Solid sci-fi action with deeper-than-typical thematic exploration of the protagonist’s psychology and whether the ends justify the means. Given controversial author Orson Scott Card wrote the book decades before the current crop of young adult coming-of-age-while-saving-the-world fantasy (Harry Potter, Hunger Games, etc.), it’s interesting to observe the debt the later writers owe on plot, characterization, etc. Asa Butterfield redeems his Hugo (2011) turn in the titular role (streets better than Jake ‘annoying Anakin’ Lloyd who was under consideration for the part), while Harrison Ford shows us what Han Solo might have become if the civil war never ended, and Ben Kingsley epic fails at a New Zealand accent.
Tag Archives: Harry Potter
Ender’s Game (2013, dir. Gavin Hood): solid yet flawed adaptation of the beloved sci-fi coming-of-age novel
Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows Part 2 (2011, dir. David Yates): among the superior HP films, themselves better than the books, but that’s a low bar
The fanboys (and girls) will likely be satisfied, and those others of us who trudged through the rest of the movies will find it a more entertaining and quicker-paced conclusion (certainly compared with the insufferably slow Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), and the interminably boring Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)). Things come to an end, but because I didn’t much care about the characters, it really wasn’t very dramatic or triumphant or even sad. Truth be told, I did feel a twinge of regret that the vast resources of money and filmic talent could not have been put toward adapting more worthy material!
WetWareGames 