only something to consider.
The aliens were all right, but nothing spectacular. The last scenes---no spoilers for youuuu---were interesting, but I couldn't help but think how funny it (she?) looked. I just...I don't know what to say for that either. Only that I was very impressed with Butterfield's ability to cry.

It's worth mentioning that Ender looks like he's about to burst out into tears throughout the entire movie. I was very satisfied when he finally did. (also, there was snot!! :D lol...another inside joke...)
But even with that portrayal of emotion, one can argue that there is no way an actor could show the audience all of the different raging emotions going on under Ender's cool. I agree completely. And yes, it's much much harder to show rather than tell. Just like it's harder to see rather than hear. Ender doesn't verbally share his feelings---at least, not usually---instead, you have to see the emotion acted out on the slight.

I can't say that I enjoyed watching the simulation scenes nearer to the end as much as I enjoyed viewing Ender's experience at battle school that was presented at the beginning. I guess I just wasn't that interested in watching a massive game of battleship going on in deep dark space. But I'm sure, absolutely positive in fact, that I'm not the only one who wishes they could have a simulation system that epic. 

neato.

I've spent my words of review not debating over the morality of the idea that exists in the story, but instead, on the mechanics that went into it. The morality is a whole different sort of slice of cake.

There are a lot of things left to say on the subject of Ender's Game concerning both the book and the movie. Yet again, I remind you that my ramblings on both are short-sided, as I still need to finish the book and have seen the film only once. Also, there are have sequels to look forward to (which is why the ending of this movie felt suspiciously like a feeder into another shot at plot). 

I don't understand why this adaption is getting such a low rating. Surely it deserves at least three out of five stars. Yes, there are people who have given it such, but as far as I can tell, the majority of viewers have attested to being underwhelmed. Perhaps Ender's Game as a film will never be able to stand on it's own two feet while under the yawning shadow of the novel upon which it is based. 

Is it good enough to fall in love with? Or is it just another space movie made by people who have too much fun with their computers? 

Watch it and see. I dare ya. It sticks with you after the credits have rolled in. And it might just leave you speechless.

 “In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them."