Long awaited, greatly talked about, and somewhat disappointing.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card was a book many of us were required to read and now it has been made into a movie! Just like with The Great Gatsby we have another book that we all share in common to watch on the big screen.

The casting of the movie as a whole was definitely a high. The star, Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin, was fabulous. He clearly had the personality of the character down pat. Ender was portrayed as a balance between the overemotional Valentine and heartlessly violent Peter. Butterfield shows this to the audience through he strongly analytical mind but we also have touching scenes filled with real, raw emotions. Harrison Ford was an acceptable Colonel Graff, though he seemed to be just there as an audience grabber. The one low note of the cast was Ender’s big hearted sister Valentine, who was played by Abigail Breslin. Not only did she look out of place stylistically with the film but her character seemed underrated. Breslin plays Valentine like a stereotypical helpless girl who isn’t there to do much except scream ‘NO!’

The filming of the movie was actually very good. Most futuristic films will just blatantly throw around the CGI effects to distract the audience, but here we find them subtle and almost realistic, as if we are looking at a plausible future. There was one scene where a crumb of food was clearly visible on Ford’s lip and it distracted from the serious moment. With millions of dollars and people going into this film, did no one notice this, especially since it was a close up scene?

Though it may not have been the biggest issue with the movie, one of the red flags was the plot. With only two to two and a half hours to work with, it is understandable that many scene and side plots had to be cut out of the script. This only works when you don’t go back and mention them in the final cut. With Peter’s and Valentine’s political subplot cut out we have more time to focus on Ender’s story. This means that it makes no sense to randomly mention parts of it during the film. Also, an added side effect of this is that Valentine is left with no reason to convince Ender to reenlist.

Another questioning choice was the awkward mention of the title of the next book in the series, Speaker for the Dead. Will there be another movie? Was this just a cameo? The line was forced and out of place. The largest plot hole may have been when Ender’s reaction to the truth when he seems to be perfectly emotional over the aliens, but not the many human lives that were sacrificed. Where does his compassion for the human race go?

Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for, the biggest issue with the film overall: the dialogue. If you haven’t read the plot and been made to analyze for themes of the book like a good portion of us have, never fear! The dialogue in the movie sounds as if it comes from a day time drama. It smacks the viewer upside the head with the theme of the movie, just in case you didn’t get it. With lovely one liners like: “It’s not about winning, it’s how you win,” It is clear that the writers did not have much faith in the audience to pick up the themes of the story.

All in all, the movie was filled with flaws but came together to make an overall entertaining movie. With the author on board the production team, the overall idea behind the story was kept intact which is a blessing these days.