Ender's Game (PG-13) - Off the page

The bard himself recognized the massive difficulty of cramming a sprawling tale into narrow confines. Shakespeare's classic "Henry V" opens with a prologue, apologizing for the inability of the author to fit "vastly fields" and large armies onto the stage of his oval theater in London. He added another plea after being forced to crunch years of time "into an hourglass."

Writer-director Gavin Hood faced a similar dilemma in bringing the 1985 novel "Ender's Game" to the small screen, in a manner suitable to restive audiences. Orson Scott Card's popular science fiction story devoted pages to family dramas and subplots. It consumed enormous amounts of print fleshing out the confusing politics of a future earth, wasted but still pumping some blood after fighting off a devastating alien invasion attempt.

 The two hour span-at most-allotted to most films aimed at a young adult audience meant the filmmakers had no choice but discard entire plotlines.

So fans of the novel may find reason to complain. Yet they should, perhaps, cut the writers and director some slack. The film version of "Ender's Game" is plodding at times, certainly. But the CGI is unusually muted, dark and crisp. More importantly, they refuse to shy from the vivid, excruciating moral tightrope the characters are required to navigate when the alien threat to earth resurfaces.

As Harrison Ford's character says at one point, "When the war is over we can debate the morality of what we do."

Asa Butterfield plays the hero, Ender Wiggin-part of an adolescent army skilled at electronic gaming, groomed, berated and vetted in order to find the next leader willing and able to do what it takes to save the earth from the mantis-like species known as Formics. Young people adapt quicker to new technologies, their minds flick through masses of electronic data, causing the muscles needed to command virtual gaming devices to twitch almost instantaneously (impressive that the author, Card, envisioned this reality more than a decade before the Internet and Xbox). Veterans like Ford recognize the role requires both mental acuity and a thinly veiled cruel streak. They spot Ender's qualities the moment he takes on a bully ... before actually being bullied.

But the level of commitment necessary involves something razor sharp between acute tactical understanding and brutality. So during training the elders employ psychological tricks, breeding callousness, hoping to sharpen whatever sociopathic tendencies reside in human nature.

There's a message here. Violent gaming and tactics designed to isolate young people from reality desensitizes the cadets from carnage. Actions in a virtual world have no real consequences-except when those same actions are needed to save the earth.

If you pause to consider all of this, "Ender's Game" can leave you with an uneasy feeling, akin to learning that genocide may be acceptable in a context, yet unacceptable in all cases.

Of course, as the training sessions continue, there is time for audience members to ponder the moral questions raised by the film. Some may even decide such mental prodding amounts to tedium-and "Ender's Game" is not a basic action thriller.

Instead, there is something in it that creates tension before the action, that leaves the viewer uncomfortable in their support of the supposed good guys.

"Ender's Game" may leave something to be desired when compared to the novel. Yet it is engrossing and threatening in a way that is very different-perhaps even incomprehensible-to moviegoers accustomed to the pedestrian sci-fi action flick.

 Starring: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin, Viola Davis