Is Ender Wiggin ready for battle?
That's pretty much the essential question of author Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Conscripted before his age hit the double-digits, Ender was chosen by Colonel Hyrum Graff to be humanity's hope against an alien invasion. To help him train, he's paired with Mazer Rackham, who defeated the aliens (or "buggers" if you're nasty), to learn the art of galactic war. But the question always remains: Is he ready?
"You're never ready," Graff (Harrison Ford), says to Rackham (Ben Kingsley) in the final trailer for the upcoming film adaptation. "You go when you're ready enough."
So it is. Because really, is there ever a time when a kid barely at the age of puberty is ever fully prepared to save Earth? And judging by this trailer—and the teasers before it—director Gavin Hood's film is focusing heavily on the mind games necessary to turn children and teenagers into soldiers in a war against an alien race. Card's book spends quite a bit of time on Ender's internal struggles and pressures and family struggles, and—considering that doesn't make for great film—it seems as though Hood, who wrote the screenplay, is instead focusing on the battle training and the things Graff had to do and say to Ender–often against his commanders' wishes–to turn Ender into a ruthless leader. (Smart move. That aspect is the most compelling part of the story and will likely make the alien war stuff as heady as it needs to be.)
Beyond that, it seems as though Ender's Game, which made a splash a Comic-Con International last month both with its presentations and the controversy around Card's anti-gay-marriage views, is looking to make massive visual spectacle out of Ender's tale. The Battle School the kids attend looks stunning and the massive interstellar conflict doesn't look too shabby either. Also, Ford is there being a hard-ass leader, so that's nice, and even though she hasn't said a word yet in any preview, Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld is around as Ender's sole female Battle School friend, Petra. Hopefully she says more in the movie, because Petra—and Steinfeld—are fantastic.
Now the question is: Are sci-fi fans ready for Hood's vision of Ender's world? We'll find out on Nov. 1 when the film hits theaters. In the meantime remember: The enemy's gate is down.
