Just a few thoughts:

Ender's Game' path to the big screen was a long and winding road, with Orson Scott Card refusing to part with the film rights; in the process eliminating screenwriters such as Game of Thrones' D.B Weiss. Card's book goes through an ample amount of critical points and carries a moral complexity that is difficult to portray in an acceptable time frame- imagine the potential this story could have as a mini tv series? Asa Butterfield has an impresive acting resume and delivers a remarkably stoic performance as Ender Wiggin. Moreover, the depiction of Wiggin's Mind Game are some of my favorite scenes from the film and Hood made a smart move averting the use of photo real to contrast it with the rest of the film. Lastly, the final space battle scored a few points for me in which Hood took a small idea, expanded it by epic proportions, and turned it into the cinematic experience that the viewers needed. However, what I found really vexing was the over-explicit nature of the script. There were far too many times where I felt what was said was too contrived and it took away from what should've been an emotional journey- show us, don't tell us is a golden rule. In a theatre 90% full of nostalgic middle-aged people, "Good" is all this film amounted to. Yet you have to commend Hood's efforts in attempting to condense a story that spanned 6 years and allowed atleast 10% of people in that theatre to walk away in a facade of satisfaction.