Ender's Game
(2013)
(MINOR SPOILERS) Ender’s Game
arrives on screen awash with controversy, although little of it relates to the
film itself. No doubt there are fans of the book dissatisfied with yet another
Hollywood adaptation scooping up and spitting out a mangled version of their
beloved text. The negative press mostly relates to author Orson Scott Card’s
rampant homophobia, and has subsequently overwhelmed any conversation regarding
the movie. I’ll try not to do likewise. So here’s my verdict on Ender’s Game, the movie; it’s… well,
it’s okay.
The only Orson Scott Card I've read is his novelisation of The Abyss, a long time ago back when I
was genuinely a fan of James Cameron and lapped up anything connected to his
films. Apparently Ender’s Game
represented a challenge of "unfilmable" proportions (often a
pronouncement on tomes subsequently turned into average movies), because so
much of it is predicated on the point of view of Ender and so exists in his
head. That, and its paedo-friendly content.
First published in 1985, the novel concerns mankind’s war
with an insectoid species (known as Buggers there, and Formics in the film). In
order to defeat the aliens once and for all, the military takes an unusual
tack; they enlist children. It seems that their supple young minds give them a
tactical advantage against the enemy. One of these whippersnappers is Ender
Wiggin (Asa Butterfield). He shows such aptitude and anticipation of his
opponents’ behaviour that Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) really thinks he could
be “the one” (I don’t know to what extent Card’s novel uses this kind of
messianic language, but there’s been such an overkill of “chosen” heroes in
recent years that they should have given the theme a wide berth). Much of the
film concerns the ups-and-downs of Ender’s boot camp training, as the juniors
are prepared for eventual confrontation with the real enemy; this takes the
form of zero-gravity war games and computer battle simulations.
The kids have been aged-up by a few years from the novel.
There were probably a slew of good reasons for this, but the most valid one (finding
young actors who could deliver consistently strong performances) achieves
variable results. Butterfield's not bad; he’s certainly better here than in Hugo (when he’d have been about the age of
the novel’s Ender). Perhaps fortunately for him, the script is so perfunctory that
he can't really be blamed for failing to emote the anger, conflict, and all-important
empathy Ender feels towards his foes. It quickly becomes clear that the movie
is paying lip service to the themes and plot progressions of the source
material. As a result it devolves into a series of recognisable tropes; triumph
over bullying; conflict with superiors; persevering and rising to leadership
through tests. Depictions of cadet training will forever look to the Full Metal Jacket standard and come up
short; this isn’t even close (Nonso Anozie’s no bullshit Sergeant Dap is a big
cuddly podgeball compared to R Lee Ermy).
Here’s the thing; there are some reasonably strong ideas in
the movie, but they're ironed out into "and then this happens"
moments. Ender’s rise from outcast to leader is all-too easy and, when his
refusal to fight any more is laughably resolved by Graff’s acquiescence to his
demand for the return of email privileges, it starts to resemble an adolescent Top Gun, unable to meet the material’s
aspirations towards depth.
Of which, Ender’s Game seems to be actively scoring points
in Philosophy Class. There’s a debate over the justification of the utilitarian
position that appears to be central. The military takes the view that the
sacrifices (of the kids’ childhoods, of the alien species) are valid because
the outcome is the preservation of humankind. Ender, through his pervasive
empathy (but also his capacity for violence; it is his “love” for his enemy
that allows him to defeat his enemy) arrives at a different position; he does
not contend that the actions of his superiors are flat-out wrong (a
deontological approach, dealing in moral absolutes), rather that their reasons
are. By the close of the picture, he appears to display the traits of virtue
ethics (where one’s inner values make one moral, and one’s actions are an
extension of character rather than the defining factor of one’s morality). While the horribly trite final lines
(something about seeing if he can broker peace as effectively as he can wage
war) might suggest a morally absolute approach, they really reflect only the engagement
of Ender’s now virtuous state. That these themes tend translate in a pedestrian
or platitudinous manner may be either a consequence of the compression of the
novel or simply because Card didn’t have much going on in the first place.
Nevertheless, this is consistently watchable. Perversely,
that’s in part because of all the
tried-and-tested clichés it should really have been avoiding. It’s hard to go
too far wrong with the "He's the One" blueprint (well, you’d think).
The basic training and strategy games are effectively realised; director (and
screenplay writer) Gavin Hood does a tremendous job making the Zero G fights
visually coherent and engaging. The bullyboys are appropriately hissable (Moises
Arias deserves particular credit for his loathsome performance) and the
reaction of the adults, although entirely predictable (Harrison keeps shouting
about the highest scores ever, Viola Davis waffles concerns for the poor boy’s
soul), adds a spur to the proceedings. Later, the simulations descend into
any-movie CGI spaceships and explosions. These are indistinct in design and
uninspired in execution. It also seems that video games of the future have
graphics up to the standard of that Final
Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie now more than a decade old.
The result of this aggressively formulaic approach is the
feeling that the "violence is bad" message (or rather, the “violence
is bad under certain circumstances but we’re a bit vague and ineffectual about
what they are” message) is just window-dressing for how cool it is to blow shit
up. Which may help to explain why this is suggested reading for the US Marines.
It’s curious that Ender’s comes out
the same year as After Earth, another
filming apparently extolling the virtues of a “hard love” upbringing as a means
for the boy to become a better man. Perhaps this is all a warm-up to reintroducing
the draft.
Amongst the mish-mash of subtexts are some rather clumsy
parallels between the conflict with the Formics (is insectoid the only sort of
alien these days?) and the US’s policy towards the Middle East. Underlining
this, Ender makes pals with a Muslim boy who greets him on each occasion with
"As-salamu alaykum". Is
there a nascent suggestion here that well-intentioned Ender (the US) will lead
all nationalities, races and cultures (his squadron, the aliens) to a glorious
and better future? Maybe the producers were just extra-alert to the furore surrounding
Card and tried to make the film as contrastingly inclusive as possible. Such
sops do nothing to make it distinctive in its own right, though. Ender even
makes friends with a ginger.
Harrison Ford is present and just about correct. He isn't quite
asleep, which is something, but it's increasingly distracting how his nose appears
to be spreading steadily to the right. There's also a scene where a bit of food
on his chin disappears one shot later. It’s easy to be distracted when
post-‘80s Harrison is on the screen. Ben Kingsley can now retire content in the
knowledge that there are no nationalities or ethnic groups left for him to
play.
There’s certainly no reason not to make controversial
material into something very different, or to steer clear of adapting a dodgy
author’s work unless that work itself is intrinsically loathsome. Even then,
Paul Verhoeven retooled Robert Heinlein’s pro-fascist novel Starship Troopers into a superb satire
of the same. The problem with Ender’s
Game is that it isn’t really much of anything. Gavin Hood is forgiven for
all things X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(which were probably only partly his fault) but this picture’s strongest ideas
and themes are ultimately anaesthetised.
***