Ender's Game

"It’s been a long time coming, but Orson Scott Card’s revered sci-fi novel has finally hit the big screen. Much of the wait likely had to do with waiting for technology to make an adaptation possible – lifelike zero gravity and deep space manoeuvres being critical to the film. Yes, it’s a bit like Gravity, which outshines Ender’s Game visually in some departments. But since Gravity doesn’t have aliens, massive space battles and kids pummelling the crap out of each other, that’s a bit of an unfair comparison."

"An impressive, thought-provoking astro-adventure that benefits from the biggest screen available."

"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."

"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."

"Childhood can be tough in movies, but rarely do screen children suffer for our sins as they do here."

"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."

"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."

"It admirably avoids many of the pitfalls of adapting this book, but seems to have lost some of the life and pace as well."