There’s something powerful about timeless literature. Orson Scott Card’s novel “Ender’s Game” is one such example. A book much revered by scholarly critics and average readers alike since its publication in 1985, “Ender’s Game” deals heavily with politics, morality and ethics. It is not surprising that these exact same story strands are still relevant today.

Previously declared “unfilmable,” Gavin Hood’s adaptation of “Ender’s Game” has finally arrived, and it’s surprisingly strong, smart and visually beautiful. Best of all, the original author has given the film high praise.

A strong story with plenty of subtleties

For those unfamiliar with the story, it’s not necessary to read the book, but I would strongly suggest familiarizing yourself with the concept of the story. The film does not spoon-feed obvious plot devices to the audience. Instead, it expects the audience to have their brains turned on, ready to be used. It’s a wonderful practice in subtle storytelling, and it is one of the film’s strongest assets.

The story involves Earth preparing to fight back against an insect-like alien race known as the Formics — called Buggers in the book — who invaded and decimated Earth 50 years earlier. Convinced they will come back, Earth is preparing to fight them in a way they would never expect — with children. Children are trained in what appears to be mind and strategy games, which children are better at than adults.

One such child, Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), is excellent at strategy and ruthless on top of that. Seeing his potential, Colonel Hyrum Graff (Harrison Ford) recruits Ender for Battle School. Ender is talented, but his own skills frighten him. He longs to be compassionate like his sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin), but is becoming more aggressive like his mean older brother Peter (Jimmy Pinchak).

For a blockbuster film, “Ender’s Game” has a solid story filled with moral complexity that moves along at a quick rate, leaving little wasted time. This is efficient storytelling, but it does hurt the emotional heft the film could have because the viewers never have too much time to delve deeper into characters’ stories. The actors do an excellent job portraying their roles, however, and the viewers can understand these characters, even if they cannot totally sympathize with them. The story does lack a great sense of threat and urgency, too, which amounts to the way it was filmed and directed. This doesn’t detract greatly, but it is a bit disappointing.

“Ender’s Game” is full of engaging style

As if it should come as a surprise, “Ender’s Game” is loaded with computer-generated imagery. Luckily, these special effects are some of the best you can find on screens this year. While not as strong or innovative as “Gravity,” “Ender’s Game” definitely has some crisp, detailed imagery. The action sequences inside Battle School, a giant dome with zero gravity, are exciting and very cool. These incredible scenes are easily the most engaging in the film.

Steve Jablonsky, who composed music for “Transformers,” brings in a score that is also incredibly strong. He takes some cues from Daft Punk’s soundtrack to “Tron: Legacy,” but mixes electronic sounds with orchestral strings. Best of all, the music serves to enhance the action and emotion rather than overpower it.

Thanks to strong acting, especially on the behalf of Butterfield, Ford and Hailee Steinfeld, as well as smart storytelling, this adaptation of “Ender’s Game” is actually very good. This is mostly because it proves the book was actually not ‘unfilmable’ as many had claimed . “Ender’s Game” is another film that proves that adaptations of famous books are possible. Audiences will just have to eventually accept that not everything in a book can make it to the screen. If the important stuff — the author’s themes, intentions and main story points — is there, then that is indeed a strong adaptation. The movie isn’t perfect, but by those measures “Ender’s Game” wildly succeeds.