Ender's Game (November 1, 2013)

[BorkBorkBork]

Worth seeing. Did a decent job condensing the book. Part of the movie will make more sense if you've read the book though.

[Burningthought]

I thought it was amazingly well done. Hopefully it's successful enough for it to spawn a sequel, i'd like to see the rest of the series.

[Souj]

Did they take all the stuff about Ender's brother and sister out? I don't see that stuff translating well to film.

[shepardG]

Sorta,

Spoiler: show

they made it pretty clear about why ender was a third. Brother to violent, sister to loving, etc.
but they didn't go into Val's alter ego, or peters bid for president, etc.

This was one of the reasons I don't see them doing speaker for the dead... Ever.

[Ksandra]

Rather see them do Ender's Shadow as the sequel tbh, but it'll never happen (kid actors growing up, etc.)

[Silenka]

Well none of the rest of the books would really make good movies. They're great in the medium of novels but translating well to film? Not so much. Bean's books would do better in that regard honestly - they'd probably do fine - but there's so much setup they'd have to go through it'd be somewhat ridiculous. I guess if they did an Ender's Shadow movie and did all the setup in that, but since much of it is about Battle School again, I wonder if they'd want to go that redundant track when there's already a movie about Battle School.

[Rhyis.]

Sorta,

Spoiler: show

they made it pretty clear about why ender was a third. Brother to violent, sister to loving, etc.
but they didn't go into Val's alter ego, or peters bid for president, etc.

This was one of the reasons I don't see them doing speaker for the dead... Ever.

[shepardG]

They did a pretty good representation of what a fucking monitor would be like though, shit was pretty fucking scary.... having that shit wired into your brain is ridiculous

[Meyor]

I don't usually care enough about movies to respond or rant, but to me they took out everything that made the book special, and replaced it with hollow characters and a bad representation of the story. Special effects were really great, didn't see the 3D though. I don't know how they could really fit that book into a movie friendly format, I guess they did what they could.

Spoiler: show

The worst part for me was when they spoiled that the invasion fleet was only 28 days away, so even if you were watching the movie without knowing the story, they told you 20 minutes in that there was a human fleet invading bugger space, wtf were they thinking.

[Zetanio]

This was one of the reasons I don't see them doing speaker for the dead... Ever.

I really hope they don't.

[Byrd]

There was a great article on Grantland last week about the dichotomy between Ender's Game and it's multi-cultural characters, providing a positive viewpoint of other religions, and focusing on the article author's issues with being a Muslim and seeing Alai as the first positive fictional muslim he'd seen in American literature. Then contrasting that with Card's less tolerant viewpoints. My favorite line from the piece: "But at some point, [Card] took a drive down Conspiracy Lane and got lost." I highly recommend the article, (more than the movie, actually).

Anyway, saw the movie last weekend. I felt like it had all the plot critical points, but left so much on the table as far as character development and understanding certain motivations. Specifically,

Spoiler: show

many of the battle scenes were cut or combined, Demosthenes & Locke didn't even get lip service, they showed Ender in 1 actual battle before getting his own army and they only showed 1 actual battle before getting promoted to Combat School.

I understand they only had a 2 hour movie, but it felt like the story suffered greatly (moreso than most books) due to the condensing of the script. Maybe that's just because it's my favorite book of all time, and I'm far more familiar with it than many others, but I still found myself missing favorite scenes or battles.

6/10. Decent movie, didn't desecrate the book, but just felt emotionally flat and rushed. I'd be curious to see what people who haven't read the book have to say.

[Kaslo]

Some scenes I would have liked to see:

Spoiler: show

1. On the raft/boat with Valentine, I wished for the Bee/Wasp scene. That just seems so critical for Ender's mindset. Also, a scene with Graff persuading Valentine to persuade Ender to go on.

2. A scene explaining the idea in the battle room of going in crouching feet first to guard yourself as you shoot enemies.

3. SOME FUCKING THING TO SHOW HOW FUCKING INTELLIGENT BEAN IS--FUCKER GOT LIKE ZERO SCREEN TIME.

4. Instead of putting Petra in control of the Little Doctor, show her breaking down in a fight.

/endrant

[Dizzy's]

They did not set themselves up well for making "Speaker for the Dead" the biggest reason being,

Spoiler: show

Val is supposed to go with ender.

[Tyrath]

That's okay, it's opening weekend hasn't set it up very well for making a sequel either. Especially since Thor is coming out next week.

[Silenka]

Just saw this. I didn't have any really big problems with it. I understand some of the choices they made, such as

Spoiler: show

leaving out the stuff about Peter and Val and their political personas

but I really didn't like

Spoiler: show

how Alai and Bean were so downplayed and how Petra came across like she was being pushed as a love-interest for Ender.. these kids are supposed to be too young to even be thinking about those kind of feels. I agree that Dragon Army could have used at least one more battle scene, though. The bond between Ender and his crew is very important to the final battles in Command School and it could have used a bit more development, instead they were just sort of pawns for him to move around rather than thinking for themselves. Besides, the movie didn't feel all that long - one more battle scene wouldn't have extended it that much more, either.

The actors seemed fairly age-appropriate for the most part though. They're still quite clearly kids even if they were not quite as young as they were supposed to be - that doesn't matter all that much though. The acting was pretty good, and while I didn't feel it was totally emotionally flat, a lot of the more poignant scenes were skipped over or downplayed for time.

I gotta say though, as far as the cast goes, Bonzo and Graff were both pretty much spot-on to how I pictured them.

[Myrrh_Quetz]

That's one thing I always tell people when I talk about this movie. I'm very pleased with the Actors themselves. Ender is exactly how I imagined him.

