Ender's Game

[joshuagoliath]

*CRY* The last time I was this disappointed with a movie was the Star Trek reboot.

Let me be blunt- the book is one of my favorites. Quite possibly my VERY favorite. I've read it at least 30 times, but probably closer to 50.

But the movie... it was crap.

HUGE chunks missing, a few things out of order, some crap kind of thrown in, and the way it was put together makes the flow completely off.

Seriously, Hollywood needs to learn to make a book into a movie by making the BOOK into the movie, not just parts of it and then spicing it up.

[joshuagoliath]

I don't understand the thought process...

Execs: "This is a hugely popular book, and has been for YEARS! We should acquire the rights to make it into a movie!"
*Business dealings*
Execs: "We have the rights, now, we need a script. Hire so-and-so."
Writer: "Here's my script, based on the book. Well, parts of the book. I left out some really important chunks, changed a few other things around, and added some small stuff. But the SPIRIT of the book is still there. Throw in some great FX, and nobody will care"
Exec: "Well, the book has a huge following, so we'll make a bundle. When we show previews, we'll make sure they pretty much fit the book"
*movie opens. Fans of the book go see it, walk away going "WTF" and spread the word. People don't go see the movie*
Execs: "Well, we didn't make much. Obviously we should never get another book from that author"
Writer: "I don't see how people didn't like it. I did a great job turning it into a movie script!"

[Sci-Fi]

Well part of it is the limitations due to the ages in the book. On the big screen seeing a 6 year old kill another 6 year old would have freaked out the straights.
Like wise seeing the 4 or 5 years of progression would have been impossible on the big screen with out breaking it into a multi part movie with multiple actors.
Most 6 year olds do NOT have the depth to play a super genius.
Then you have the audience being asked to accept that 6 year olds think like Ender does. Which most aren't going to swallow.
Add in that -alot- of the book is in Ender's head. What he's thinking, how he perceives those around him. With out glaring and constant "Thought speech" over the scenes it's hard to show such.
The "Game" in the computer is an aspect of this. They actually showed that (A little) in the movie.
Another aspect that they gently brushed on, in the movie, is the psychological stuff and how the adults were doing this 'To' him. Not 'for' him. Again that's not going to go over well in what would need to be 3 to 6 hours of a movie, with adults pretty much beating a 6-11 year old down, over and over and over and over. hell they had to create a sympathetic person in the movie to show just a very very little of it (The lady officer)
Also some of the book was repetitive, and in so, was glossed over. "Battles" against this army or that army were mentioned but usually in passing with Ender just schooling the people. In a book you can do that. In the movie you'd need a montoge.

The book just didn't translate well to the big screen.

That being said it wasn't 'horrible'. It just wasn't the book. I thought it was an average film. The kids in it, did a pretty good job with what they were given, but even then you're seeing -a lot- of adult thoughts and emotions being played by preteens. If they'd been more true to the book it'd have seemed absurd on the screen. i mean a 6 year old that literally kills a kid in a school yard fight because he knew tactically he needed to win not just that one fight but all the other fights too, and kills a kid, and it's just glossed over? Sure.. years later with Bonzo it was more understandable, but how do you empathize with a 6 year old killer? Even if they beat up Ender, KILLING someone to avoid an ass kicking?

I love the book too. I have multiple copies and my kids read it and re-read it now. Great book, but almost impossible to translate to the screen. The translation they attempted had flaws, but they tried.


I'm curious to what parts you feel were left out? I mean like I said to fully do it you'd need 3 to 6 hours and age the kid from 6 to 12 or so, so the movie seriously was hampered by time and what not, but what parts where you specifically missing?

[joshuagoliath]

Spoiler alert








The "extra" training he used to do, including when it was with new launchies

How he became badass at leading teams in the battle room

The training of his people, which crafted his subordinate leaders

Petra is supposed to collapse at the final battle, not be right there.

The rest of the video game. Kindof important.

The ENTIRE Peter/Valentine story. And that is HUGE
*****************+********&

Now, I agree about the "problems" of making this book into a movie. Which is why I was scared as soon as they announced it.

My fears were justified. They should have made a 3 (at least) hour version. Hell, even 2 1/2 would probably been enough. And LotR has proven people will sit through that long of a movie

[Sci-Fi]

Jan 3, 2014 21:15:48 GMT joshuagoliath said:

Spoiler alert








The "extra" training he used to do, including when it was with new launchies

How he became badass at leading teams in the battle room

The training of his people, which crafted his subordinate leaders

Petra is supposed to collapse at the final battle, not be right there.

The rest of the video game. Kindof important.

The ENTIRE Peter/Valentine story. And that is HUGE
*****************+********&

Now, I agree about the "problems" of making this book into a movie. Which is why I was scared as soon as they announced it.

My fears were justified. They should have made a 3 (at least) hour version. Hell, even 2 1/2 would probably been enough. And LotR has proven people will sit through that long of a movie

I think alot of that was lost due to the problems I point out above.
1) The Launchies can't be presented as 5 and 6 year olds. Noone would buy it. So Ender going up as a 6 year old, then getting 'fast tracked' into an older army, then 'having' to practice with the 6 year olds wouldn't work.
2) The time limits, and repetitive nature of the battles prevented it from showing how bad ass he was. Even in the book there were only what.. 4 battles described in detail? And even those were described in a move or two that won the day. Most of the battles were mentioned like "Ender wnet up in the rankins beating Rat army and Tiger army and bla bla bla. they weren't really described that much.
3) They did show how he crafted some of his LT's, but it was hobbled by the short run time and that they couldn't actually show the 4-6 year progression
4) Petra actually collapsed in a battle before the final. She was over loaded and then came back, but Ender couldn't put as much on her again, as he didn't want to fully break her. She was there for the final battle.
5) The video game -was- an important part of the book, but it was all introspection. it was a mind fuck. And with out ender giving a constant voice over, it wouldn't make any sense. Hell it dind't make sense to the teachers and they were the ones programming it. It was AI that went off and did it's own thing. Showing that and 'explaining' it to the audience with out constant voice over would have bee impossible.
6) The Peter Valentine story... isn't actually HUGE for the Ender's Game book/story. It's huge in what comes next. But if you actually took out everything that Val and Peter did after Ender left, from the book. The book is exactly the same. That stuff only comes due later/after. Again, try and tell the average American public that an 8 and 9 year old, via the internet take over the US and Russian political landscape and end up in power. People would laugh and walk out of the room. It doesn't work on the screen where you have to 'show' not 'tell'. Noone is going to belive an 8 year old blogger managed to fool all the worlds governments into going along with their (8 year old) view points.


I agree they could have done alot better with alot more time. I just think the nature of the story and the ages of those invvolved and the time they had to cram it in, meant theycouldn't really explain alot of what was happening. So they were hobbled.

If you look at it as 100% separate from the book. it's a medium movie. Not great. Not horrible. Some nice eye candy.

If you try and compare the two, ew... it ends badly. lol

As a "Sci Fi" movie.... Eh... C... C+

As "ENDERS GAME" ..... D.....