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The wait for Ender's Game will soon be coming to end as the movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 1.

The story revolves around a gifted boy drafted into military school in an apocalyptic future where the first order of business is defending the planet against a coming alien invasion.

The film, directed by Gavin Hood, boasts an all-star cast that includes Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield (as Ender), Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin.

Here's a sampling of what the critics are saying...

PHOTOS: Movie premiere pandemonium

• "The adaptation is a shallow sci-fi spectacle that almost makes you care," writes the Hollywood Reporter's Marc Bernardin.

• "Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works," notes Peter Debruge of Variety. "Like The Hunger Games...[it] peddles the unseemly idea of watching kids thrust into life-and-death situations, but also takes responsibiilty for their actions."

• "Yet another intriguing, complex, strangely unlikeable big-budget experiment destined to thrill the fans and befuddle the rest of us," states Time Out's Tom Huddleston.

• "Took 28 years to get to the screen, but the end result feels rushed and hasty," offers Eric D. Snider of Film.com.

NEWS: Ender's Game filmmakers have "opposite view" on gay marriage as author Orson Scott Card

• "Ender's Game truly captures the spirit and intensity of what is one of the most popular sci-fi stories of all time," Tony Hicks of the San Jose Mercuy News shares. "Considering the weighty source material and complex, sprawling story line with which director/screenwriter Gavin Hood was working, Ender's Game...couldn't have made its translation from page to screen much more convincingly."

• "Hood's film is thankfully more successful than his last Hollywood outing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but for all its lofty ambitions it never qute fulfills its potential," opines Digital Spy's Simon Reynolds.

• "Successfully translates most of the book's more pertinent themes to the screen, while making enough storytelling fumbles to hint why it was considered unfilmable for nearly three decades," writes Richard Edwards of SFX Magazine.

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Watch Enders Game Free Megashare Full Videos

LOS ANGELES -- LOS ANGELES (AP) — An anti-bullying allegory writ on the largest possible scale, "Ender's Game" frames an interstellar battle between mankind and pushy ant-like aliens, called Formics, in which Earth's fate hinges on a tiny group of military cadets, most of whom haven't even hit puberty yet. At face value, the film presents an electrifying star-wars scenario — that rare case where an epic space battle transpires entirely within the span of two hours — while at the same time managing to deliver a higher pedagogical message about tolerance, empathy and coping under pressure. Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works, as director Gavin Hood pulls off the sort of teen-targeted franchise starter Summit was hoping for.

Card's novel assumes a situation where, in the wake of a massive Formic attack, the world's children are somehow best suited to protect their planet from an imminent second strike. The most promising young recruits train on elaborate videogame-like simulators while a pair of officers — Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) — monitor their techniques in search of "the One," a child with the strategic instincts to save his species. The leading candidate is Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a runt-like outsider whose behavior toward his aggressive classmates reveals his true potential.

Like "The Hunger Games," the pic peddles the unseemly idea of watching kids thrust into life-and-death situations. Though they're not instructed to kill one another, these moppets' prime directive should also give parents pause, raising the stakes from hand-to-hand combat to the potential genocide of an unfamiliar race. Fortunately, Hood (who also penned the adaptation) factors these weighty themes into the story without making them the primary focus. Between the officers, Graff's agenda is more complicated than he lets on, while Anderson represents the voice of reason, remarking, "It used to be a war crime to recruit anyone under the age of 15." But these are not soldiers, per se, but highly skilled Junior ROTC types, training on virtual conflict scenarios.

Butterfield — who has grown into his big blue eyes, if not the rest of his body, since "Hugo" — makes ideal casting for Ender: He's scrawny and physically unimposing, yet there's an intensity to his stare that suggests he might indeed be masking deeper (or darker) gifts. It's nothing so powerful as the Force, or Neo's Matrix-bending abilities, though "Ender's Game" dedicates nearly its entire run time to Battle School, where our hero and his fellow recruits practice various drills, including an anti-gravity game (the rules of which aren't terribly clear) that looks like the next best thing to Quidditch.

Despite the obvious "be all you can be" subtext, "Ender's Game" manages to make these training sequences compelling without veering into pro-military propaganda, doing so by focusing on the interpersonal dynamics between the various squad members. Though Card may have publicly revealed his own prejudices, the casting department has assembled a wonderfully diverse group of young actors — male and female, they come in all colors, shapes and sizes — to serve alongside Ender.

