Shall we play a game?
“Ender’s Game” will soon be bringing tweenage sci-fi mayhem to the big screen, and the initial trailer shows off the film’s high-tech, space-set action and the same gruff, bored-sounding narration skills that Harrison Ford previously displayed in “Blade Runner.”
After aliens known as Formics ravage Earth, the world’s most gifted children are selected to be trained by International Fleet Commander Mazer Rackham (a tattooed Ben Kingsley) and Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) at a high-tech space station in order to learn the necessary skills to defeat the Formics once and for all. Ender Wiggin (“Hugo’s” Asa Butterfield) is the best of the bunch, and he may be humanity’s only hope.
Based on Orson Scott Card’s bestseller of the same name, “Ender’s Game” pre-dates such recent teen sci-fi/fantasy book adaptations as “Twilight,” “The Hunger Games,” and the upcoming “Divergent,” but focuses less on budding romance and more on futuristic action, cruel mind games and heavy political overtones.
The film may tone things down a bit, but hopefully won’t lose what made the book (and its sequels) stand out from other, similar fare. However, the trailer features little-to-no indication of the “games” in which Ender takes part (with or without his knowledge), nor is there any explanation of his siblings’ crucial roles in the narrative, although the film will obviously include them.
Instead, Director Gavin Hood (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) seems to relish the relentless danger that Ender and his fellow recruits face in the virtual world of the “battle room,” which looks like a cross between “Tron” and the X-Men’s Danger Room.
The rest of the supporting cast includes a number of Oscar nominees, including Hailee Steinfeld (“True Grit”), Viola Davis (“The Help”), and Abigail Breslin “(Little Miss Sunshine”).
What do you think of the trailer? Are you excited for the film?