BEFORE: Back to another sci-fi film released in 2013, for the end of the theme. I've got 68 open slots for films to watch this year, and I've got 45 films from 2013 and 2012 left on the list. However, if I stick to my planned order, I'm only going to get to 27 of them - I've got some coming up soon, then some really classic films for a stretch, and tehn I'll get back to more recent films from Halloween time through the end of Year 6.
Linking from "Solaris", Viola Davis carries over - now do you see why I organized it this way?
AFTER: I remember there was some controversy over making a film based on the work of Orson Scott Card, but I can't remember why. He's a Mormon, and he was against same-sex marriage or something? But there are a lot of people who are against that, how am I supposed to keep track of this sort of thing? Plus, whatever happened to "turn the other cheek"? If someone offends you, I thought you're supposed to forgive them, not just once but seventy times seven times or something. I think we give too much leeway to people who feel oppressed, they shouldn't be allowed to hate in return, because that just compounds the problem, right? If you hate the haters, how are you not a hater yourself?
Anyway, I'm free to judge the movie as I see fit, and I can keep that separate from any personal views that the original author may or may not have had, if I so choose.
What we're dealing with here tonight is the theory that somehow children make the best soldiers, at least in the future where experience with video games and lazer tag, due to their resembling real space combat, comes in quite handy. The film mentions that kids are good at "board games", I don't know why that line wasn't changed to "video games". This is a somewhat logical projection, because doesn't the army now use games like "Call of Duty" to identify potential soldier candidates?
But even if kids in the future are ideal strategists, and even if I assume that Ender is some kind of budding military genius, on par with Napoleon, he's still just a kid. So I have to question the premise. Sure, kids are impressionable - some might even do well in a military environment. But where are all the adults? I get that millions of people were killed in the previous alien invasion, but still, that was fifty years prior - there should be plenty of adults willing to go to war. No matter how I try to justify it, this is still about sending kids into space to kill aliens, or practice to kill aliens.
So the film is on shaky moral ground right from the start - and then things get worse, but in ways I'm not free to talk about. Let's just say there's a lot of debate over what makes a soldier into a soldier, and then what turns a soldier into a military leader. The adults want to see if Ender is really "the chosen one" - so they test his resolve in various underhanded ways. OK, so in order to nurture him into the perfect military genius, they have to lie to him, trick him, and put him through social torture just to make the exact sort of outcast they need. Still not justifiable - the ends do not justify the means.
I'm reminded of the way Anakin Skywalker was regarded as the "chosen one" in the Star Wars saga, and just look at how great THAT turned out. Actually he was perceived as the one to bring "Balance to the Force", and I figured out from Episode I that it might not actually turn out to bring a positive result - after all, there were thousands of Jedi and just 2 Sith - if you try to bring that equation into "balance", it's not going to be pretty.
I'm also reminded of my school years by watching "Ender's Game" - so I'm expecting that the high-school flashback dreams will recur very soon. The physical challenges that Ender goes through in this film remind me of the hell that was gym class - forced to wear unflattering gym shorts in front of my classmates. Like I wasn't already batting zero with girls before that, thanks a lot. Then I have to do what? Climb a rope? Do a pull-up? Look at my body shape, it's not going to happen, you Cro-Magnon gym teachers. Admittedly we sometimes played fun games like Dodgeball and "Pin Bombardment", but if I was forced to run a quarter-mile or a 100-yard dash, I couldn't do it. The class would be over by the time I made it around the course.
Then came the fun of showering in front of other people. Some of whom already had designs on making my life miserable, and now I have to be naked and vulnerable, nearly sightless without my glasses, in front of them? Thanks again for that. Being the largest kid in class meant I was bullied in grade school - there were two cliques in my grade school, and I didn't fit in with either of them, so I mostly hung out with the other unpopular kids, at least we could be miserable and unpopular together.
Things got a little better when I made it to junior high, which combined the kids from the three grade schools in town into one big class. I was able to meet smarter, more pleasant people from other areas of town, instead of the meatheads from the neighborhood I lived in. Turns out there were other smart people from those schools, and as long as I could keep my grades up, I could travel in a better social circle.
Two things happened in high school that really helped me out, even though my grades took a little bit of a dive when tougher subjects like calculus and physics were thrown into the mix. One was that I got really good at standardized test-taking for some reason. Maybe it was all of the crosswords and other puzzles I'd been doing since I was a kid, but I scored really high on the PSATs, even got a small National Merit scholarship for that. And I think that reflected well for the school as well as on my own permanent record, so I had a bit of a reputation as a great test-taker, even if my grades weren't straight A's any more.
The other was that when my voice changed, it went really low, and there was an astounding shortage of singers in the bass range. I sang in the barbershop quartet in the school's production of "The Music Man", and this led to a part in an 8-person mixed Double Quartet group. I even made the District chorus finals a few times, having had no luck getting anywhere playing the clarinet for the orchestra tryouts. The great thing about being in the Quartet was performing in concerts around the state, which meant occasionally getting out of class to do so. Suddenly I had something of an all-access pass, and making it to gym class was a lot less important. Never had to do another failed pull-up.
So anyway, I'm not really buying into this "kids make the best soldiers" deal - but I think most kids should find something that they're good at, and run with it. That can be art, or music, or the chess club, but whatever it is, it helps combat the awkwardness of being a teen.
I'm guessing that the "Game" in the title refers to the video-game that Ender plays in his spare time, which turns out to be somewhat important. Or perhaps it's the "game" that he's forced to play to advance in ranks of a the militaristic society. Or is it the "game" that his instructors/superiors play on him, by not being truthful? I guess it's all of the above.
Also starring Harrison Ford (last seen in "Anchorman 2"), Asa Butterfield (last seen in "Hugo"), Hailee Steinfeld (last seen in "True Grit"), Abigail Breslin (last seen in "The Call"), Ben Kingsley (last seen in "Shutter Island"), Moises Arias, Aramis Knight, Suraj Partha.
RATING: 6 out of 10 fighter jets
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