ENDER'S GAME DVD (2013)

SYNOPSIS: The Earth was ravaged by the Formics, an alien race seemingly determined to destroy humanity. Seventy years later, the people of Earth remain banded together to prevent their own annihilation from this technologically superior alien species. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterflied), a quiet but brilliant boy, may become the savior of the human race. He is separated from his beloved sister and his terrifying brother and brought to battle school in orbit around earth. He will be tested and honed into an empathetic killer who begins to despise what he does as he learns to fight in hopes of saving Earth and his family.

MOVIE REVIEW:

You can blame it all on Twilight. The success of the vampire romance series caused everyone in Hollywood to scramble for the next YA property. Not surprisingly that includes Summit Entertainment as well, the one-time independent company that started it all.

Ender’s Game is Summit’s latest YA venture though it hardly make a dent at the box-office to warrant a sequel yet it’s a nicely made thinking-man’s sci-fi adventure based on a book by Orson Scott Card.

One of the primarily reasons why Ender’s Game never really took off is much of the touted action, adventure took place either off-screen or on the computer screens. Imagine watching someone holding on to the joystick for two hours playing Warcraft. Or could it be Card’s anti-gay statements that sabotaged the flick instead? Possibly.

Anyway the story of Ender’s Game is set in the future whereby mankind is nearly wiped off from earth by mysterious aliens invaders if not for the bravery of a heroic commander. Years later, the young gifted Andrew “Ender“ Wiggin (Asa Butterfield from Hugo) is handpicked by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) to attend Battle School as Graff sees Ender as the one to end the aliens colony.  

Brushing his dismal X-Men Origins: Wolverine aside, director and writer Gavin Hood manages to weave a compelling and morally debatable tale involving the genocide of aliens and recruitment of child soldiers. Much of the story revolves around Ender’s training in Battle School as he learns to strategize, battles against jealous classmates and dealing with the loss of communicating with his elder sister, Valentine (Abigail Breslin). His thinking and behavior is put to the test as he struggles whether it’s the right choice to save the world by choosing to mindlessly exterminating the entire extraterrestrial species. Thought-provoking isn’t it?   

Hood with the help of Digital Domain created a convincing zero gravity-free chamber for the recruits to practice their battles of which two crucial scenes took place. The visual effects are often stunning and believable except an appearance of a generic looking alien towards the end that nearly spoiled the broth.

Ender’s Game is not just about space battles in a galaxy far away. It challenges you with profound messages if you aren’t too bored by the many gigantic computer screens. Too bad it ends with a cliffhanger and the only way to know the ending is to search for Card’s books.  

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The visual is striking and impressive while dialogue is clear and sound effects perfectly optimized by the provided Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee