Ender's Game (2013)

[Plain Old Tele]

The enemy's gate is down.

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I read about half of the book ten years ago. I did not think much of it. So do not expect a book comparison review. I thought the trailers and tv spots sucked for this movie. I was thinking this movie was easily going to get a D ranking from me but instead I enjoyed. I was done with work early so I decide to go to the movies and this was only movies that was about to start. The movie is pretty cool and the acting is well done. Even the kid actors do better job then most movies that feature kids I like the special effects and how the game room worked.

spoilers 

 

I liked the ending of the movie where find it was not a stimulation but in actual battle and Ender destroys the whole planet. At the every end you find out the Queen of the aliens on one of there planets the alien inhabited was trying to communicate with Ender during some games he would play during training school. This game is like a video game on Ipad and she would appear in it and use his sister to show him where to go. At the end of the movie he walks outside the base on a different planet and recognizes and remembers were to go and  meets the queen. He takes her egg since she going to die so there race can be saved. 

 

I would liked to see some themes more in the movie. You get the idea of the themes but are never too much focus on. There are themes of war and leadership in the movie but I felt like it could have been done better. At times they try to tell you how to feel and rush emotional scenes. Overall though the movie is pretty good it is your standard blockbuster. IMO it is on the same level as Iron Man 3. I found the movie to better than Star Trek.

B- 

[The Panda]

"This happens to the majority of the plot points in the movie, they are rushed to the point where any impact, thought, importance, thematic relevance, heart, all of it is taken away and it's just a bare outline of the book."

 

http://thepandaflicksreviews.blogspot.com/2013/11/enders-game-review.html

[Water Bottle]

B+

 

It's a pity that their trying to make a franchise out of the whole book series because I think this is the way they should have done it: filmed back-to-back and split between the following:

 

Movie 1: Battle School

Movie 2: Ender's Shadow

Movie 3: Command School

 

This would have allowed the plot points to breath (man did this movie have to speed through everything-and a lot of impact is lost although not all of it) but actual relationships to form.

 

Interestingly enough, and what elevates it to a B+ is that the movie is able to take the ending of the book and actually does a better job with it.

 

Anyways, the movie is a different version of the Ender's Game story than the book and while it is inferior, it isn't a bad one. It has merits, it has it's flaws, but I'm relatively pleased with it.

[Kvikk Lunsj]

What are the other books about?

[Water Bottle]

What are the other books about?

 

Well it basically splits into two different plots: Bean's plot that follows Earth's wars after the bugger threat has stopped unifying the planet and Ender's plot where he attempts to find a new home for the buggers and deals with a new alien species and stuff. It's very boring and Orson Scott Card indulges his bullshit a little too long.

[Sam]

I enjoyed the story, acting performances, and actions. I read the book quite a long time ago so my memory of it is a little fuzzy, but I think the movie took and adapted some main elements onto the screen pretty well. 

 

The movie felt a bit rushed and disjointed at times, but overall, it's a competently-made blockbuster. And agree with Water Bottle about the ending, it was handled well.

 

B+ from me.

[Empire]

I saw this earlier today and I enjoyed it. I like the acting, story, and thought the special effects were really good.

 

However, I thought it moved to fast at points and didn't focus enough on certain aspect enough. Ender flew through the schools in the movie. I would have liked to see a little more of that instead of jumping him through it so fast.

 

I will say though that I have never read the books, so the movie is all I have to base it on.

 

Still, I would give it a....

 

B-

[RobinHood26]

Going in to this I was hoping for a B- movie. It unfortunately didn't meet those expectations. the reason? Direction, Gavin Hood isnt a good director, this and wolverine are those types of movies where there is no personal stamp. It looks like anyone could have directed it. 

