Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield are part of yet another sci-fi adventure about futuristic alien attack on planet earth; this time the modus operandi differs slightly - the adult and ambitious commandos train children to fight the impending battle.

The aliens or the 'others' are called 'buggers' in the movie; they are mammoth insect like creatures who, as declared at the start of the movie, had attacked earth twice before and had defeated the human army. Ruthless Colonel Graff, played by Harrison, doesn't want to wait for the 'buggers' to attack and defeat the humans a third time; instead he plans to launch an attack upfront and eliminate the 'buggers' altogether.

Therein begins the dark and chilling drama as Colonel Graff picks child prodigy Ender Wiggin and puts him through compulsory military training along with other kids. Colonel Graff envisions Ender as the leader who will avert the extraterrestrial menace on earth.

No, Gavin Hood is not doing another Harry Potter saga where the young wizards team up to fight the evil forces. In Graff's dystopian world, Ender's childhood is crushed and half the time he is not even aware that the virtual world of action-based video game is actually a reality: he is at the helm of violent onslaught against the 'buggers.'

Ender's Game is a screen adaptation of the eponymous novel by Orson Scott Card, which was first published in 1985. Scholars and readers have been debating whether the work belongs to dystopian genre or not. However, the use of video games to train children in war-combat has raised concern among many parents. 

Card had sounded a warning signal back in 1985, before high-end video games were almost two decades away. At the same time, the film also evokes the ethics surrounding the use of children for war, even as UN estimates report that almost 250,000 adolescents around the world are part of some or the other military tactics.