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Ender's Game

Play trailer Poster for Ender's Game PG-13 Released Nov 1, 2013 1h 54m Sci-Fi Adventure Action Play Trailer Watchlist
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63% Tomatometer 224 Reviews 65% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
When hostile aliens called the Formics attack Earth, only the legendary heroics of Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) manage to attain a victory. To prepare for the next attack, Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and his cohorts initiate a military program to find the next Mazer. Recruit Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) exhibits an unusual gift for the training, easily mastering all of the challenges thrown at him. Mazer Rackham, himself, takes Ender as a protege to prepare him for the oncoming war.

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Ender's Game

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Critics Consensus

If it isn't quite as thought-provoking as the book, Ender's Game still manages to offer a commendable number of well-acted, solidly written sci-fi thrills.

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Critics Reviews

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Larushka Ivan-Zadeh metro.co.uk Starship Troopers, Alien, Tron and Star Trek also make up the movie's DNA but the story - a provocative study about the morality of warfare and conflicts of leadership - injects something powerful and new into the familiar 'chosen one' plot trajectory. Rated: 4/5 Sep 6, 2017 Full Review Geoffrey Macnab Independent (UK) The battle scenes are spectacular but lifeless and hard to engage with. We're watching a cascade of computer-game imagery. Rated: 2/5 Feb 21, 2014 Full Review David Stratton At the Movies (Australia) It was a bit like standing in a room where someone is playing a video game on a screen and you're not actually taking part in it but you have to watch interminably this game being played and it's just really a bit boring. Rated: 2.5/5 Feb 18, 2014 Full Review JD Duran InSession Film Ender’s Game is a fun, dramatic look that is different and unique for most sci-fi movies. While it follows the basic trope of alien invasion, it quickly turns into a moral dilemma that involves some heavy and complex themes. Rated: B+ Aug 15, 2024 Full Review Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Not having read Card’s novel, I couldn’t say whether it was truly “unfilmable,” but what ends up on the screen is indeed “filmable” in that we’ve seen these narrative threads countless times before in science fiction cinema. Rated: 2/4 Sep 8, 2023 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review A joyless video game experience, complete with levels of increasing difficulty and a main character who never really faces a true conflict. Rated: 2/4 Aug 22, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

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Mudassar K Coming from somebody who has not read the book and a general fan of Sci-Fi movies, I found the movie very entertaining. I can't understand why this was a so called flop. Acting was great, graphics were amazing, even now in 2025 I would not have thought that it was a movie made in 2013, story was well paced, ending left questions and wanting more. People found that the movie felt unrealistic, for god sakes its a sci-fi. Its not based on a true story. But also if you look at it now, some things are not as fake as it seems. For instance, our younger generation are adapting faster and outsmarting some of our seasoned adults. I believe human brains are evolving so fast that in 200 to 300 years time 13 year old 'kids' might end up being smarter than the equivalent 35 year old today. If this movie was released today, I think it would get more recognition. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/03/25 Full Review Lavish C Apart for the NONSENSE of giving pre-teens the sole responsibility of saving humanity, truly it's THE one and single most delusional nonsense that I've ever come across in thousand and thousand of books, comics, movies, series, theaters shows etc. Then Kingsley who pretends to be a "best in the world" Maori warrior with that stupid rat face and fake NZ accent. Ender is amazing, it's a pity that the actor didn't age well, he looks horrible now, doesn't have 1/10 of the charm he had as a kid. But in this movie he still has it. Excellent. Harrison is just Harrison, average himself. But why on freaking earth would Ender feel guilty? He knew from the beginning that the purpose of that war was to completely annihilate these hostile INSECTS. ANd who cares even if they were humanoids!? They attacked us, showed extreme hostility, and then they want to come clean with a "oh sorry, we didn't mean to harm"???? Is that how it looks like when they don't mean harm? Even if that's true, that's even worse! Imagine what they will do when they do mean harm! And this stupid kid, entitled, arrogant, selfish, decides FOR THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY to secretly save the last ant queen? He knew that was the idea with the war. He didn't know that the simulation was not a simulation, but what with that? Simulations have ONE scope: preparing a winning strategy for the real battle. = he knew they would annihilate the aliens and he did that in the simulation to create a way to do it for real. Just because they had him do it without telling him, he reacts like a kid who likes to eat chicken but gets all angry when he discovered that because he wanted to eat chicken they had to kill one? This is garbage. Complete GARBAGE storytelling. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 08/02/25 Full Review Stephen C Success in 1 hour and 54 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated PG-13 for Some Violence, Sci-Fi Action and Thematic Material!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The USA grossed over $61,700,000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/20/25 Full Review Keygan S Hot Garbage, just listen to the books Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 07/17/25 Full Review Christopher C This is a great movie. While it is not the same as the book, the impressiveness and path of the movie is not something to ignore. I fell in love with the book (it is the only sci-fi series that I like) and have read it over 10 times… this is a movie I have only seen once, but had me staring at the screen in awe. For people that love sci-fi, or even some that don’t (that includes me, honestly), this is a movie that I highly recommend. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/05/25 Full Review Paul S I found the overall story bland and uninteresting. Unfortunately I haven't read the book, but from what I've seen from reviews online it seems to be much better than the movie. The movie had some great visuals, but I didn't find its premise that appealing. It's definitely not one of the best sci-fi movies I've seen. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/05/25 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis When hostile aliens called the Formics attack Earth, only the legendary heroics of Mazer Rackham (Ben Kingsley) manage to attain a victory. To prepare for the next attack, Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and his cohorts initiate a military program to find the next Mazer. Recruit Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) exhibits an unusual gift for the training, easily mastering all of the challenges thrown at him. Mazer Rackham, himself, takes Ender as a protege to prepare him for the oncoming war.
Director
Gavin Hood
Producer
Gigi Pritzker, Linda McDonough, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Robert Chartoff, Lynn Hendee, Orson Scott Card, Ed Ulbrich
Screenwriter
Gavin Hood
Distributor
Summit Entertainment
Production Co
Taleswapper, K/O Paper Products, Digital Domain, Odd Lot Entertainment, Lions Gate Films, Summit Entertainment, Chartoff Productions
Rating
PG-13 (Some Violence|Sci-Fi Action|Thematic Material)
Genre
Sci-Fi, Adventure, Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 1, 2013, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 19, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA)
$61.7M
Runtime
1h 54m
Sound Mix
Datasat, Dolby Digital
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