Ender's Game

Dir: Gavin Hood

2013

**

Being somewhat of a sci-fi enthusiast I actually read Ender's Game around the same time as it came out, along with John Carter of Mars and Lord of the Flies. I loved the other novels, and I loved Ender's Game, but there was always something about it I thought was wrong. Without wanting to give away the ending, I always thought that Ender, who we had been repeatedly told was a genius, should have predicted the big plot-twist. It's a hell of a plot twist and it had quite an impact on my impressionable mind back in the late 80s but now as an adult I can see the stories bigger message. A big screen adaptation had been on the cards for some time but author Orson Scott Card had always been reluctant to sell the rights. He eventually did once he finally found a script that he liked. There had been many over the years. One could argue that it was the first 'young adult' novel, I would argue that it wasn't but I'm glad others thought it was otherwise I wouldn't have ever read it. It's very much an adult novel that just so happens to have a child as the main character, and for a very effective reason. I'm not sure the adaptation should have been in the guise of a kid’s film. It's certainly not for young kids but it is clear for kids all the same. Orson Scott Card is a questionable character, by questionable I mean detestable. I don't like anything about him or what he says. Ender's Game has been called all manner of things such as a justification of western expansion and genocide and that Ender is an intentional reference by Orson Scott Card to Adolf Hitler. Sci-fi writer John Kessel has written at length about the dangers of morality, or lack of, within the story and focuses on the dangers of removing responsibility from solders. The fact that it is on the US Marine Corps profession reading list for new recruits is astonishing, if a little unnerving. The big question for me has always been what the conclusion really means. There are two ways of looking at it but is it really open to interpretation. I think not, especially given how outspoken Card has been over the years. Ender's Game can't just be seen as an escapist fantasy because it isn't, there is a message there and it is as mixed and contradictory as Card himself. Such is life, but I question the ethical and moral angle that Card explores and I think what could have been a truly awesome story is in fact a flawed look at war from a deluded author. The film however, is a slightly more fixed version of his 1985 story. I think there is a great story in there somewhere but the conclusion is always key and I think it is still a huge missed opportunity. Not a bad film but I don't like where it comes from and I would argue that it does matter.