Ender's Game

written and directed by Gavin Hood (2013)

I read the Orson Scott Card book this movie is based on when I was a teenager, but the only thing I remembered clearly was the arc of the boy becoming a Nietzschean superman soldier, and how he ended up shrugging off that training in the face of his encounters with the supposed enemy bug race.

The movie pays short shrift to that transformative end, and is basically a bunch of Harry Potter kid soldiers in kamikaze training school, who spend most of the flick playing zero g quidditch laser tag.  It's a bombastic pro-military recruitment flick, and its fascist, or would that be speciest?? mentality was way to ugh for me.  I found it specious for sure, and even though the effects are great, it's actually pretty boring.  I liked the portrayals of bullying and social engineering, but the best part for me was seeing all the tough little guys in the movie.  Ben Kingsley has a small role as a Maori with honorific facial tattooing and he looks awesome.



On the way home from the movie, I passed by a launch party for the latest release of Call Of Duty Ghosts.  And it struck me that this is exactly the crowd the movie was made for -  it's bound to appeal to the kids and other folk with childish black and white morality toolsets, who are into playing war games.  It's a natural fit, since I think they buy into the horrible idea of killing being honourable, especially when that murder has been justified through the idea of othering the enemy to be inhuman. Also, through the emphasis on "national defence", which too often is doublespeak for aggressive offense, of course.  Unfortunately, it's a sad truth that a majority of people have been indoctrinated in these terrible beliefs worldwide, and this movie does more to reinforce that mentality than plant the seeds of peace and redress briefly referenced in the coda.

In any case, Orson Scott Card is a raging homophobe so I'm glad he's not getting ANY money from the proceeds of the movie.

The Host

The Host (2013) directed by Andrew Niccol

The Host is the most!  If you're a teenage girl that is. It's got a science fiction, post apocalyptic frame work, but it's chock full of naive, romantic idealism, and cute boys (Jeremy Iron's son, Max Irons and Jake Abel) fighting over the main girl.  I appreciated that it has a woman, (Diane Kruger), as the main bad guy, and William Hurt in a supporting rebel leader role.

I didn't expect much, I actually anticipated awfulness since it's based on books written by the same woman who brought us the Twilight series.  This time round Stephanie Meyer created a character I like much more though.  The heroine(s) in this one, played by Saoirse Ronan in a dual role, is much less a victim of circumstance than Bella was in Twilight.  I think Bella got kick ass by the end of the Twilight series, but I since I couldn't bring myself to watch that far or read more than the first novel,  I can't vouch for that fact.

There were identifiable elements of Mormon ideology in the storyline, more in the morals, but nothing too obvious.  Actually the most egregious bit was a self sacrifice moment that I think was supposed to mirror Jesus some.  However, that came across more self indulgent and teenage drama queenie,  since it was a completely unnecessary sacrifice done more for selfish and sad reasons than to save anyone, never mind atone for the sins of the human race.

Perhaps that will resonate for Mormon's though, and the idea of sacrifice in general is universal enough that people can relate, it's just the character's sacrifice was pointless.  Still the book/film were designed for those in the midst of their teenage drama years so I'm betting the flick will play especially well to that crowd. I mean there's a scene where kissing and provoking jealousy is important to the plot!

After the movie, I  overheard an old guy saying it's a soap opera - better acted and with better visuals, but that's all it was.  Yeah, dude!  I guess Invasion of the Boyfriend Snatchers was not for him, but I enjoyed it well enough, in spite of the draggy bits.  It had some good action, scenic desert backdrops, some stellar special effects a here and there, that all added up to some quality imagery.  Mostly though, it's all relationship, all the the time, and that's fine.  That's what's important in life anyhow -  the people we know and love, and how we relate to them.  Teenage drama or not, it's got its priorities straight.