He’s rational and brutal, which is a harder sell on the screen, where every punch carries an unsettling intensity that the director, Gavin Hood, has trouble managing. Ender is singled out because he seems to be a natural leader, which in the logic of both the book and the movie means someone who imposes his will on enemy and friend alike. The adults in “Ender’s Game” come off as exceedingly creepy, despite Mr. He’s 12 in the movie, which doesn’t make that beating any better.

Ender has logically decided that by crushing the other boy, he will prevent future attacks, a prophylactic philosophy that mirrors the authorities’ attitude toward the buggers. In the novel, he is also, shades of the Spartans, 6 when he ships off to battle school, which puts a distinctly ugly spin on a scene in the book in which he methodically brutalizes a bully, kicking the other boy repeatedly, including in the face. The charismatic leader, the divine child, the possible Christ figure or potential Hitler stand-in (according to one notorious, widely circulated reading): Ender Wiggin is an expediently malleable figure. Card’s novel, which he followed with several sequels, has sold a zillion copies. Graff believes that Ender may be the child to lead them all, a sermon he preaches as Ender is tested first on Earth and then in the outer space battle school where the movie gets its game on. When the story opens, Ender (Asa Butterfield) thinks he’s just another runt with a monitor jammed in his neck that allows the authorities, personified by Colonel Graff who, because he’s played by Harrison Ford, should have been called Gruff, and a psychologist, Major Anderson (Viola Davis), to observe each potential warrior’s words, moods and tears. Based on the 1985 science-fiction novel by Orson Scott Card, the movie envisions a future world ruled by a monolithic militaristic government that trains children to fight large insectlike extraterrestrials called Formics or buggers.

Ender's game ender