Ender’s Game review

Director: Gavin Hood

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, Anson Mount, Aramis Knight

Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi novel is one I haven’t read and my only pre-existing knowledge of the plot came from the trailers. Director Gavin Hood has seen some ups and downs in his career. Tsotsi did well but his only action film besides Ender’s Game was the disastrous superhero prequel X-Men Origin: Wolverine. Ender’s Game is easily a step above Origins it’s not quite the big sci-fi event we were hoping for.

50 years before the time of Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), ant like aliens called Formics come to Earth armed with a huge and deadly army of spaceships. They are defeated by the primitive humans only by the courage and self sacrifice of young pilot Mazer Rackham (Kingsley). Now International Fleet’s Hyrum Graff (Ford) is immorally recruiting young geniuses like Ender to join a new brand of tactical fighters who train in competing teams on a zero g battleground to distinguish the greatest.

I was expecting Ender’s Game to be much more of a visual spectacle the it was. The gravity lacking battle area sequences are impressive and the sweeping shots of alien planets are half decent but there’s a couple of scenes (most obviously Ender and Petra’s – Hailee Steinfeld – first training sequence which looks like they added in a couple of shots to strengthen Ender and Petra’s relationship) that aren’t up to scratch. They’re not as bad as RIPD but I expected more from the $110 million budget however I’m glad they went for a practical monster effect at the end instead of a cheap CG one.

Another key issue is the lack of threat. All the time it just seems like Ender and a load of kids playing non-brutal war games so there’s little action to invest in. It’s like The Hunger Games except nobody dies and the winner gets a job in the army.

Beside this, the young performances are great. Butterfield manages to pull off being a cold an detached person as well as one you want to see triumph over his tormentors. He and Steinfeld are good but they’re better in their more successful lead roles in Hugo (for Butterfield) and True Grit (Steinfeld’s Western hit). Aramis Knight is good as one of Ender’s supporting trainees on the programme but the rest of the Dragon team are a little bland.

Four of the most interesting characters in the film, Ender’s trainers (Davis and Ford), Mazer Rackham (Kingsley failing at a poor New Zealand accent) and Ender’s sister Valentine (Breslin), are given tiny roles and you want to see more of them. They give good performances but almost all of their lines are in the trailers.

I’m not a fan of everything this film implies, although it all comes from a book written by one of today’s most controversial figures. The higher up in the ranks the fewer girls there are; there’s only one girl in Salamander – the fleets most successful training team. Also, every important character is American. This noticeably biased and sexist film often seems to be going don’t worry feeble other countries, America has the solution to our intergalactic problems but there’s countless Hollywood productions that go down that road.

There’s a good twist in the film but you get where it’s going five minutes before it happens. Other than that, it plays out much how you expect and there’s not much to get excited about other than the two central performances who shine through despite a weak script. The CG is ok but it’s’ still fairly engaging. Some of the tone, particularly the same army traditions of Earth going into outer space, and sense of our immorality makes is a solid sci-fi film.

7/10

“Even if it’s a legitimate question, sir?”

New Hobbit 2 posters and trailer, Disney plans Cruella De Vil film and the must-sees of October 2013

October 2013 through to January 2014 is bringing us some big releases. This feature will be guiding you along and giving you the opportunity t start filling in your film diary.

October:

The Fifth Estate – Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, the last two Twilight films) directs the true recent story of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The British actor of the moment Benedict Cumberbatch (The Hobbit, Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness) takes the lead role while Spanish star Daniel Bruhl (Rush, The Bourne Ultimatum) plays tech-obsessed activist Daniel Domscheit-Berg as they set out extracting secrets from whistleblowers across the world and publishing them online. Carice van Houten (Repo Men, Valkyrie) and Peter Capaldi (World War Z and the new Doctor Who) also star. OCT 11th

Emperor – Tommy Lee Jones (Men In Black, Lincoln, No Country for Old Men) and Matthew Fox star in Peter Webber’s (Girl With A Pearl Earring) WW2 drama about the two leads character’s deciding the fate of surrendered Japanese Emperor’s daughter Hirohito (Eriko Hatsune). OCT 4th

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 – Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn are the directors of the animated sequel to the 2009 oddball family comedy. James Caan, Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Adam Sandberg are the stars of a plot that sees all the animals in the safe-haven of Swallow Falls turn into bizarre food-animal hybrids. OCT 25th