 

The only thing this movie has going for it is the Story. Easily the best thing to have in a movie, but the problem is every other aspect in the filmmaking process is lackluster. Ender's Game has the potential to be a rousing epic with a great twist. But there is no suspense, no stakes, the most exhilarating part of the movie is the "No gravity, Capture the flag game". There was a point were I almost hoped we just got a 2 hour movie about this sport. It was one of the only times I felt the movie knew what it was.

 

The Cinematography as a whole was just flat out boring and un-interesting. The Battle scenes could have been pure eye candy with a different director but its just kind of there. 

 

C- (72)

Edited November 4, 2013 by Jay Hollywood

[BiffMan]

Disclaimer - Having been a big fan of the book/series and re-reading them every time a new one came out, it's pretty much impossible for me to watch the movie without comparing.  That said, I did try to take it on its merits and let it do what it will, but I think I have to break this into two reviews:

 

The Movie Itself:

Quite a lot to like here and great performances from the core cast.  I expected excellence from Ben and wasn't disappointed (loved the accent), but I was pleasantly surprised by Harrison and Asa.  Asa turned in some excellent emoting work and gave a good fearful undercurrent to many of Ender's actions.  Harrison I am a huge fan of, but the trailers had me worried that he had phoned in another performance. Thankfully, he was actively engaged here and the final shouting match with Asa was excellent by both of them.  Probably one of Harrison's better performances of late and nice to see that him looking considerably younger than he has recently.  Perhaps we'll still get a few good movies out of him.

 

As an action piece, the movie works well enough.  As a character study, not so much.  Granted, that's quite a lot to get through in a very short time, but you don't have to look further than Gravity to see that you don't have to sacrifice character development along the way.  That exact material might have worked considerably better in more capable directing hands.  The constant people looking straight into the camera was off-putting (especially Dap at the beginning... ugh) and he didn't bother getting consistently good performances out of the supporting cast.  Each had a decent moment or two, but there were some really wooden moments, particularly the girl playing Val. 

 

So overall, I'd say it's worth a watch if you're not familiar with the book and on it's own I'd give it a solid B.

 

The Book Adaptation:

Hard to not rant on this, but it was severly disappointing as a fan of the book.  Primarily that's because it didn't focus on the themes that resonated with me in the book.  Here they put the focus squarely on the human/formic saga and were really building to the epilogue and that worked fine.  That unfortunately was at the expense of the themes that matter to me in the book: Ender's constant struggle against fear, expectations, the overall unfairness of his life, and his development as a person and a leader. 

 

When they jumped straight from Ender's first battle room battle to his last as a commander, I knew we were in trouble.  We skipped over everything that makes the book matter.  Ender's methodical figuring out the battle room, followed by thrusting him into command way too early and his subsequent figuring out leadership, all with the constant undercurrent of how unfairly life and the teachers are treating him...  none of that.  Similarly at Command School, we don't get to see Ender start out with one ship, move to a squadron of 4, start doing harder battles, and all the while being pushed to the limit by Mazer and the final battle being Ender's equivalent of giving up.  No, instead we get 2 battles and a triumphant "yeah!" with fists raised and everything.  Pretty much the exact opposite of what Ender is actually feeling in the book.

 

I also really wished they hadn't gone the "photo realistic simulation" angle with command school.  The one shot where he asks for the enhanced view and you see wireframe graphics, that's what it should have been like until the final reveal.  That would have been much more powerful and would have hidden the twist far, far better than having it look real all along.  When we're then told that it was real, it's hardly surprising.  Needed more Ender vs Razer and much more character development.

 

Ultimately, this adaptation is very much like Hunger Games:  It's a pale echo of the book.  The sacrifices that have to be made in the interests of time and format are all well and fine, but it should never be at the expense of the core motivations of the characters.  Hunger Games didn't give us enough character motivation and that was unfortunate, but Ender's Game ignores and even misinterprets the main character's motivations. 

 

Like I said, it's near-impossible for me to separate the movie from the book, and I do think the director brought his vision of the book to the screen.  It just wasn't mine and it blew an opportunity to realize a complex and interesting character on the screen. 

