The time has come when the future of Earth must be decided by an intelligent boy in the best-selling book-turned-movie, Ender’s Game. While the movie made a mediocre gross amount of $27,017,351 in its opening weekend, this number hardly reflects the quality of the content director Gavin Hood captures.

The adventure begins when young Ender Wiggin, portrayed by Asa Butterfield, is brought to Battle School in space by Colonel Hyrum Graff, played by Harrison Ford. This decision affects a series of events that lead Ender to become aware of his true identity and destiny.

In the film, Graff and Major Anderson, portrayed by Viola Davis, watch Ender closely as he plays a mind game in Battle School that is made to analyze the students’ thought process. During this scene, the live-action appearance of characters morph into an animated fantasy land in which Ender’s empathetic sister, Valentine, played by Abigail Breslin, becomes a symbol of compassion later in the film.

At that moment, however, both Ender and Graff are confused as to why Valentine is in his mind game. Although it is agonizing, Hood does not let the audience in on the solution of this puzzle until the end. He made this suspense one that had the viewer sitting on the edge of their seat, turning every clue over in their mind by angling the camera from the mind game to Ender’s furrowed eyebrows, allowing them to connect with the character without words.

When it comes to the acting ability, it was almost as if casting director John Papsidera plucked each character from author Orson Scott-Card’s novel and brought them to life. Butterfield’s bright blue eyes and small stature fit the physical demands of the role of Ender, but the emotional requirements came from when he began to speak.

Later in the movie, Ender angrily runs away from Graff, bitterly. Graff confidently defends his actions, hoping for a positive reply. Around thirty seconds later, Ender wraps his fingers around a silver rail and steadies himself, preparing for a response. His voice comes out low-rising, matching Graff’s confident tone with a more genuine one, a more thoughtful one. He chooses words that are simple but have more value than Graff’s ever did.

While the credit for the screenplay can only go to Hood and author Orson Scott Card, Butterfield’s ability to take the emotion in the scene and soak it in as if he were tanning in the sunlight adds sensitivity to Ender’s Game that is difficult to capture on film. However, Butterfield’s other acting roles also consist of overwhelming emotion in quiet characters.

Although, Ford’s acting ability is consistently strong and on par with his roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones. This film provided Ford with a place to stand out of the spotlight of the hero for which had long faded after the 1990s. In this film, he stood in the gray area where he was given the chance to glow as a mentor when he pressured Ender to keep moving forward. The role of Graff fit Ford in a way that his copper leather jacket fit him in 1984.

Overall, Ender’s Game achieved the level of expectation that Card had set with the beloved novel before it. The graphics were exceptional, from wars with the Formics to the details in the mind game. What made the movie memorable was the complex passion for living life that was easily conveyed through the acting skills, screenplay and camera angles. There are those films that make $150,000,000 worldwide gross in their first opening weekend, but usually because of popularity and hype.

Although Ender’s Game did not make as much in worldwide gross, the audience should be going for the rich content of the film rather than how much money it made in its opening weekend. Ender’s Game is one of those films that movie-goers will be talking about the very next day because of its incredible aesthetic significance.