Captain Phillips – Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan) is the title character in the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and his ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates. Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone) is the director of the hostage thriller that could see him and Hanks in  contention for Oscars. OCT 18th

Machete Kills – Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) directs this action sequel. Danny Trejo (Breaking Bad) returns in a plot that sees his character, Machete, thrown back into action when the US Government appoints him with the task of charging into Mexico and taking down on of the US’s most wanted drug lords. Pop-star Lady Gaga stars in a revamped cast featuring Amber Heard (Drive Angry, Zombieland), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar, Fast and Furious) and Carlos Estevez (AKA Charlie Sheen) as the US President. OCT 11th

Ender’s Game – Scott Orson Card’s sci-fi novel is finally adapted into a big-budget action film. Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield – Hugo) is a seemingly ordinary teen whose chosen to go to outer space and begin training as one of the first of a new breed of war commanders who must fight back against the impending alien threat. Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones), Sir Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3, Gandhi, Hugo), Viola Davis (The Help), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) also star in Gavin Hood’s (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) space set thriller.

Romeo and Juliet – The aforementioned Steinfeld also has a lead role in this Shakespeare adaptation. If you don’t know the plot 1) HOW??? 2) Romeo Montague (Douglas Booth) falls for Juliet Capulet (Steinfeld) but their protective head of one of the rivalling famlies Lord Capulet (Damian Lewis) prevents them from meeting so Romeo’s friend Friar Laurence (Paul Giamatti) concocts a dangerous plan to get the romantic pair together. Ed Westwick and Kodi Smit-McPhee also star in the period drama that has a Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey, The Young Victoria) script to it’s name. OCT 11th

You’ll have heard plenty about Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World in recent months. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Jaimie Alexander, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and Stellan Skarsgard all play roles in a plot that sees Norse god brothers heroic Thor and sinister Loki forced to team-up to end the potential destruction caused by revived evil race the Dark Elves and their diabolical leader Malekith (30th). October also brings the release of horror sequel V/H/S/2 (14th). There’s also Dexter Fletcher’s Proclaimers based, Scottish, comedy musical Sunshine on Leith (4th). Ken Jeong, Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph, Michelle Rodriguez, Bill Hader, Michael Pena, Samuel L Jackson, Luis Guzman and Snoop Dogg are all voicing characters in the story of a snail who dreams of becoming the fastest thing in the world titled Turbo (18th). James Corden and Julie Walters star in the true story of Paul Potts as he aspires to become a world renowned opera singer. His dreams are crushed over and over again until he auditions for the little known, in 2007 that is, talent show Britain’s Got Talent in One Chance (25th). Finally, we’ve got stupid, crass daredevil sequel Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (23rd). Our coverage of each month’s must-sees continues at the beginning of November with the November must-sees featuring Gravity, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Counsellor, Grace of Monaco, Last Vegas, The Family, Kill Your Darlings, Escape Plan, Philomena, Dom Hemingway and many more.

Cruella De Vil was the iconic villain of 101 Dalmations. She’s now set to have her own spin-off film. This seems to be part of Disney’s apparent plan to turn a lot of their animated classics into more grown-up live-action films. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was the first and it’s been followed by Rupert Sander’s Snow White and the Huntsman and the upcoming Maleficent (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty directed by Robert Stromberg and starring  Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning) and Cinderella (Kenneth Branagh directing with Lily James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter and Cate Blanchett building up the cast). Aline Brosh McKenna (writer of The Devil Wears Prada and We Bought a Zoo) has been hired to script the film as well as Branagh’s Cinderella.

Moving on, we’ve got fresh new The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug posters for you to admire.

Director Peter Jackson’s imagery is as stunning as ever in these character teasing banners. At the bottom, we’ve got returning company members Kili (Aidan Turner), Fili (Dean O’Gorman), Dwalin (Graham McTavish), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman). Above them is the ever menacing presence of the Elven King Trandruil (Lee Pace). At the top we find a more cryptic poster. We know that it’s the legendary Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) with the bow in the foreground. Behind him we find the Master of Laketown (Stephen Fry) accompanied by a more sinister, knife wielding figure. Much internet searching in my behalf as to who this actor or his character is has been fruitless so I challenge YOU to wildly guess his true identity in the comments.

