Sheep Movie Review: Ender's Game

Ender's Game 

Directed By: Gavin Hood

Cast: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley 

Plot: 

In the near future, a hostile alien race (called the Formics) have attacked Earth. If not for the legendary heroics of International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley), all would have been lost. In preparation for the next attack, the highly esteemed Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and the International Military are training only the best young children to find the future Mazer. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a shy, but strategically brilliant boy is pulled out of his school to join the elite. Arriving at Battle School, Ender quickly and easily masters increasingly difficult war games, distinguishing himself and winning respect amongst his peers. Ender is soon ordained by Graff as the military's next great hope, resulting in his promotion to Command School. Once there, he's trained by Mazer Rackham, himself, to lead his fellow soldiers into an epic battle that will determine the future of Earth and save the human race. Based on the best-selling, award winning novel. 

Ender's Game was the first Science Fiction book I read. In one word: EPIC. So, the tale of Ender has a very near and dear place in my heart. Needless to say, I was going into this film with high expectations, and it kills me to review this one as not meeting the bar set by the book. 

At times, it was just plain hard to sit and endure the rushed mish-mash that was being thrown at you. Having gone to the showing with someone who didn't read the book, they also complained that the story felt rushed. Immensely in the beginning, though it does get a little better toward the middle half. But by the time things get interesting, it's almost too late to plug back in. 

Harrison Ford seems to do a lot of urgent talking in this one. Urgently he tells you the threat is near, urgently he tells everyone what they must do. Urgent was to be the one trick pony. It was all very, very, urgent. Love Harrison, just hated this role. 

There are a few saving graces. You get the "gist" of the book. The main points are there. Even though the relationships with the young adult crew got fast forwarded, it's still there. I would have loved to see more development with Ender's buddy Bean. Or any of the rest of the crew. Saying that, Ender's character was well portrayed by the young Asa. He gave the best performance out of the whole cast, bravo young lad. 

The special effects were pretty amazing. They did pace well with the movie and managed to keep me from having a thumb war with my movie buddy. Sadly, it was just not enough to feel the ticket price was worth it. 

Whether you've read the book or not, this one is just plain mediocre. I'd recommend waiting for the DVD. 

Getting 2 and 1/2 'you better stay down' Sheep

KD

Prince of Persia, it cost money to see this?

Oh wait! I've seen this movie its called The Mummy! No? Ok, then its called National Treasure! No again? Ok, how about Indiana Jones Temple of Doom! No? Lost Arc?

I swear I've seen this before.....hhhhmmm *light bulb going off

Got it! Its because this has BEEN DONE BEFORE AND FAR BETTER THAN THIS!

Starting my actual review now, Prince of Persia directed by Mike Newell and staring Jake Gyllenhaal (jill-en-hall) as our hunky eye candy Dastan, Gemma Arterton (who could double as Data's sister from STTNG) as Princess Tamina, and Sir Ben Kingsley (not sure if I can forgive you for this on Ben) as Nizam.

I would like to take this time to point out that so far all these characters are of Caucasian decent, and 2 out of the 3 talk in this movie as in real life, with an English accent. I mean was this all Hollywood could come up with? Are we as a nation that afraid of seeing middle eastern actors on screen in the US? A debate for another day perhaps but for now, lets all say together...P-E-R-S-I-A. Say it with me now, come on guys, PERSIA. :)

I think the powers at be decided it would be a really swell idea to raid a halloween superstore! (ok I am totally guilty of that too) Throw a bunch of half-rate low budget wigs on these actors and just call it a day. Look now their Persian! I can hear it now, "Hey just pull out those cheap wigs for these guys Tom and get this movie made baby! Now action!"

Stunts in this movie were so freakin corny I was cracking up non stop, and the hits just kept coming. I mean of course every time you need an exact length of rope to jump off a roof while escaping the bad guys, it just happens to be there. I mean duh.

Jake, baby, your hot but honey your not that hot. I didn't buy any of it. No deal. Your acting sucked and your stunts were even worse. Was that really the best accent you could come up with? Give it up to your stunt double though. Just you stand there and look pretty sweetie. Smile and wave boys, just smile and wave. :)

Gemma, why don't you ever have facial expressions? Is it a medical issue? Come on. This was the same character from Clash of The Titans (which also sucked) and I am just not feeling it. Give me some depth in your work, be an actress. Believe you can fly! Believe you can touch the sky! *dang now i want to hear that song.

Alfred Molina played the character of Sheik Amar, a bad rip off of Jake Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. Sorry dude you just cant fill those shoes, Johnny's got it on lock!

Green Screen. Man on man this movie was over the top with the green screen action, you couldn't even pretend it was real. Fake and fake and shake and bake. And I have so seen this set at Epcot in Florida, walked thorough it in fact. Glad to know Disney spared no expense on this one. Ata-boy.

If by now your still unsure about my review let me spell it out, this movie bombed the big one. Pass it up and watch The Mummy, at least Brandon Fraiser is funny. Sorry you had to pay for this one V, I got you next time.

KD