Where to start with Enders Game the movie? Based on the book of the same name by Orson Scott Card, the movie made a bit of a bell-curve. Meaning that the acting was best in the middle of the movie, the plot progression was best in the middle of the movie, and the level they stayed true to the novel was highest in the middle as well.

The movie starts off pretty bad. They combine four different scenes from the book and then throw them out the window. What’s supposed to be an altercation in the hallway between Ender and another classmate turns into Ender stabbing a kid while in class with a bone. They destroyed the original dialogue of the fight and made it corny beyond all comparison.

Just when the movie looks like it’s about to get worse—it doesn’t. It makes a comeback, partly due to Harrison Ford’s veteran acting capabilities.

I’d give this movie 7 out of 10 and not a 5, mostly for these two reasons. For one, the mind game. Even though they didn’t really do it correctly, the fact that they did it at all and as closely as they did made it the best part of the movie. It’s supposed to be a game where the story is created by the computer and kid to help evaluate all cadets, ends up being a game only played by Ender.

The movie never does a good job of showing how closely monitored by the teachers they really are, with the exception of this scene. I was truly stunned how artistically they did it. What I thought would be a horror show of bad special affects looked simply beautiful. And when I was watching it I wondered: why not just make a separate movie on this? By far it was the best part of the movie, and it was when they followed the novel almost exactly.

The second best part of the movie was the acting of Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley, especially the last 30 minutes. Even though they destroyed the original dialogue, the duo of Ford and Kingsley were the saving grace of this movie. Harrison Ford had to carry this movie by himself all the way to the last 30 minutes before they introduced Kingsley. As for Asa Butterfield, who was expected to be amazing after playing such good performances in The boy in the Striped Pajamas and Hugo, he was bad and simply unbelievable, up until…you guessed it, the heated dialogue exchange with Ford (where once again Ford had to do all the work). And honestly even though that dialogue doesn’t exist in the novel, it is good it was there because it give Ford more screen time to save this movie.

Asa never played Ender, he basically just played Asa. The movie, which should have been an in depth look into the psyche of young man trying to balance rage and peace, just becomes Asa crying (badly) all the time.

The movie has really great scenes and some scenes that make you question why you are there, but it isn’t worth wasting eight dollars on in a theater. Just wait to rent it.