Spoiler: show

Now my complaints. Battle school was way too short.
Needed 1-2 more Battle room battles. We are just told that Ender is awesome at it and never actually see him progress, struggle, or actually kick all kinds of ass in the Battle room.
Bean was severely downplayed which really annoyed me.
The Mindgame made zero sense if you haven't read the book. I had a friend who hasn't read the book but saw the movie and he had so many questions about the Mindgame and how Ender found the queen egg 100 feet from the military base that's been there for 27 years.
It's never explained how Rackham is alive, either. "50 years ago" was the first invasion. Even if Rackham was in his 20s or 30s he'd still be 70 or 80(Without the cryo sleep, they never explained that either) which would show in his face and his movements.
Having the "28 days till fleet arrives" thrown in our faces annoyed me. Gave away the ending to my friend.
I understand it's a movie and you can't show all the book but so much of it they seemed to cut out for no reason. I liked the movie but I feel it could have been so much better had it been 30 minutes longer and we actually see Ender do some smart things. Not just Graff telling the Audience that he's smart.

It's still one of the better book movies I've seen though. Infinitely better than John dies at the end, though lol

[RKenshin]

/rant

I had trouble watching it objectively as a movie on its own, with how much I enjoyed the book and having read it so recently.

I want to say it's OK as a movie, and didn't do too bad of a job, but at the same time I can't help but feel it could've been much better both as a movie and with respect to the book with some relatively easy/simple changes.

There's definitely some leeway too, as it only clocks in at a 1h54m runtime... could've easily squeezed in at least another 30m of time, without it even being close to dragging in any way (especially since a lot of which would be action).

My comments, qualms, and nit-picking:

Spoiler: show

- Battle school, as others mentioned, is waaay too short. You really only see (or even hear about) two battles; Ender's first and Ender's last. Right before he's about to be promoted out of Battle School, you don't even know how Ender and his army is doing. The only time they even mention his success in battle school is when Graff says 'you're at the top of your grade in scores, and your army is at the top rank'... and a viewer is just kind of like "oh, cool, guess he did well." Should have fit in at least one more battle, showing off his talent and developing relationships with his team further (and give them time to shine; LOOKING AT YOU BEAN).


- Bean is just another guy, not really anything/one special. Same goes for his whole team really; the relationships just weren't developed very well aside from Petra (which yeah, is some weird almost-love-story between adolescent kids).


- Command school, like Battle School, is only really two battles; first and last, with a very quick run-through of other simulations fought during a narrative (battle school could've benefit from this!). I could've gone either way with this, but ultimately another battle could've helped again with developing the characters and an appreciation for Ender's talent.


- Locke/Demosthenes are 100% non-existent, but honestly I'm OK with this, as there was no way they could really fit this part in the movie.


- Probably my biggest problem: You never hear anything about this war from the bugger's viewpoint. Ender does ultimately find the queen's egg, but there is no communication/mutual understanding of any sort (unlike in the book), and you don't feel much real sympathy for the buggers. The book makes you feel sympathetic, and even kind of makes it an ironic tragedy... the movie does not have this. The movie makes it seem like Ender just feels bad and wants to clear his conscience in finding a world for the egg, which while true to an extent, isn't the only thing at play here. The viewer will likely leave the movie thinking they're a dumb species that f'd with the wrong people and got rightfully curb-stomped, but managed to mind-manipulate Ender into feeling bad about it right before perishing.


- Ansible is never explained, at all. It's brought up only twice: 'we communicate to our fleet by ansible' and 'the ansible network is down'... and nothing further is ever said about it. Ender never even questions it. Someone who hasn't read the book would just be like "uh, oh, OK."


- Minor: Seems kind of silly to show us fighting the first bugger battle with F14 jets, and then you see the advanced space armada we launch towards their home world ~20y later. Viewers likely to be left confused on this and other details surrounding our tech.


- I know it's typical that a movie appears rushed compared to a book, but this was pretty excessive. The dialogue was seriously lacking on some parts. Ender & Valentine on the lake was literally not much more than:
Valentine: They want me to convince you to go back.
Ender: I won't go back.
Valentine: But you have to for me.
Ender: OK, I'll miss you.

Spanned over [i]maybe[i] one whole minute. Not that I really needed that particular part to be longer, but found it to be an amusing example.

It also made for a lot of awkward dialogue. There must've been a pretty big push to get a lot of book quotes in, because they're forced in at so many points that don't necessarily make sense, and seem more to be like "we're touching on an entire theme/chapter/storyline of the book with a one-liner, just for the readers!"... while making it super awkward/forced for a viewer.

Personally, I think I would've rather seen the movie split into 2 parts filmed simultaneously with delayed release dates, and far more of the major character development & skipped material from the book.

Spoiler: show

First one could've ended with finishing Battle School, second one could've been home & Locke/Demosthenes & command school/end. Could fit in a lot more of the storylines, action and thereby character development.

Otherwise, I'd probably have to give it like a 6-7/10.

/endrant

[Buffy]

Speaker for the Dead would have been a pretty lousy movie anyways. This was only ever going to be a one book movie.

I agree with the above comments. Also wouldn't have minded if they did a better job progressing how long a period of time the book covers. He is like 7 when he leaves earth and like 17 when he defeats the Formics. This makes it look like a 6 week process.

[Kaslo]

In theory, the only followup movies they could have done would have been Ender in Exile and the shadow books, both of which got thrown away in this movie.

[Khajit]

Anyone else find it funny that Ender is like the only white person in the series? There are a few exceptions but Mazer rackam for instance is black as COAL in the comic books(unless my mind was laying tricks on me. I cant remember if they specified his race in the books), the planet with the pigs is full of latinos,people from literally across the planet are included in every book ive read, the planet of the autistic OCD Chinese, etc etc etc.