This cast is crazily famous. Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin are the names that instantly scream out. This is also a second appearance in a much shorter period of time for Harrison Ford and Viola Davis on this blog. This is another film about training children to become soldiers. We know that Viola Davis will be fantastic because she always is and the same can be said for Ben Kingsley and Abigail Breslin so all eyes are really on Harrison Ford. In Cowboys and Aliens he was poor but he was so much better in this film. It's sad to say but it seems like Harrison Ford is loosing his ability to act. The older he gets, the worse he is in movies. With Asa Butterfield always looking more like a kid who is likely to be bullied than a child who is going to stand up to anyone watching the character development in this film makes for a very interesting watch. Admittedly, Harrison Ford isn't a particularly threatening man so it doesn't look like Ender has to be a particularly strong character but only at the end do you realise just how strong he is. This isn't a kid who was pathetic, this is a kid who out thought everyone else, was more intelligent than the others, knew how to work as a team and achieved his potential without regularly being beaten up.
Ben Kingsley isn't evil in this film. There is no designated 'bad guy' in this film so it's not the same plot that features in most movies with the good guy beating up the bad guy.
The biggest question in this film is how far are you willing to go in order to protect yourself? Are you prepared to open fire on a planet that may be a threat but isn't currently possessing any threat to you? When you tell someone that it is a game then it all seems fine and isn't morally questionable but once you realise that it wasn't a game then the ethics and morals are called into question of every leading officer on that ship. Thousands of soldiers died under Ender's command and an entire planet was attacked for no real reason other than they could be a threat. When it was a game Ender was prepared to go as far as the others to win the game but once it became real he wasn't because as he states in the film 'it's about how you win' and not just about winning whatever the cost. With every battles there are casualties but this battle wasn't a necessary one and there were questions over his psychological state. A tactical genius and a fair leader but his nightmares had other things in them, things that led him to possess a different set of morals to some of the others on the ship. He was the best but like so many others in different films, also the worst because he didn't see things and think in the same way that the leaders did.
I liked Ender's Game a lot and cannot fault any of the cast for their performance. Harrison Ford was one hundred times better in this film than he was in Cowboys and Aliens or Star Wars seven. Ender, unlike Tris (Divergent) was not totally dependent on Petra (in the same way that Tris is dependent on Four) and not everything was about him. He was dominant but fair. He was in command but he allowed Petra (Hailee Steinfeld) to train him and he worked with her and his unit to come up with the best solution for everyone. Overall, a very good film.
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