Monday, November 18, 2013

Movie Review: ENDER'S GAME

I hadn't read ENDER'S GAME in a LOOOONG time.  It wasn't new when I first read the book, but it wasn't terribly old - there were no sequels at that time.  Later came SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, XENOCIDE, and CHILDREN OF THE MIND, and there were the spin-offs and now there are prequels as well.  Back when I was a conference coordinator/moderator at the Book and Candle Pub on the old Delphi Internet Services, we had Mr. Card as a guest - he still was small enough that he did things like that - but most of our conversations concerned other works of his, like his Alvin Maker series and his Homecoming series.  He was an interesting and insightful guest and I enjoyed interacting with him at the time.  But even back then, 20+ years ago, he was talking about the movie version of ENDER'S GAME.

It was neat to see that my boys, aged 13 and 11, liked the book as much as I did (though I was older when I read it).  And finally there IS a movie!  Cool, huh?  We were finally gonna get to see the "Buggers" and watch Ender go through Battle School.

Overall, it was a very well done movie, in my view.  The story came through loud and clear, not subordinated to the special effects scenes.  I felt there was some depth to this story, with exploration of issues like child abuse in a subtle manner.  The special effects were not crazy good nor were they crazy over-the-top.  They served the story without becoming intrusive.

I love science fiction, and I'd probably go see this one again.  Or get it on DVD or Blu-ray.  For what it's worth, I give it a thumbs up.  Probably grade it out to about a B+ or even an A-.  It was worth the long wait for it to finally appear on the big screen.  I hope it's a big success.

*****
If you get a chance, please take a look at my latest offering, 14 Dark Windows, on Amazon for Kindle.  It's a collection of short stories, some horror, some milder with supernatural or horrific elements, some just nice stories, available in ebook form for $2.99!  Thank you!

*******

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