Dance Team Patrick

When word spread last year about the movie production of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, I was pleasantly surprised. It just didn't seem like a title that would ever be seen on the big screen, nor any of his works for that matter. You see, the science-fiction genre is one of those hit-or-miss areas when it comes to converting books into films. I'm not sure why that is... it just is. Most of your favorite hardcore science fiction movies (Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Predator... Alien vs. Predator... and heck, even Independence Day) were so successful because they weren't selected from a forgotten book series bunched in with the rest of nerdtopia in a bookstore. So taking a story from an often prejudged and overlooked culture and merging it with the pop-culture of sci-fi on the big screen is actually a pretty tall order.

Hailee Stienfield (left) as Petra Arkanian and Asa Butterfield(right) as Ender Wiggin.

To meet that order, the producers are going to need a recognizable and legitimate cast. Harrison Ford? Oh my god, you've already got it made. Asa Butterfield? He's a rising starlet that's sure to be recognized after his A+ role in the heart-wrenching movie Hugo. Now just throw in some new faces to ensure that the screen isn't overloaded with cheesiness and also maintain a workable budget, and you're set. But, of course, there's always the negatives of casting inexperienced faces.

While Ford's acting is always a pleasure to watch, I couldn't help but feel a little awkward when watching some of the others. The performances I observed from the supporting roles was... lacking. Emotions and reactions were either over-dramatized (like Bonzo) or just didn't seem natural, lending to what's known as the "uncanny valley" dilemma, where the agency assigned to characters immediately vanishes the moment when they portray unnatural or inhuman characteristics or actions.

Asa, on the other hand, is a natural. He portrayed the outcast, lone-ranger, extroverted Ender quite well. Most of the time, with younger actors and actresses, I feel like want to turn away out of embarrassment for them when they act out a scene sub-par, but Asa...? The kid's good, that's all there is to it. Now if I could only learn to ignore those ghostly-blue eyes... I mean seriously, I know you know what I'm talking about.

In regards to the special effects (for all those wanna-be critics out there that judge movies and video games based on their "l33t graphix"), I'll give a thumbs up for the portrayal of humanity's technological leaps in the setting. The projected holograms were both cool and believable, and the graphics of the "mind games" were constructed in a way that made it obvious, but fail-proof to the viewer that there was a clear separation between Ender's reality and fantasy. Oh... and the space battles were pretty legit, too.

Another reason for my surprise about Ender's Game making it to the big screen was that Orson Scott Card hasn't exactly been a friendly face in the public eye recently (yes, I feel I must at least touch base on this since... well... you know). Mr. Card has actually become quite known for his staunch conservative political remarks and concrete standing against marriage equality. When Card turned up the heat and kicked on his afterburners during the Supreme Court hearings over DOMA and California's Proposition 8, Harrison Ford and Lionsgate put some space between themselves and the book's author.

Despite reassurances that Card's political leanings had no bearing on the movie, many marriage equality and LGBT activists insisted on boycotting both the movie and all of Card's books. The author was even asked to refrain from a Superman comic title in March. Despite the pressure to nay-say the author, however, the movie ended up dominating the weekend box office upon opening night with $28 million. Maybe some of my extremist friends on the left could learn a thing or two about the ultimate lesson in Ender's Game: