Ender's Jeesh discussion

Just wondering if you all have seen the movie, and what you thought about it. I have some very strong opinions (both good and bad), and was wondering what other big fans thought.

I read Ender's Game and most of the sequels, and was pleasantly surprised by the movie. The battle school games and
scenes were far easier to follow than in the book, and it was loads of fun to watch the young actors and some of the old ones. The themes were all there, to my great relief.

My daughter fiercely loathed the book both times she read it, yet went to and enjoyed the movie. Today I read reviews by people who also hated the book, and am starting to realize that I am too forgiving of a book's flaws when certain aspects resonate with me.

Strange. I enjoyed the book, but sort of disliked the movie. Maybe it's because the story became more mainstream (lost its special spark), in some inexplicable way, in the movie. Some things were taken away--there was not as much emotion or span of time. I really enjoyed the graphics, especially the battleroom, but one thing that really bugged me was that some students in the school acted sort of dumb.

I feel the movie did an excellent job. I tried very hard not to have too high of expectations and I think that helped me enjoy more.

I can always wish for more battle room sequence and more development of characters and all that, but there just isn't time in a movie that attempts to encompass such a large book.

I liked the actors overall, especially the youth. The screenplay captured the essence of the book while leaving some of the more intricate understandings for us as readers not just as viewers. Graff was done very well by Ford even though the writing didn't allow for the undertatement of Ender's position found in the book. The movie and his roll were more straightforward with information and context of why he was treated as he was and Ender's purpose.

Here is a question for you all. Would a better sequel movie be Speak for the Dead or Enders' Shadow? (not that I'm sure that will happen at all.)

TY

Paul

the movie was so short with such a long book, they left out alot of scenes from the book too. I hated the movie

It did... more that I thought it would?

The movie was great!

I thought it was a good movie, but not a good adaptation of the book. I didn't feel the same emotional connection to Ender in the movie. None of the plot changes really bothered me alone, but together the movie just didn't feel right as an adaptation of the book.

I thought the plot up until the beginning of the final battle was rushed and bad in the movie, but I think they did a great job during and after the final battle in capturing and adapting to film the book essence, if maybe not the exact scenes. I loved the graphics, and the battleroom was amazing, but it was hard to get your mind around the time differences, as they only showed one practice with Petra and no dragon army practices, which makes you wonder how Ender and his army got their battleroom skills. I thought command school was OK, but still rushed. By changing the mind game and ending so it happens on Eros and still connects, they saved the movie, though.

Adapting Ender's Game for a theatrical story telling was a huge challenge. Ender's game is one of the few movies I'd have gladly accepted two. That would have used the same cast and crew to make two movies and shot them at the same time. In the end they would have had the move we saw AND a movie of battle school. Battle school would have carried the intensity in which is was written.

Enders Game the movie would have given me the pop culture fix. Enders Game the Battle School scratched an itch the book created.

Millions of us went to see the movie because of battle school and, due to theatrical limitations, we left without having the itch scratched.

Enders Game the movie was adequate.
Enders Game the Battle school would have been spectacular!

The movie was fine. I mean taking into account that you can only show the most important events. I was not a fan of the way they romanticise the relationship between Ender and Petra. Also, the death of Bonzo? and what about Bean and Ender being together on the same launch group?

I wish they and been more loyal to the book because that would give more opportunities for future movies.
Yet, i think that the movie gave me a lot of visualisation of things such as the battle school, battle room, Eros etc.

I think it was amazing, but they should´ve put more details of the book and not changed some things. Altough they did a great job and we have to understand that it wasn´t a simple book to respresent it as a movie. All in all, they had very good special effects. I loved it, but it could have been better.

I loved the movie! I think that it is impossible to make a movie that could possibly compare to such an amazing book. So that being said, I think that the movie was great. Not to mention the awesome special effects! But what bothered me about it was the fact that the main focus was around Ender and Petra. It really annoyed me that they made the characters have more of a romantic relationship, because that took up a lot of the movie where they could have added more detail and important ideas. Such as Bean, and Demosthenes and Locke. There was a whole book about Bean, and still Petra had a much bigger part than him. I still really liked the movie, though. I hope they make one for Enders Shadow!

I loved the book, but disliked the movie.
So many things went unexplained, and I didn't feel emotionally connected to Ender at all. For example, Ender's understanding of the formics wasn't included.
And how come Bean was in the same launch group? They only meet when Ender is a commander, right?

Nicole wrote: "I loved the movie! I think that it is impossible to make a movie that could possibly compare to such an amazing book. So that being said, I think that the movie was great. Not to mention the awesom..."

Charlie, I feel the same way, both about the movie and Bonzo. There was also a girl in launch group who was shorter than Bean. Wasn't bean to be the shortest? As for the rest of the cast, I was glad to see Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley play rolls.

Charlie wrote: "I really liked it, but Bonzo could not have been MORE miscast. I mean, the guy's supposed to be intimidating, right? So why is he so much shorter than Ender? Heck, not just "shorter"; COMICALLY sho..."

Kirai, I also loved the book and think that the movie didn't live up to the book's impact, but I don't think it could have. The power of the book was in its psychology, which built up to the twist at the end. The book let us see into Ender's mind, something that can't be done well in cinema. So right off the bat, the movie version is handicapped. Add to that a cast made up of children and screen time limited to two hours. I think the screen writers, director, cast, and crew did an outstanding job given these limitations.

This is a classic example of how a top selling novel does not automatically make a blockbuster.

Justin, I agree with you. The entire Ender Quintet relies on its psychology, but funny how I'd reach an opposing conclusion.
I think that since the movie(s) can never truly capture the essence of the books, they shouldn't make them in the first place. I mean, imagine a Xenocide movie, it's so packed with emotional conflicts and ethical debates that don't really work that well in moving pictures that it'll win the Most Boring Movie of the Century award.

I liked the movie and I don't think it show enough of the book. It totally left out the scene of the werewolf's in the game plus a bunch of other stuff. I think they should if added more story.

Shaina wrote: "I thought it was a good movie, but not a good adaptation of the book. I didn't feel the same emotional connection to Ender in the movie. None of the plot changes really bothered me alone, but tog..."

I agree with this assesment. It was a good movie, but a bad adaptaion.

The movie was great but I think it left a few important perspectives of things like how they turned almost everything on him I loved the movie but I wish they would have showed more of ender wiggin corrupting (aka breaking)

They left out the chapter Demosthenes & Locke. THE BEST CHAPTER OF THE WHOLE BOOK!!!

Orson Scott Card is adept at capturing the thoughts, emotions, and conflicts going on within each character. Some A-list actors may come close to acting these conflicts out, but none of them are kids, and none of them were in the movie. This was the biggest problem with it, besides the obvious limitations and cutouts necessary to keep a movie short. Bonzo being a scrawny brat did not help things. The special effects, of course, were fantastic, and actually made me enjoy the book even more. Sadly, other than that, the movie was a letdown and has even convinced some of my friends not to read the book.

Hated it. Hated the movie soo much!! The book is just amazing and brilliant and genius and they ruined it with the movie. The only thing I liked was the effects, it should of been a longer movie or a two part movie.

I can only ponder on "what if". OSC wrote the whole script and he's a great writer, not just of books, but of screenplay. Gavin Hood, a terrible director by the way (remember Wolverine Origins?), decided he understood the themes of the book and knew how to tell the story. Hood then decided to trash OSC's script and come up with his own -- which was absolutely terrible. How can you take gold and turn it into really gross mac n cheese.

I think the movie was great on its own... I would probably rate it a 10/10. But compared to the book... wow, they were off... Probably only like a 6 or 7 out of 10. But the book... that was like a 20/10. And the books following that are amazing as well!

I hated that they put in so little detail and merged things (like Bean in Ender's launch group?!)... I understand that they were running out of time, but Mockingjay (Hunger Games Series) is being made into two movies... why couldn't Ender's Game have been?

Duncan wrote: "The movie was great but I think it left a few important perspectives of things like how they turned almost everything on him I loved the movie but I wish they would have showed more of ender wiggin..."

I sorta agree, but that *was* a subplot, and it really didn't come into play until the sequels of the book.

I wasn't expecting much from the movie, I thought it was OK and that's about the best I could hope for. My daughter was 10 at the time and she loved it, so I guess it's a good introduction for people who haven't read the book(s).

I really think Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow would make a good TV series or miniseries if done correctly. With CGI special effects now affordable for even TV movies I think someone could do a good job with this. It would be nice to see, and also the only way I think someone could do justice to the story and the themes.

I saw the movie first and enjoyed it. I went back and read all the Ender and Shadow series and will probably read more. I saw the movie again after reading and realized what was missing before, but that's always the case. Overall I thought the movie stood well on it's own. The book is always better is a cliche for a reason.

Enders game is the only movie I think that was better than the book. Reasons are hard to explain, they just captured the battles so well and the music enhanced everything. They did not do well on making Bonzo as sinster as he was supposed to be though.

The book was infinitely better than the movie. However, the movie did pay homage to the book very well. I knew, even before the movie came out, that I would probably have this opinion. Mostly because my favorite part of the book is the fact that we get to see Ender's actual mind and thought processes and views as he goes about the story. In the movie, we simply get to see a young boy become who he truly is: a commander. However, in the book, we get to see that in much more depth and to me, that is what makes the book one of the greatest science fiction stories in history.

Agreed! There are some things that the movie can not capture of the book and vias versa.

I did miss some of all the combat school stuff in the movie, but to my great relief, the movie had cut out all the politics with the brother and sister, which I hated (next time I read it, I'll skip those chapters).

So in the end, I ended up liking the movie far more that I thought I would have. But the book is still the favorite, despite the politics.

I find that the "politic" stuff was part of what made Ender who he is. His family was not exactly normal and neither was he.

Generally, I'd give the movie a 7 out of 10 and the book a 9 out of 10. The movie's not bad. The storyline and battles are easier to follow as they're more visual in the movies. But the movies changed the age of the characters, and don't express the inner feelings and conflicts of the characters. More could have been depicted in the movie of Petra and Bonzo. And the movie changed much of the original plot, like not making Bonzo dead but only brain dead, and Ender leaving Valentine to explore the universe at the very end of the movie. I still prefer the book A LOT! But have a look at the movie to give you a gist of the story. I highly recommend the Shadow series. Speaker for the Dead (Ender's Game's original sequel) is a bit too off from Ender's Game.

Good point. There are some things that film will never be able to capture, and some things that only words can.

I enjoyed the movie well enough. Wish that it would have done better and turned into filming more of the series. That being said the market is saturated with these types of novel to film series. OSC is an amazing writer and it is very hard to capture some of his philosophies and messages about people, relationships, life, and where humanity is headed in a film.

As a strong lover for the books I did not like the movie. I read the first book in school and had a specific “job” throughout the class. I basically had to do a complete analysis of all of the fight/battle, both personal and in the battle room. So going in to the movie with a lot of knowledge I was noticing a lot of instances where they took the reason why a fight was successful, and completely flipped it around. For example, when Ender and Bonzo fight in the bathroom, Ender specifically doesn’t burn Bonzo with the water, but uses it as a way to get slippery, but in the movie, he burns Bonzo and Bonzo cracks his heard on the floor. Things like this won’t bother other people but bother me because part of the reason the books were so amazing was because Ender was such a tactically brilliant kid who knew how to make things work. The movie felt like such a downgrade in every aspect in my opinion. You could argue that that had to change things because it’s a movie and all but I still and definitely not a fan.