Following the posters was an epic new trailer for the film which you can find over at The Verge. Anyone trying to avoid any plot details of the film (seeing as it does now differ from original book by JRR Tolkien) may want to skip to the next paragraph. Sauron is in it! The return of Lord of the Rings’ big bad was teased by The Necromancer in the previous film, An Unexpected Journey, but his eye does flash up on the screen. His distinctive orc army also looks like it’ll make an appearance in the dark land of Mordor. We’re also teased more of likely the most terrifying dragon in recent film history in the form of the titular villain Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch). The Desolation of Smaug looks like it could be a more open with roaming special effects rather than An Unexpected Journey which was, at time, a little cramped into tight sets and the adventure really got going as soon as we got out of the enclosed areas.

“His name is Bilbo!”

Cruella De Vil – 2016?

Cinderella – March 13th 2015

Maleficent – May 30th 2014

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – December 13th

The November Preview Special – Early November here on Tuorhoth Movies

Great new Ender’s Game poster, Marvel’s Runaways and Batman’s Jim Gordon in FOX/DC spin-off TV series

The role of Commissioner Jim Gordon seemed an unimportant one until Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy which revolutionized the franchise. Oscar nominee Gary Oldman (Leon, Harry Potter, The Fifth Element, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) played Gordon from 2005 to 2012 making it his best known role. FOX have now expressed interest in giving Jim Gordon his own spin-off TV show.

It’s clear that it won’t be part of either the Christopher Nolan Bat-Verse or Zack Snyder’s DC world, seeing as the rights for the universe that Ben Affleck’s Bat and Henry Cavill’s Superman share are over at Warner Bros. So that means that Oldman won’t be a part of the series that seems like a similar project to Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD (which starts this Friday). It’s the story of the hero who has no superpowers, ramming home the message of “It’s what we do that defines us!”,  Batman (and Rachel’s) quote throughout Batman Begins. It’ll also show his rising through the ranks but they’ve got to through in some of Batman’s many infamous villains (e.g: The Riddler, the Penguin and the many others that haven’t been used for decades) otherwise it’ll just be a generic cop-show that happens to be set in Gotham. Will Bruce Wayne be a supporting player with everyone, par the audience, not knowing who he is? Is Harvey Dent (and later Two-Face going to) going to be a supporting figure? Tell us in the comments what should and shouldn’t be in FOX’s Gotham.

One two occasions (just before Iron Man was released in 2008 and in 2010 when Peter Sollett, director of Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, was appointed), an adaptation of the fairly unknown Marvel comic-book series The Runaways (the story of six unrelated children who discover that they’re respective parents are criminal supervillains, who’s powers are genetically inherited by the children who decide to end their elder’s schemes with them) seemed ready to go. The whole thing seems to have stalled because of 2012’s Avengers Assemble. It became apparent that the classic Marvel heroes (X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, Captain America, Hulk) were the box-office, and usually critical, hits while some of the more unknown ones (Daredevil, Elektra, Blade) were all hammered by the critics. The more famous the hero the bigger the cinema market now seemed to be the approach so unheard of stories like The Runaways were shifted over for more Cap, Iron Man and Thor sequels as well as Ant-Man, Black Panther and Dr Strange.

Drew Pearce (writer of Marvel’s Iron Man 3 and comedy show No Heriocs as well as the announced sequels Sherlock Holmes 3 and Mission: Impossible 5) “It’s there. Maybe it’ll be a Phase Three movie. I really hope so. I’m really proud of it and I think it’ll be a brilliant film, but I think it all depends what Kevin Feige’s (Marvel Studios President) master plan is.”

Finally, we have a glorious new Ender’s Game poster. Asa Butterfield (Hugo, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas), Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Blade Runner), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Romeo and Juliet), Viola Davis (The Help, Disturbia), Sir Ben Kingsley (Iron Man 3, Gandhi, Shutter Island) and Abigail Breslin (Signs, Little Ms Sunshine, Zombieland) make up a cast that boasts 9 Oscar nominations, including one win. If director Gavin Hood plays his cards right, it could be the sci-fi hit of the year. Thanks for reading and bye!

Gotham – 2014 on FOX

Ender’s Game – October 25th