So much youthful energy onscreen makes Ford seem tired and weary by comparison. Still, it's a treat to discover Han Solo all buttoned up and back to do more space battle — not that anyone here is quite as lively or memorable as the characters B-movie fans discovered in "Star Wars" three dozen years ago. Butterfield's "Hugo" co-star Ben Kingsley also pops up for a late cameo, sporting an Australian accent and an elaborate Maori tribal tattoo across his entire face (a poor man's Darth Maul, perhaps?). It might not seem fair to compare what Hood has created to someone as visionary in all things sci-fi as George Lucas, and yet, considering the sizable budget expended on "Ender's Game," one could have hoped for something a bit more groundbreaking.

"Ender's Game," a Summit release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "some violence, sci-fi action and thematic material." Running time: 114 minutes.

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Join "Extra" for a live chat on Friday, Nov. 1 at 7:00 PM ET/4:00 PM PT to preview what's opening this weekend!

ExtraTV.com Senior Writer Kit Bowen and MovieFanatic.com Managing Editor Joel Amos will discuss the sci-fi adaptation "Ender's Game," the comedy "Last Vegas" with Michael Douglas and Robert De Niro, the animated "Free Birds" and more!

During the chat, you'll also be able weigh-in and have the chance to talk to Kit and Joel on camera.

To join the action, follow these simple steps:

RSVP to "Extra's" event above

Leave your comments or questions in the bottom right corner of the video screen

Tweet your comments or questions @ExtraTV using the hashtag #ExtraLiveChat

During the chat:

Talk with other fans in the chat box

Click on the camera icon (at the bottom of the video screen) to request to be on camera

Submit your comments or questions to be brought on screen

To find out more, and to create an account, go to Spreecast.com.

Filed Under: Movies, Live Chats

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Watch Enders Game Free Megashare Full Videos

Story: Earth comes under attack from an alien race called the Formics. While a brave fleet commander Mazher Rackham (Kingsley) repelled the first wave of invaders, it is up to a young generation of the International Military under the command of Colonel Hyrum Graff (Ford) to save the planet.

Review: Ender Wiggin and a small army of multi-race children live their lives in an orbiting boot camp. Colonel Graff and Major Gwen Anderson (Davis) see tremendous potential in one cadet in particular - Ender Wiggin (Butterfield) - right from the start. He was absorbed into the military due to his mental acuity, his method of dealing with those stronger than him, his cunning and because he is a gaming expert.

The other pre-teens are picked from terrestrial schools and indoctrinated to believe that compassion has no place on the battlefield. They are militarized at such a young age because it is explained that young soldiers can absorb technology quicker than adults and can process a lot of sensory input without being spent or burnt out by mental exhaustion. All of that aside, however, it is still a bit unusual to see kids spoken to in the manner that adult soldiers are. Ender has his issues - the guilt he feels that he was chosen to lead an army instead of his siblings, as well as the trauma of being bullied. Apart from him, the acting is passable. Fellow cadet Petra (Steinfield) doesn't have much of an impact and the bullying Bonzo (Arias) is quite unconvincing.

It is nice however, to see Colonel Graff at his gruff best. Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) keeps the film's main message - that of militarizing kids - clear throughout. Digging a bit deeper, another question is posed - that if you were given the choice to kill someone who you know would return to kill you and your friends one day, would you go ahead and get them before they got you?

Note: You may not like this film if you don't enjoy sci-fi movies set in space.

Download Movie

Watch Enders Game Free Megashare Full Videos

LOS ANGELES -- LOS ANGELES (AP) — An anti-bullying allegory writ on the largest possible scale, "Ender's Game" frames an interstellar battle between mankind and pushy ant-like aliens, called Formics, in which Earth's fate hinges on a tiny group of military cadets, most of whom haven't even hit puberty yet. At face value, the film presents an electrifying star-wars scenario — that rare case where an epic space battle transpires entirely within the span of two hours — while at the same time managing to deliver a higher pedagogical message about tolerance, empathy and coping under pressure. Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works, as director Gavin Hood pulls off the sort of teen-targeted franchise starter Summit was hoping for.

Card's novel assumes a situation where, in the wake of a massive Formic attack, the world's children are somehow best suited to protect their planet from an imminent second strike. The most promising young recruits train on elaborate videogame-like simulators while a pair of officers — Col. Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) — monitor their techniques in search of "the One," a child with the strategic instincts to save his species. The leading candidate is Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a runt-like outsider whose behavior toward his aggressive classmates reveals his true potential.

