Ender's Game
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: November 1, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
20
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Total FilmMatt MuellerOct 24, 2013
Like its hero, Ender’s Game relies on brains more than brute force. An absorbing portrait of Lord Of The Flies-style morality housed in imaginative sci-fi casing. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyOct 31, 2013
Ultimately, the movie is not, to paraphrase the U.S. Army slogan, all that it could be. The climax is uninvolving generic eye candy, and the sequel-friendly coda is unconvincing. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 31, 2013
Ender's Game is uneven - at times almost maddeningly so - with the first half offering more enjoyment than the second. Perhaps that's because, in military-style movies, I often prefer the training segments to the battle sequences. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartOct 31, 2013
A big, dark film that should satisfy the many fans of the Orson Scott Card novel and engage newcomers, too. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanOct 31, 2013
Ender’s Game is more than a parable about bullying, or a disquisition on the concept of the “just war.” It’s also a rousing action film, especially in Imax. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 30, 2013
At times Ender’s Game throws so many metaphors and moral dilemmas our way, we almost forget to appreciate the stunning and gorgeous visuals covering every inch of the screen. Almost. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 2, 2013
Straightforward, a bit literal-minded, very faithful to the book and largely compelling. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 31, 2013
Its strong special effects make its simulated battles effective and, echoing the book, its story line touches on a number of intriguing issues. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 25, 2013
An impressive, thought-provoking astro-adventure that benefits from the biggest screen available. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 31, 2013
Plenty of ideas float through Ender's Game but the notion of honing a child into a war machine is one that sticks. Writer-director Gavin Hood's adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel doesn't offer much else, bottled up with battle jargon and special effects debris as it is. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 30, 2013
Though it can’t overcome the source material’s problematic themes — namely, Card’s intentionalist morality, which prizes a character’s ideals over their actions — or its all-too-convenient characterizations, the film manages a sustained sense of momentum and tone that is rare for a contemporary, big-budget movie. Read full review
65
Film.comEric D. SniderOct 31, 2013
Since it took 28 years to get it to the big screen, the fact that the end result feels rushed and hasty probably qualifies as irony. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 1, 2013
There's lots of zero-g action in Ender's Game - even old Han Solo takes a whirl. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 31, 2013
A bit of a tweener, neither triumph nor disaster, a war-games fantasy with a use-by date of Nov. 22, when the new "Hunger Games" movie comes out. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 1, 2013
In the final analysis, that's the real endgame here: to get people into theaters and build a film franchise. For all of their film's flaws, Hood and company do that well, as Ender's Game shapes up as a decent franchise starter -- and a film that makes it hard not to be intrigued by what will come next. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelOct 31, 2013
Character development, dramatic tension and emotional resonance all get short shrift in the checklist exposition by writer-director Gavin Hood. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterMarc BernardinOct 25, 2013
If only adapter-director Gavin Hood's movie had been tempered with craft and care and wasn't such a blunt instrument, one that seems designed as a delivery system for CGI derring-do instead of the heartbreaker it should be. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyOct 25, 2013
This starfighter-recruit blockbuster is refreshingly idea-driven. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 24, 2013
The movie's apocalyptic finale indicates that it's bitten off considerably more than it can chew in terms of ideas, but it looks good, and the story rattles along. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonOct 22, 2013
It falters once the actual war begins: Ben Kingsley shows up as a Maori warrior with the weirdest imaginable accent, the final battle is uninvolving, and there’s an unconvincing upbeat coda. Ender’s Game ends up being fitfully engaging and endearingly odd. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 1, 2013
By the time the movie finally manages to get interesting, audiences may be too numb and their retinas too fried to win back. Read full review
58
The PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinOct 28, 2013
As a mainstream sci-fi film, this enjoyable, occasionally poignant effort too often feels messy in the wrong ways. Read full review
55
NPRIan BuckwalterNov 1, 2013
It may seem odd for a teen-focused action movie to feel so glum, but that's actually something that the director gets right, even if it threatens to make this a dull affair: Ender's Game is a dark story of a children's crusade built on the crushed psyches of damaged youths, and too much uplift would undermine it. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensNov 2, 2013
I can understand wanting to skip Ender’s Game as a matter of moral principle, but you can also feel free to blow it off just because it’s not that good. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 2, 2013
Ender’s Game is a blandly sanitized spectacle. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 2, 2013
Ender’s Game’s only lyrical presence is Breslin’s. The actress has a gentle soul. In the end, she’s the movie’s mascot, and its mournful spirit. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsNov 1, 2013
The film's biggest problem is a matter of tone and characterization: the characters constantly talk about how mean they can be, but their actions suggest otherwise. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 31, 2013
It comes down to this: Which is more important, the innocence of a child or the survival of the species? And if the race survives, will it just become like the enemy aliens that must be destroyed to do so? Read full review
50
Portland OregonianMarc MohanOct 31, 2013
Eventually the movie wants to have things both ways: to approvingly entertain mainstream audiences with the glittering spectacle of space battles and to pay lip service to the notion of conscience. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 31, 2013
Hood's realization of Card's novel is a tightly constructed, thought-provoking meditation on adolescence trapped by permanent war footing, alloyed with some of the best CGI effects work I've seen since, uh, "Gravity." Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 31, 2013
Mr. Butterfield is one of those young performers whose seriousness feels as if it sprang from deep within. And while he’s an appealing presence, little Ender can’t help feeling like a pint-size psycho. Read full review
50
The DissolveTasha RobinsonOct 30, 2013
It’s a brutal story and a heady high-concept idea, but it plays out through characters with no identity other than their symbolic ones, and through shouted, simplistic arguments that repeat the same points over and over. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreOct 29, 2013
Sure, it’s good-looking, cautionary and clever enough. But there’s not much in this “Game” that you’d call thrilling or fun. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraOct 25, 2013
It admirably avoids many of the pitfalls of adapting this book, but seems to have lost some of the life and pace as well. Read full review
38
USA TodayScott BowlesNov 1, 2013
Most Ender's fans, of course, won't care about comparisons and consider the film adaptation a long-awaited victory in itself. Those fresh to the tale — or at least expecting something fresh from it — may wonder what the fuss was about. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinOct 31, 2013
Gavin Hood relays a vague sense of what it's like to live in duty, and yet at a distance from one's home, but this vision of the future never rouses, never asks to be remembered. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlNov 1, 2013
Some of the movie isn't bad. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 31, 2013
Not only does Ender's Game have many scenes in zero gravity, but this zero-sum fiasco has zero drama, zero suspense, zero humor, zero charm and zero appeal. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 31, 2013
Ender’s Game, the book, may have a special place in pop-lit. The movie, however, is as special as a migraine. Read full review
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