re: Enders Game Review Thread

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The movie really needed to be longer.

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This, not a bad movie but the pacing/character development is pretty awful. I seriously hope that this inspires people to read the book, which is truly excellent.

I hate to criticize the movie, because the cinematography was outstanding, but it takes a hit for the character development. I think they limited themselves, and really missed on some opportunities.

Example: there is no excuse for Peter having only 2 scenes in the movie.

Also, Bean's story was totally forgotten. You know they're not gonna make a movie out of Ender's Shadow, so why not try to make a solid supporting character out of him, or try to play into the fact that Bean and Ender really weren't too fond of each other.

One little thing I really wanted to see was Ender's attack on Bernard in the shuttle.

Like it was said above, it needed to be longer. No way they could do the character development they needed with that amount of time. I think they did well with the hand they were dealt.

Will see this tonight. I have read Ender's Game 4 times.

Will go in with little expectations.

I will say that right off the bat, that is not how I pictured the war room to be. I thought it'd be more plain and expansive, not as vibrant.

I was appalled that they made it clear that the invasion fleet was only a month out before Ender even got his army.



Never mind the obvious twist spoiler


Wayyyy accelerated pace.

So he finished up battle school in like a week after getting Dragon, spent a week at the lake....got in a star ship that oh, btw he went in stasis in, and fought the bugger homeworld like 3 days into arriving at not-Eros?

I really like how they captured how hard killing the Buggers got him.


Although I feel they missed out on some great opportunities.

I mean, if they were going to let the audience know ahead of time that the invasion was real, why not keep it closer to the book both in tactics and console set up.

The Bean segment (who already knew it was real), giving quiet reassurance to the pilots in the carriers as they were in the final stages of carrying out suicide orders, burning up in the atmosphere while trying to get close enough for the MD Device to work, would have been great.




To be fair though, using that as a emotional point would have taken away from the Ender bit.

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Despite the negatives, it was still a great movie.

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I wouldn't call it great....its a character driven story in which they didn't spend enough time developing a character. To quote one of Card's criticisms (in another context, not this movie), they spent most of the time telling Ender's traits, instead of showing us; which is a sign of bad storytelling.

Its made worse by the fact that a lot of what they showed about character was not completely congruent with what they said about the character.


But it is pretty damn good, especially for as long as it spent in development hell.

Card submitted a screenplay to WB who then started to move with it 10 YEARS ago.

Why the frick is the actor playing Ender like 16 years old? He was 6-9 years old in the book. The actor playing him should be no older than 12. We're supposed to believe the kid is a freakish prodigy for the ages. It's not as striking when we have a kid two years away from starting college playing him.

I'm fine with who they picked. I don't want another Anakin Skywalker mishap. No way you would have found a 9 year old with the acting chops to pull this off. AB did a great job imo.

You had to expect that.

This movie was fricking horrible.

3/10

Just the dialogue alone takes 5 pts off its score.