Ender’s Game

I am a lucky boy.

As reported in my post on the subject, my lovely wife and I defied all odds and actually made it through an entire film (Oblivion) two nights ago. This was made all the more amazing because it was a Tom Cruise film – I rarely get past half an hour of that guy.

So why am I a lucky boy?

Because last night I got to watch a second science fiction film in a row! That’s fairly unprecedented, around here. Usually, if we get on a watching streak like this (and a “streak” involves sustained attention on anything longer than an hour in duration, more than one night in a row – we’re tired folk here, at the end of a day), the night after one of “my” movies would be one of “her” movies, which would be just about anything other than science fiction two nights in a row.

But I am also lucky because last night my lovely wife chose to join me in watching Ender’s Game. As recently as a month ago, I read the graphic novel of this very thing. And now here is the DVD from the library, and it is really quite excellent. It’s visually gorgeous, it’s well-acted, and they followed the story well.

Do I recommend you see this? Yes, I do!

[UPDATE: James rightly pointed out (in the comments, below) that the story’s author, Orson Scott Card, holds some interesting views on a couple of hot-button topics. As such, a controversy about which I knew nothing, until James pointed it out, rose around this film. I find that unfortunate, because I didn’t see anything in this film that reflected those views. Would I still recommend you see this film for the fun sf that it is? Yes I would. And now back to the post. A.].

Now, to make this an official KMA post (we’re here to discuss music, not films), I did try to pay attention to the music. It sounded (to me) like fairly typical movie fare. You know that sound I mean. Nothing about the music made it get in the way of the film, but it accompanied the film well. According to Wiki, James Horner was supposed to have done this score, but the work went to Steve Jablonsky. I must admit I didn’t know that name until I looked this up.