Film review: Ender’s Game An adventure story for young & young-at-heart

MANILA, Philippines - The idea or maybe I should say, the belief is as old as time itself. Only a child, pure and innocent can be the savior of the world. And there has been quite an influx of these kid warriors in the movies lately. From Harry Potter to Katniss Everdeen, they are waging battles against all sorts of evils. Truth to tell, I am right now trying to come up with a recent movie where the kids were the leads and were simply normal and I cannot think of any.

How has this situation come to pass? Why are we turning our babies into champions? Aren’t adults supposed to take care of the children and keep them safe? Not anymore. If we are to believe the movies around us. The books are just as guilty. In fact, it has become a very rich source of tales about pubescent kids who can strike down giants with an arrow or the mere wave of the hand.    

Imagine a giant iPad. Stand before it. Then start checking the mail, going over the news or playing a game. You will resemble the conductor of a big orchestra willing the players into your tempo, doing your bidding with just the wave of your hand. But it is not an orchestra. It is a huge battlefield and on the screen are battleships and soldiers tasked to save the world.

At the helm is Ender Wiggin, who is only 12 years old.

Ender is the lead character of Ender’s Game, the young adult sci-fi adventure novel written by Orson Scott Card. It was actually one of the early progenitors of the genre but was brought to the screen only now. The story is set in a futuristic world that has become paranoid because of the invasion of alien bugs 50 years ago that killed millions. Wanting to be prepared in case of another invasion, the adults have taken to training their children at the Battle School. 

One of them is the quiet, often bullied Ender but who from an early age has shown a determination to win all his fights and shows no mercy for the enemies. When it was discovered that he is also master tactician in war games, he is tapped by Field Commander Col. Hyrum Graff to be the leader of the new generation of soldiers trained to fight the bugs called Formics. Well, it turns out that the old folks were not paranoid for nothing. The yucky Formics are only a few days away from earth and Ender will now have to go to war.

Will he or will he not? This question hovers over one’s head throughout the movie and goes into why after Ender has made his decision. It is tempting to get into the idea of preemptive attacks, of exhausting diplomacy first before war, of looking at the enemy as just another creature. Nice story with lots to think about but we are not reading. 

We are watching and with its exciting fight scenes and masterfully-executed special effects, Ender’s Game, directed by Gavin Hood, who also did Wolverine, is an extremely watchable winner. The kids will love to find one of their favorite heroes up on the screen saving the world and putting adults to shame with his genius. They will also enjoy imagining themselves in those zero-gravity classrooms in that Battle School hovering above the earth.

I am sure they will also like Asa Butterfield, who plays Ender. He was first seen in Hugo and was even then already an adorable mixture of strength and little-boy cuteness. He should grow up into an action hero with heartthrob appeal. He is heroic enough for the boys and swoony enough for the girls. They will sympathize over his dilemma about violence and cheer him on when he goes to war.

And it will not be so hard dragging mom and dad to the theater to watch this one. Ender’s Game has Harrison Ford as Commander Graff. I know he is gruff and now somewhat jowly but his presence still packs a punch. If the parents accept the fact that like them Han Solo can also grow old, they will also enjoy the show.

As for the idea that kids should be trained to fight and save the world while the adults watch, I leave that for another time or another movie. I do not think Ender’s Game can give an answer. Try reading the book, it just might.