Like "The Hunger Games," the pic peddles the unseemly idea of watching kids thrust into life-and-death situations. Though they're not instructed to kill one another, these moppets' prime directive should also give parents pause, raising the stakes from hand-to-hand combat to the potential genocide of an unfamiliar race. Fortunately, Hood (who also penned the adaptation) factors these weighty themes into the story without making them the primary focus. Between the officers, Graff's agenda is more complicated than he lets on, while Anderson represents the voice of reason, remarking, "It used to be a war crime to recruit anyone under the age of 15." But these are not soldiers, per se, but highly skilled Junior ROTC types, training on virtual conflict scenarios.

Butterfield — who has grown into his big blue eyes, if not the rest of his body, since "Hugo" — makes ideal casting for Ender: He's scrawny and physically unimposing, yet there's an intensity to his stare that suggests he might indeed be masking deeper (or darker) gifts. It's nothing so powerful as the Force, or Neo's Matrix-bending abilities, though "Ender's Game" dedicates nearly its entire run time to Battle School, where our hero and his fellow recruits practice various drills, including an anti-gravity game (the rules of which aren't terribly clear) that looks like the next best thing to Quidditch.

Despite the obvious "be all you can be" subtext, "Ender's Game" manages to make these training sequences compelling without veering into pro-military propaganda, doing so by focusing on the interpersonal dynamics between the various squad members. Though Card may have publicly revealed his own prejudices, the casting department has assembled a wonderfully diverse group of young actors — male and female, they come in all colors, shapes and sizes — to serve alongside Ender.

So much youthful energy onscreen makes Ford seem tired and weary by comparison. Still, it's a treat to discover Han Solo all buttoned up and back to do more space battle — not that anyone here is quite as lively or memorable as the characters B-movie fans discovered in "Star Wars" three dozen years ago. Butterfield's "Hugo" co-star Ben Kingsley also pops up for a late cameo, sporting an Australian accent and an elaborate Maori tribal tattoo across his entire face (a poor man's Darth Maul, perhaps?). It might not seem fair to compare what Hood has created to someone as visionary in all things sci-fi as George Lucas, and yet, considering the sizable budget expended on "Ender's Game," one could have hoped for something a bit more groundbreaking.

"Ender's Game," a Summit release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "some violence, sci-fi action and thematic material." Running time: 114 minutes.

Download Movie

Watch Enders Game Free Megashare Full Videos

Story: Earth comes under attack from an alien race called the Formics. While a brave fleet commander Mazher Rackham (Kingsley) repelled the first wave of invaders, it is up to a young generation of the International Military under the command of Colonel Hyrum Graff (Ford) to save the planet.

Review: Ender Wiggin and a small army of multi-race children live their lives in an orbiting boot camp. Colonel Graff and Major Gwen Anderson (Davis) see tremendous potential in one cadet in particular - Ender Wiggin (Butterfield) - right from the start. He was absorbed into the military due to his mental acuity, his method of dealing with those stronger than him, his cunning and because he is a gaming expert.

The other pre-teens are picked from terrestrial schools and indoctrinated to believe that compassion has no place on the battlefield. They are militarized at such a young age because it is explained that young soldiers can absorb technology quicker than adults and can process a lot of sensory input without being spent or burnt out by mental exhaustion. All of that aside, however, it is still a bit unusual to see kids spoken to in the manner that adult soldiers are. Ender has his issues - the guilt he feels that he was chosen to lead an army instead of his siblings, as well as the trauma of being bullied. Apart from him, the acting is passable. Fellow cadet Petra (Steinfield) doesn't have much of an impact and the bullying Bonzo (Arias) is quite unconvincing.

It is nice however, to see Colonel Graff at his gruff best. Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) keeps the film's main message - that of militarizing kids - clear throughout. Digging a bit deeper, another question is posed - that if you were given the choice to kill someone who you know would return to kill you and your friends one day, would you go ahead and get them before they got you?

Note: You may not like this film if you don't enjoy sci-fi movies set in space.

Download Movie

Watch Enders Game Free Megashare Full Videos

The wait for Ender's Game will soon be coming to end as the movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 1.

The story revolves around a gifted boy drafted into military school in an apocalyptic future where the first order of business is defending the planet against a coming alien invasion.

The film, directed by Gavin Hood, boasts an all-star cast that includes Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield (as Ender), Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin.

Here's a sampling of what the critics are saying...

PHOTOS: Movie premiere pandemonium

• "The adaptation is a shallow sci-fi spectacle that almost makes you care," writes the Hollywood Reporter's Marc Bernardin.

• "Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works," notes Peter Debruge of Variety. "Like The Hunger Games...[it] peddles the unseemly idea of watching kids thrust into life-and-death situations, but also takes responsibiilty for their actions."

• "Yet another intriguing, complex, strangely unlikeable big-budget experiment destined to thrill the fans and befuddle the rest of us," states Time Out's Tom Huddleston.

