Ender’s Game Movie Review – 4.5 out of 5 stars

About 50 years after the Formics invaded Earth and killed millions, the brightest children are recruited by the International Fleet and trained in military tactics so they will be prepared for the next invasion. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), shows great potential early on and is recruited by Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Anderson (Viola Davis) and sent to Battle School, an orbiter in Earth’s atmosphere. Ender quickly rises up through the ranks in Battle School earning the respect of those who cast him out in the beginning, and he even comes into command of his own team, Dragon Army. He does so well that he is promoted to Command School where he learns to command the entire fleet in simulations and that the International Fleet is planning to take the fight to the Formics home planet.

Based on the book, the movie Ender’s Game was released November 1, 2013 and directed by Gavin Hood. It has a run time of 114 minutes and, according to IMDb, it made $27,017,351 opening weekend and had a USA gross of $61,737,191. I personally loved the story, just like I did when I read the book back in middle school. This movie came out in 2013 and I honestly kind of forgot about it. I don’t remember liking it as much when seeing it the first time, but I really enjoyed re-watching it recently. That’s one of the reasons I love re-watching movies. You come back to them with new experiences and perspectives, or pick up on new things you enjoy and hadn’t noticed before.

I would rate this movie 4 ½ stars out of 5 and recommend checking it out if you haven’t seen it yet. Of course I thought the book was better, but the movie did a great job telling the same story in a shorter amount of time, and it was really cool seeing it all up on the big screen. One of my favorite parts in the book was how Ender started off as a loner and progressed to become the best in Battle School and a well-respected leader. Although the movie touched on this, it moved pretty quickly through this progression. All of the actors fit their characters perfectly and performed a well executed story where I can’t think of any way I’d make it differently. Overall, it was really well done and made me want to go back and re-read the book.