D-

[baumer]

Coming from someone who doesn't know one thing about this, I was completely surprised.  I went in with no preconceived notions and found myself loving it after the first ten minutes.  Part of the reason for the absolute love of the film is that Ender is so damn interesting and likable.  This is one of my faves of the year thus far.  

 

9/10

[Sam]

Yeah, Asa Butterfield was great in this IMO. I hope he'll have a good long career. Looking forward to his other movies.

[baumer]

Oh yea, he was fantastic.  And I really enjoyed Ford in this.  He was ornery, commanding, entertaining, funny and next to Butterfield, the best character in the film.

[Empire]

Yeah, Buttfield was really good in it. He was my favorite part.

[kitik]

Just got back from the movie. It wasn't perfect, but I really enjoyed it, quite entertaining.

 

I never read the book, so this was my first exposure to the story. I guessed the ending, and it seemed to end somewhat abruptly, so I can easily believe some of the complaints in posts above about shortening the command school part.

 

Like baumer, I fell in love with the movie after the first 5-10 minutes. Really effective characters.

[RobinHood26]

I found the first 10 minutes to be laughably bad in all honestly. 

[Water Bottle]

The Book Adaptation:Hard to not rant on this, but it was severly disappointing as a fan of the book.  Primarily that's because it didn't focus on the themes that resonated with me in the book.  Here they put the focus squarely on the human/formic saga and were really building to the epilogue and that worked fine.  That unfortunately was at the expense of the themes that matter to me in the book: Ender's constant struggle against fear, expectations, the overall unfairness of his life, and his development as a person and a leader. When they jumped straight from Ender's first battle room battle to his last as a commander, I knew we were in trouble.  We skipped over everything that makes the book matter.  Ender's methodical figuring out the battle room, followed by thrusting him into command way too early and his subsequent figuring out leadership, all with the constant undercurrent of how unfairly life and the teachers are treating him...  none of that.  Similarly at Command School, we don't get to see Ender start out with one ship, move to a squadron of 4, start doing harder battles, and all the while being pushed to the limit by Mazer and the final battle being Ender's equivalent of giving up.  No, instead we get 2 battles and a triumphant "yeah!" with fists raised and everything.  Pretty much the exact opposite of what Ender is actually feeling in the book. I also really wished they hadn't gone the "photo realistic simulation" angle with command school.  The one shot where he asks for the enhanced view and you see wireframe graphics, that's what it should have been like until the final reveal.  That would have been much more powerful and would have hidden the twist far, far better than having it look real all along.  When we're then told that it was real, it's hardly surprising.  Needed more Ender vs Razer and much more character development. Ultimately, this adaptation is very much like Hunger Games:  It's a pale echo of the book.  The sacrifices that have to be made in the interests of time and format are all well and fine, but it should never be at the expense of the core motivations of the characters.  Hunger Games didn't give us enough character motivation and that was unfortunate, but Ender's Game ignores and even misinterprets the main character's motivations. Like I said, it's near-impossible for me to separate the movie from the book, and I do think the director brought his vision of the book to the screen.  It just wasn't mine and it blew an opportunity to realize a complex and interesting character on the screen. D-

This is precisely why they should have split the novel (and it's companion) into three movies. As one movie, it had NO option to do anything but rush through everything. I'm not surprised by the reception of some of the people who haven't read the book: as I was leaving the theater, I overhead a girl claiming the movie changed her life and it was amazing.

[Plain Old Tele]

This is precisely why they should have split the novel (and it's companion) into three movies. As one movie, it had NO option to do anything but rush through everything.

 

Unfortunately, it's a miracle they even got one movie made.

[Water Bottle]

Unfortunately, it's a miracle they even got one movie made.

As batman would say, we didn't get the movie we wanted but the one we deserved. Or needed.Whatever.

[baumer]

I found the first 10 minutes to be laughably bad in all honestly. 

 

Really?  What part?