• "Took 28 years to get to the screen, but the end result feels rushed and hasty," offers Eric D. Snider of Film.com.

NEWS: Ender's Game filmmakers have "opposite view" on gay marriage as author Orson Scott Card

• "Ender's Game truly captures the spirit and intensity of what is one of the most popular sci-fi stories of all time," Tony Hicks of the San Jose Mercuy News shares. "Considering the weighty source material and complex, sprawling story line with which director/screenwriter Gavin Hood was working, Ender's Game...couldn't have made its translation from page to screen much more convincingly."

• "Hood's film is thankfully more successful than his last Hollywood outing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but for all its lofty ambitions it never qute fulfills its potential," opines Digital Spy's Simon Reynolds.

• "Successfully translates most of the book's more pertinent themes to the screen, while making enough storytelling fumbles to hint why it was considered unfilmable for nearly three decades," writes Richard Edwards of SFX Magazine.

Download Movie

Watch Enders Game Free Megashare Full Videos

Story: Earth comes under attack from an alien race called the Formics. While a brave fleet commander Mazher Rackham (Kingsley) repelled the first wave of invaders, it is up to a young generation of the International Military under the command of Colonel Hyrum Graff (Ford) to save the planet.

Review: Ender Wiggin and a small army of multi-race children live their lives in an orbiting boot camp. Colonel Graff and Major Gwen Anderson (Davis) see tremendous potential in one cadet in particular - Ender Wiggin (Butterfield) - right from the start. He was absorbed into the military due to his mental acuity, his method of dealing with those stronger than him, his cunning and because he is a gaming expert.

The other pre-teens are picked from terrestrial schools and indoctrinated to believe that compassion has no place on the battlefield. They are militarized at such a young age because it is explained that young soldiers can absorb technology quicker than adults and can process a lot of sensory input without being spent or burnt out by mental exhaustion. All of that aside, however, it is still a bit unusual to see kids spoken to in the manner that adult soldiers are. Ender has his issues - the guilt he feels that he was chosen to lead an army instead of his siblings, as well as the trauma of being bullied. Apart from him, the acting is passable. Fellow cadet Petra (Steinfield) doesn't have much of an impact and the bullying Bonzo (Arias) is quite unconvincing.

It is nice however, to see Colonel Graff at his gruff best. Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) keeps the film's main message - that of militarizing kids - clear throughout. Digging a bit deeper, another question is posed - that if you were given the choice to kill someone who you know would return to kill you and your friends one day, would you go ahead and get them before they got you?

Note: You may not like this film if you don't enjoy sci-fi movies set in space.

Download Movie

Watch Enders Game Free Megashare Full Videos

The wait for Ender's Game will soon be coming to end as the movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card's novel hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 1.

The story revolves around a gifted boy drafted into military school in an apocalyptic future where the first order of business is defending the planet against a coming alien invasion.

The film, directed by Gavin Hood, boasts an all-star cast that includes Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield (as Ender), Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis and Abigail Breslin.

Here's a sampling of what the critics are saying...

PHOTOS: Movie premiere pandemonium

• "The adaptation is a shallow sci-fi spectacle that almost makes you care," writes the Hollywood Reporter's Marc Bernardin.

• "Against considerable odds, this risky-sounding Orson Scott Card adaptation actually works," notes Peter Debruge of Variety. "Like The Hunger Games...[it] peddles the unseemly idea of watching kids thrust into life-and-death situations, but also takes responsibiilty for their actions."

• "Yet another intriguing, complex, strangely unlikeable big-budget experiment destined to thrill the fans and befuddle the rest of us," states Time Out's Tom Huddleston.

• "Took 28 years to get to the screen, but the end result feels rushed and hasty," offers Eric D. Snider of Film.com.

NEWS: Ender's Game filmmakers have "opposite view" on gay marriage as author Orson Scott Card

• "Ender's Game truly captures the spirit and intensity of what is one of the most popular sci-fi stories of all time," Tony Hicks of the San Jose Mercuy News shares. "Considering the weighty source material and complex, sprawling story line with which director/screenwriter Gavin Hood was working, Ender's Game...couldn't have made its translation from page to screen much more convincingly."

• "Hood's film is thankfully more successful than his last Hollywood outing X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but for all its lofty ambitions it never qute fulfills its potential," opines Digital Spy's Simon Reynolds.

• "Successfully translates most of the book's more pertinent themes to the screen, while making enough storytelling fumbles to hint why it was considered unfilmable for nearly three decades," writes Richard Edwards of SFX Magazine.

Download Movie