It's like "Full Metal Jacket" in space...and with kids.

This movie comes across to me as a science-fiction movie that rather focuses on the characters than any actual spectacle and action. And there of course is nothing wrong with such an approach, as long as it's working out effectively and turns the movie into an interesting and credible one. Two things however that I felt this movie was lacking in.

This isn't a particularly deep movie and therefore also not the most interesting one to watch, or one in which you'll start to feel attached to the characters. There is never any good drama, no real sense of tension and danger and it doesn't feel like you ever get to truly know any of the characters. Most of the characters are just there to fill up the screen anyway it seems. It for most part just focuses on the Ender character, which I see as a missed opportunity. Here you have a movie with dozens of different characters, that however hardly make an impact on the story, with the exception of the Harrison Ford character, which is all really mostly thanks to the excellent performance by him.

In this case, I don't really put any of the blame for it on the writing. It more has to do with the directing and the pacing in particular. The movie is a far too fast going one. It doesn't slow down for anything and a lot of things happen and change at times, sometimes in the time span of mere minutes. This would have been fine for a type of science-fiction movie that put its emphasis on its action and entertainment but not for one that actually features hardly any real action in it, such as this one. It on the one hand is trying to be a serious movie but on the other it's still trying to bring entertainment as well, accompanied by some impressive looking special effect scenes. It's a combination that doesn't ever really work out that well, due to the fact that it can't ever seem to find a right balance.

I also had a hard time buying into the concept of young kids fighting wars for adults, just because they are better at playing video games? Sure, it's original and sounds like a kid's fantasy to some game loving kids but that's the problem; it's too much of a fantasy all really, which again doesn't work out too well in combination with the more serious approach that the movie is taking.

With a slower pace and some more character development in it, this potentially could have been a far more engaging and 'deeper' sort of movie to watch. The movie as it is is nothing more but a very average and 'light' to watch science-fiction flick, that's mostly aimed toward kids and doesn't offer an awful lot of excitement and interesting themes in it. At least not in the way it all gets handled and presented in this movie. A real missed opportunity all around.

6/10

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The International Military seek out a leader who can save the human race from an alien attack. Ender Wiggin, a brilliant young mind, is recruited and trained to lead his fellow soldiers into a battle that will determine the future of Earth. From: IMDb.com

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. From: IMDb.com

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. From: IMDb.com

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. From: IMDb.com

Even way before its releases, this always seemed like a great movie with lots of potential and a great premise and cast involved. So is this movie as good as I and everybody else thought it was going to be? Not exactly but having said that, this still is a pretty solid movie!

The main thing that I thought was slightly disappointing about with this movie was that it wasn't the raw and gritty movie that I expected it to be and was hoping for. Instead of being purely realistic and emotionally hitting it's a movie that too often is going for the clichéd Hollywood solution and approach to things.

It's also a movie that's constantly focusing on the 'where's my daughter' aspects, rather than on the 'I miss my daughter' or what could we have done to prevent this and how could this have happened in the first place. It's glossing over all these aspects and it's a movie that's constantly moving forward and never one that's looking back at things, while this definitely would have been an appropriate thing to do at times and could potentially have made this movie also a more powerful and effective one, with all of its drama and character development. Because of this approach, some of the characters also suddenly disappear out of the story (and no, not just the abducted children), which after a short while turns this movie into one that's just about the Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal characters, while the movie really doesn't start off that way.

But it's weird really. Despite all the, what I would consider to be, flaws and weaknesses of the movie, it never turns into a bad one as well! As a matter of fact, it's a very solid one within its genre. It still features a very engaging story, that has plenty of interesting elements in it. It isn't just another straightforward thriller but also one that goes a bit deeper into things, forcing its audience to think a bit deeper about things themselves as well. It's a movie with certain morals and questions in it, that make you think about things and lets you piece things together in your own mind as well. It certainly leaves things up to your own interpretation, though the movie at times is also trying a bit too hard to wrap everything up needly, by itself.

The characters all go through some pretty interesting transitions and the movie also throws 1 or 2 nice surprises at you. So really, plenty of reasons to go see this movie, even while it really isn't as effective and gritty as I was hoping for.

7/10

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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. From: IMDb.com

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. From: IMDb.com