Movie Talk : Ender's Game

 Hello, everyone! It's been a while since I posted a movie talk so now I'd like to do so. The movie that we're gonna be talking about in this post is Ender's Game

I've known about this movie I think even before this movie came out in 2013 because I really like both Asa Butterfield who played Ender and Hailee Steinfeld who played Petra, and I remember I was looking forward to watching it and I watched it right around the time it came out. I remember liking the visual effects, the acting was pretty good too but my 14-year-old brain somehow didn't really catch the whole meaning behind the story. I watched it again not too long ago on Netflix and the story was actually really deep. Without further ado, here's what the movie is about.

(Spoiler Warning for those of you who haven't watched the movie or read the book)

Ender's Game is a movie based on a novel by Orson Scott Card with the same name, it tells a story about a futuristic earth, 50 years after the attack of an alien force called Formic. Earth forces (with the shot from Mazer Rackham, a part of the pilot in the air force) managed to back down Formic until they were almost defeated and went back to their home planet. To prevent future attacks from happening, earth forces trained gifted teenagers in International Fleet. The story centers around an unusually gifted teenager named Ender Wiggin who caught the attention of Colonel Hyrum Graff and Major Gwen Anderson. The story really began when Ender was brought to the Battle School in space. Ender was treated like he was "the chosen one" by Graff and because of that treatment, he was bullied by the other teenagers in the Battle School. Ender developed his skills really quick in Battle School, climbing his ranks from a new cadet in Battle School (where he met some of his friends Bean, Bernard, Dink, and Alai), being a part of the Salamander Team which was the best team in the whole Battle School where he met Petra, the only girl in the team and his closest friend, and commanding his own team called Dragon Team consisted of his friends. 

His quick development, his being top of the class, and his defeating every other team in Battle School caused his rival and former commander, Bonzo to be jealous and attack Ender. But that attack countered on Bonzo because Ender who was cornered fought back and that made Bonzo terribly injured. Ender who was full of guilt and stress, told Graff that he quit the Battle School. Graff kind of panicked because he believed Ender to be the chosen one that can defeat Formic so he did everything he could to bring Ender back, including asking Ender's sister, Valentine, which was his soft spot, to persuade Ender to go back to the Battle School. Ender approved of Graff's request as long as the email communication wasn't blocked so that he could send emails to Valentine. Upon the take-off of the spaceship that took Ender and Graff, Ender was told that he wasn't going back to the Battle School but to somewhere much further which is the front post of the Formic attack 50 years ago near their home planet to start his training to be the commander of the fleet of earth forces in a computerized simulation with his friends, Petra, Bean, Bernard, Alai, and Dink being his squad members, controlling the fleet. There, he also met Mazer Rackham who was believed to be dead after the first attack 50 years ago. Rackham told Ender on Formic having "queens" like insects, meaning that if you shot the queen, you'll also defeat the whole force. 

But the training wasn't easy, Ender and his squad were burnt out because again, they were still teenagers but they had so much pressure to train in such a short time and the fate of humankind was in their hands. On the last day of the training, Ender and his squad managed to actually shoot the whole Formic planet (Star Wars' Death Star style) with the weapon that Petra controlled nicknamed "Little Doctor" to avoid future attacks and basically "graduated" from the training. Not knowing that it wasn't a simulation, they actually managed to eliminate the whole planet and the Formic species. Ender who was in shock at what was happening confronted Graff and Rackham and told them how he was guilty and embarrassed about doing genocide. Graff and Rackham assured Ender that he was doing the right thing but Ender realized that they (as in humans) never actually knew what was the purpose of the attack 50 years ago and he just killed them all. Graff sedated him and when he was unconscious, Ender got a message in his dreams from the last queen of the Formic, telling him of the purpose of "the attack" 50 years ago which was to find a new place to live because their home planet was no longer livable and earth was their destination. Ender woke up and ran to the place in his dream with Petra following closely behind. He promised the last queen to bring its last "fetus" on the journey of finding a new place  for Formic to live and that was how the movie ends.

Now, I'm gonna talk on what I think about that movie now as a 23-year-old. I still have the same opinion on the movie as I was when I was 14, it's an amazing movie. The storyline is really good, your typical dystopian world and a rumor or prophecy about a teenager to save the world. This movie reminded me of how great of an actor Asa Butterfield really is because it's been a while since the last time I watched his works. He was so damn cool, commanding those fleets and he could depict how his personality being a battle strategist and a kind-hearted teenage boy collided, also how he regretted his action in destroying their home planet. I can see how bad he actually felt when he realized what he did. The thing that I just realized upon rewatching the movie is how tragic it really was for a teenager to be a genocidal killer. When in reality, of course, that's not what he meant to do but he was still the one who commanded the final shot. Teenagers who shouldn't be the ones executing the mind and the wishes of people older than them. That was really sad to me that they were actually also the victim of adults' plans.     

I think what he said on when he finally understood what his enemies feelings, he also grew to love them is very beautiful. Because the ones that on the other side of the attack are aliens and you didn't know what they wanted and we just attacked them. And once you understood their motives for what they did, you can't help but feel guilty when it's a very innocent reason like finding a new place to live. I feel like the showrunners of a certain TV show called "Game of Thrones" needed to learn from Ender himself on how to understand a "foreign" enemy and not just kill it straight away when their backstory and motives of them is very important on how to defeat them. (Yes, I'm still pissed because of season 8). But anyway, this is not about Game of Thrones, this is about Ender's Game, and my overall thought on it, is what I said earlier, an amazing movie with great special effects and CGI, but it has such a tragic storyline and it has good values that we can learn from.

Anyway that's it for this Movie Talk, and I'll see you on another post!