With the school year coming to an end, we decided to show a movie at the end of the most recent unit we have been working on. It was a sci-fi/space adventure unit and it actually had a possible “long” read offered of Orson Scott Card’s novel, Ender’s Game. We decided to show the movie to the seventh graders.

I hadn’t seen Ender’s Game since it was in the theaters back in 2013, so I was excited to get a chance to see it again. I remember liking it, but not loving it.

The cast of this film was extraordinary, starting with Asa Butterfield as Ender and Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff. These two had tremendous chemistry and carried much of the film. The actresses that played Valentine and Petra drove me nuts at first because I knew I recognized them but I just could not place their youthful faces. After a check on IMDB, I realized that Valentine was Abigail Breslin and Petra was Hailee Steinfeld. They were both great. The movie also included Ben Kingsley, Nonso Anozie and Viola Davis. Great actors in this film.

The special effects and the shots were spectacular as well. It looked beautiful and stunning at every moment. The animation of the mind game was a little uncanny valley, but it was supposed to be, showing the difference between this game world and the real world.

I did have some problems, basically with the script. It felt like there were too many moments that were rushed, as if they needed to cut things out to fit it in the film, and because of that, some scenes which were meant to be more impactful, ended up less so than it could have been.

One example was a scene between Ender and Sgt. Dap (Nonso Anozie) where Ender was being a particularly annoying child. Dap screamed at him to shut up and that he would never salute Ender. Then it felt like ten minutes later that Dap was doing that very thing. It was meant to be a powerful moment, but Ender did not seem to have earned that salute in any way, so the powerful moment felt a bit flat.

The conclusion of the film is sensational and Asa Butterfield is excellent at this moment. The eyes of Butterfield were remarkable, constantly right on the verge of being filled with tears while reflecting the light perfectly. The close-up visuals of Ender always worked.

The message is not ignored in Ender’s Game and, in fact, could be argued that it is as important to the film as anything else.

The students of my class seemed to enjoy the film, as every class that I showed this to asked if there was a sequel. I pointed out the book series while telling them that this was the only movie. One girl told me that she wanted Ender and Petra to get married… that she shipped them.

In the end, the film was pretty good. Yes, I think some of the writing needed some work and some of the moments did not feel as earned as it should have, but Ender’s Game was still a fun time among sci-fi films made for both kids and adults.