I just saw Ender's game today. I thought it was pretty good and I thought it had a good moral question to it. When I saw the reviews for it I was pretty let down. I'm thinking that the problem is that many people just didn't get what the story was really about.
So does any one agree with me or am I the one who dosen't get it? I'd like to hear other opinions.

 

I saw it and didn't like it all. I was holding it to pretty high standards though.

 

Why didn't you like it though?

 

That pacing was terrible.

They tried, they really did, but they did not do well enough. If they had to break the movie into two parts to get it done properly, they should have.

The book spanned 5 or 6 years, and they tried to cram all that into a couple months in the movie. It just did not work out, and I was really disappointed by it.

It's doubly disappointing because it comes with the feeling that they wasted the one shot they had to make something amazing out of an Ender's Game movie.

 

So many of the most significant moments were left out or glossed over. Battle School was rushed and simplified. Locke and Demosthenes were left out. None of the characters were especially well-developed, even Ender. The moral questions were discussed, but not in any real depth. And the ending was weird.

 

Ya that ending was fucked up.

Spoiler

While the CG bugger was cool looking it really wasn't need. As well as the ham handed way of forcing the war and peace message. Graff comes off more as a whiny kid in the end then what he should have.

I didn't like how they made the buggers more victims than they were in the book. It's been a while, but I remember Ender being more hung up that he had unknowingly sent thousands of humans to their death than the fact he destroyed an entire race, granted he did later feel regret and helped the buggers come back, but still. It was like the human loss didn't even matter. This is emphasized with the scene after he won the final exam. In the book the top brass in practically dancing and shout for joy, there was even tears involved. Here it's this cold, joyless, clap.

I also didn't like them leaving out Valentine, my favorite character, or Peter; and Petra! What the fuck did they do to you! They took a fairly strong female character and turned her into a generic love interest. Which, considering the books, is fucking hilarious.

The Ansible design was kinda cool, as was the battle school. But both were better, and worse than how I saw them. Ford's acting was a bright spot, but he's hampered by the butchering of the plot.

All together it's a very meh movie, up until the end at least. I did my first walk out when it got to that fucking CG alien in the makeshift court room.

Seriously fuck that shit.

 

TBH, it was a pretty meh movie, because the book is pretty meh itself. It seems like whoever came up the idea just went through a list of semi-old, but popular books, and said, "hey, which one of these hasn't had a movie yet?" and this is the end result.

 

This is one of the few times when I honestly refuse to see a movie based on a book - or those comics. I've become quite attached to the characters of the Enderverse and, more specifically, how I visualize them. I don't want to see Harrison Ford's face when I picture Graff.

 

Disappointed. A lot.

Honestly, I think the only redeeming qualities this movie have is the Mind Game part. It's disturbing, sickening, but also beautiful.

I think they put a lot of effort, making it as close as it can to the book, but in the end it came out just... rather average. Which is disappointing. The characters felt dry, the storyline felt rushed, and even the dialogues are cringe-worthy at times.

And forgive me for saying this, but I don't think this movie captures the essences of Ender's Game successfully.

Nice visuals, though...

 

Solid 7/10 for me. There were a whole load of things missing that I wish had been in it (Peter, Valentine etc). I actually think that whoever played the lead did a decent job. There were times when the delivery or action wasn't quite right (the opening fight at school comes off as reactionary rather than carefully considered). With that said, I think that Ender came off well in the general sense. Weak supporting acting, and 2-d characters are unfortunately rife throughout the rest of the film, and might make Ender seem better by comparison.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the last battle. It's probably because I knew what was coming, so watching Ender sacrifice thousands of lives without blinking or realizing it was pretty poignant. I also liked how they managed to tie in the dream sequence using a collapsed castle and Valentine-replica. It would have been practically impossible to do those scenes well in the first place so to do them done simply inoffensively is a godsend.

 

I've read it quite late and I would say I had read a lot before. My impression of the book was nothing special. It felt like early 80s children SF which didn't age well. My only explanation for it being seen as a "classic" back then is that it must have hit some nerve of its time and/or the reader's youth.
I've read at least 2 other books in the Ender series but I wouldn't even imagine to name these books or the writer as relevant to my SF reading experience.
So that people still care for it these days is sort of strange to me.

 

When I first read the book I was shocked and thought it was awesome. Then I read some of the sequels or tried to and got bored.

I had very low standards for the movie which is why I thought it was decent.

Ender did a decent job as did some of the others and the visuals were great (battle school looked good even though they rushed some of Ender's cool parts).

 

I read a lot of the series though Enders game and Enders shadow were the best, the other ones set in the future didn't interest me much. More recently i read a story that took place directly where Enders game ended and it was excellent, mostly dealing with Enders family. The movie was ok, i haven't watched the end yet so I'm reserving my full judgement.