If I had read the book prior to seeing Ender's Game, I think I would have been extremely disappointed. A few days after, I came across a copy and decided to peruse the first chapter only to discover inaccuracy after inaccuracy of the film version in comparison to its literary counterpart. The first, and perhaps most noticeable flaw, is that Ender at the commencement of the book is six years old. The only way the actor portraying Ender, Asa Butterfield (I laughed out loud for a significant amount of time when I found out that was his name), who played Hugo in last year's blockbuster, could be accepted as a six-year-old would be if he were one with a serious hormonal imbalance. Otherwise I'd put him at nine- eight at the absolute youngest- or 12 at the oldest. This inaccuracy seems perfectly reasonable to me, however; it is bizarre enough in text to have a six-year-old doing the mature things that Ender does. The director explains his casting choice than I ever could in this interview from the LA Times:
"We tried actors from age 7 all the way to age 14, and the younger actors, even though there were some really good ones, it was very hard to find an actor that could be both awkward and shy and withdrawn at the beginning the way Ender is, a bit of an outsider, and yet by the end come through with this moment where he says, “You lied!” And this roar comes from this boy who’s now a man and literally stops someone like Harrison Ford in his tracks. Some of the younger kids would go, “You lied!” [in a high-pitched baby voice], and it just didn’t work. And I was sweating. Fortunately when Asa came in, I think we caught him just at the moment when he was on the cusp of becoming a young man, but he’s still a boy, and we shot in sequence, to help him and frankly to help us, because he grew 2 inches even while shooting. The challenges were all a bit more daunting than we probably realized when we started…. We needed a highly intelligent actor who’s also intrinsically compassionate and empathetic, because you can’t really fake that, and is slightly geeky because he’s not a jock, and yet is believable as someone who can throw a punch when he has to. I think we were just very lucky to find Asa, who is highly intelligent, genuinely humble and could do the physical work in the wires, because we also had to do put these kids into wires, and they had to do gymnastics to achieve the stuff we needed for zero gravity — a lot of demands for a young actor."
"We tried actors from age 7 all the way to age 14, and the younger actors, even though there were some really good ones, it was very hard to find an actor that could be both awkward and shy and withdrawn at the beginning the way Ender is, a bit of an outsider, and yet by the end come through with this moment where he says, “You lied!” And this roar comes from this boy who’s now a man and literally stops someone like Harrison Ford in his tracks. Some of the younger kids would go, “You lied!” [in a high-pitched baby voice], and it just didn’t work. And I was sweating. Fortunately when Asa came in, I think we caught him just at the moment when he was on the cusp of becoming a young man, but he’s still a boy, and we shot in sequence, to help him and frankly to help us, because he grew 2 inches even while shooting. The challenges were all a bit more daunting than we probably realized when we started…. We needed a highly intelligent actor who’s also intrinsically compassionate and empathetic, because you can’t really fake that, and is slightly geeky because he’s not a jock, and yet is believable as someone who can throw a punch when he has to. I think we were just very lucky to find Asa, who is highly intelligent, genuinely humble and could do the physical work in the wires, because we also had to do put these kids into wires, and they had to do gymnastics to achieve the stuff we needed for zero gravity — a lot of demands for a young actor."
The
smallest details irk me in films these days. One detail that I'm sure hardly
anyone else notices is when casts are so overly diverse that it is no longer
believable. I'm all for the whole melting pot, ethnic and gender diversity,
let's love and hug everyone thing, but not when it becomes so obvious that it
becomes the main focus. In the scene where Ender departs Earth in a shuttle to
head off to the battle training space station, blue-eyed, extremely Caucasian
Ender is seated among Indians, Asians, African-Americans, white kids with every
hair color you could imagine...so many ethnicities it is overwhelming. So, we
have this over-the-top level of diversity, yet some of the children fall into
the most blatant stereotypes you can imagine. Example: the two bully characters
are burly, chubby, piggy-eyed and not-too-bright boys (picture in your mind's
eye Crabbe and Goyle from the Harry Potter movies, if you've seen them). The
Indian boys are academic geniuses, and the Hispanic boy is pushy, overbearing,
has an unbridled Napoleon complex, a thick accent and his dialogue is sprinkled
with Spanish profanities ("Que pasa, pendejo?"). To be fair, these blatant
generalizations may be accurate to the text; it just happened to be something
that stood out like Larry the Cable Guy in a yoga class.
Like ripping off a bandage, it's time to get the unpleasant but necessary aspect of writing a brief plot summary out of the way. Earth is in turmoil (when isn't it these days?) after barely surviving an alien invasion. To avoid a future encounter with the Formics (the name of the giant bug-like species that nearly wiped out humanity), a division of the military is bringing children to a battle school in space to train them to be merciless warriors. However, the head hanchos of this division still seek a leader for the kiddie army. This is where Ender Wiggin comes in. This is an underdog story in a sense- Ender starts off as a lanky, shy wallflower and the third child to his parents. Apparently, all of future Earth will be pulling a China and limiting the amount of kids couples can have. Since Ender's older siblings showed promise for being the prophesied leader but eventually failed, his parents were allowed to have a third kid.
After years of observing his personality, demeanor and overall actions, Colonel Graff and Major Gwen Anderson (Harrison Ford and Viola Davis, respectively), decide that Ender is the child they wish to mould (aka corrupt) to be the leader of the child army and bring salvation to the world by defeating the insect army. According to Colonel Graff and the others observing the Formics, time is running out as the enemy is planning an offensive maneuver against Earth. Dun, dun, dun! No time to lose! So much suspense, and all that. Thus, after informing him that he is the "chosen one" so to speak, Ender heads off to space for training. Throughout his formative experience, he learns of corruption among the militant leaders, grows and develops just as you'd expect in a coming of age tale, and discovers the importance of peace in a war torn world.
Wow, that felt worse than your typical bandage removal- that bandage was one of the heavy duty, sweat proof, water proof, acid rain proof, apocalypse proof (that is a lot of proofs) ones sealed with superglue to the arm of a hairy caveman. Ok, maybe I am being a tad dramatic. Cinematically, Ender's Game is laden with engaging and stimulating visuals. The CGI folks did a surprisingly good job of adding emotion to the dark, beady, orb-like eyes of the insect-like Formic queen to the point. I could almost empathize with the alien's plight to the point where, if I saw that insect in real life, I may put away my can of Raid (I felt the need to tie in my blog title. Accomplished.) after beholding such eyes.
I'd say wait for Redbox for this one, unless you are seriously inclined to see Harrison Ford with an atrocious haircut on the big screen.
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| Not your best look, Harrison |
