Ender's Game: Reviews Are Out!

[Newfie]

I have a LOT of hope for this movie. It's not uncommon for me to find myself at odds with a critic rating on rotten tomatoes....

Please don't screw this up....

 

[Aikouka]

Spoiler in the following link.
http://ansible.wikia.com/wiki/Stilson

Ah, thanks!

The trailer seems to show a LOT of space battle. That worries me because IIRC, the were none in the book? I read it more than 20 years ago, so don't remember the details.

I'm expecting that, like many big budget movies nowadays, the gee-whiz action will be emphasized at the expense of plot and character development.

The space battles in the trailer are the simulation game from Command School.

 

[Drako]

I'm going to go see it no matter the reviews.

I'm just a sucker for any Scifi/Fantasy stuff on the big screen.

I'll probably see it in 3D too

 

[Aikouka]

I'll probably see it in 3D too

I saw that it's in IMAX too. It's further away (6 vs. 30 minutes), but if I did it for Gravity, I'm sure I can do it for Ender's Game too.

 

[Exterous]

If you're looking for a lot of space battles with ships and stuff, you'll probably be a little disappointed.

To be clear, I don't think I would classify anything that I'm about to talk about as a spoiler. It's just the background/explanation of some of the places in the book. Anyway, the school that the kids are sent to is split into two separate divisions: battle school and command school, and each school has its own unique "event." Battle school pretty much has laser tag in zero gravity, and command school has a space battle simulator. Although, the space battle simulator is more command oriented, so it's sort of like the Star Trek simulations (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru).

So, the reason why you may be disappointed is that command school is probably only half of the movie, and the space battles are part of a game. Now, I think they made the game look a heck of a lot cooler looking than it sounds in the book. In the book, I recall it looking like Space Invaders.

I read the book so I know about the space battle simulator but they did spend a fair amount of time there all things considered. Most movies have 1 maybe 2 space battles but there way more than that in the book. I'm sure they won't play them all out and I'm not expecting it to be Space Battles and Explosions by Michael Bay just give me a couple of good ones and I'm happy.

 

[Drako]

Anyone that is interested in seeing this should read the first two books in the Ender series. They are very good IMHO:
Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead

Edit: disclaimer, I'm not Mormon

 

[Ban Bot]

Is it true that

Spoiler

in the movie Ender knows he is killing the Buggers?

I heard that and it made me as it changes the whole dynamic of who Ender is.

 

[Aikouka]

Is it true that

Spoiler

in the movie Ender knows he is killing the Buggers?

I heard that and it made me as it changes the whole dynamic of who Ender is.

I hope not.... Honestly, I can't imagine that they would mangle the story like that.

 

[rockyct]

I have a hard time believing the reviews anymore. Reviewers must be getting paid to give a nod to expensive movies. World War Z got a decent review, about the same as Enders game, but was horrible and not even based on the book.

I think most people do believe that World War Z is a decent summer action movie. My friends and I saw it (most of us had read the book) and overall we all pretty much liked it. I even was at the Max Brooks panel at Comic Con and he flat out said that he wanted to hate the movie, but he actually liked it in the end. The reason why is that it had absolutely nothing to do with his book so he could enjoy it as a zombie action movie. It has a 67% RT rating. That means 2/3rds of the people who saw it liked it. I think that's pretty reasonable.

 

[MagickMan]

I figure you can safely add ~20% to the RT score, just because OSC is disliked so much by the Hollywood elite, and that spills over to a lot of reviewers.

So mostly likely, it'll be pretty good.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

They turn great books into horrible movies; what do you think they can do with a horrible book?

 

[Sonikku]

Spoiler

So why did the bugs resist against enders forces so much if they already knew their species was at it's end?

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

love the book but the previews don't really excite me. harrison ford feels like a miscast to me also. i think he's awesome so I hope he proves me wrong. heard he was good in 42

 

[glenn1]

love the book but the previews don't really excite me. harrison ford feels like a miscast to me also. i think he's awesome so I hope he proves me wrong. heard he was good in 42

I thought the same thing about Ford, but thinking about the Col. Graff character as he was written in the book I'm trying to think of who I think would be a better choice. The character is both an idealist and devious cynic, nurturing of Ender but at the same time distant and abandoning him as a means of making him a better leader. His premise during the entire book is "Ender can't ever be allowed to think he has anyone to help him."

With that character type in mind, who would you cast? William Dafoe? Javier Bardem? Gary Oldman or Liam Neeson? None of those seem like a perfect fit either.

 

[JamesV]

Anyone that is interested in seeing this should read the first two books in the Ender series. They are very good IMHO:
Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead

Edit: disclaimer, I'm not Mormon

The Speaker books were good, but nowhere near the same kind of epic that Ender's Game was. It was almost like going from space sci-fi to something Jules Verne might write.

Ender's Shadow however is freaking fantastic; might even be better than Ender's Game. Check that one out, if you haven't read it.

 

[ElFenix]

what the hell is ender's game and why am i only hearing about it now?

book about an introverted sociopath kid who is completely hammered on by everyone

Spoiler

saving the human race by playing starcraft

. resonates with the basement set.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

book about an introverted sociopath kid who is completely hammered on by everyone

Spoiler

saving the human race by playing starcraft

. resonates with the basement set.

lol, its spot on.

 

[gorcorps]

I hope not.... Honestly, I can't imagine that they would mangle the story like that.

I hope not too. More importantly I don't see OSC allowing such a thing, but who knows.

 

[Fingolfin269]

We've already prepared ourselves for the worst. Going to see it on Saturday and then drink some beer afterwards. Either way we end with a win!

 

[Paladin3]

There have been talks of a movie for quite awhile and if I remember right a lot of studios weren't open to the idea because of the violence. I only remember 2 people dying, but I guess the idea of children killing is a bit hard for Hollywood. I remember Fight Club being criticized for being excessively violent as well. I guess the message was the violent part... I am just disappointed Tyler wasn't met making a sun dial out of his penis like in the book. =(

Fight Club is a book!!! Why did nobody tell me!! *Runs to the nearest bookstore*

ATOT: #1 in telling you vital stuff you should have already known.

 

[Crono]

The Speaker books were good, but nowhere near the same kind of epic that Ender's Game was. It was almost like going from space sci-fi to something Jules Verne might write.

Ender's Shadow however is freaking fantastic; might even be better than Ender's Game. Check that one out, if you haven't read it.

I agree about Ender's Shadow. The Bean books (Shadow Saga) are a better overall series. Cumulatively less philosophical stuff and it has more character development and realistic Earth politics/strategy than sci-fi material (though there is some, just less to do with the Buggers), which worked out better than I would have thought. I liked Speaker of the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, though, just not quite as much as Ender's Game.

The books do grow on you over time, but I have noticed that some of the cultural references seem forced. Maybe that's just me.

 

[nageov3t]

The Speaker books were good, but nowhere near the same kind of epic that Ender's Game was. It was almost like going from space sci-fi to something Jules Verne might write.

Ender's Shadow however is freaking fantastic; might even be better than Ender's Game. Check that one out, if you haven't read it.

Ender's Shadow really killed Orson Scott Card for me... haven't been able to read one of his books since.

that was where he turned Petra from a strong female character into a baby making factory and introduced gay conversion as something characters strive for because there's no way to experience happiness in life without having biological children.

 

[sao123]

I saw that IGN posted their review for Ender's Game earlier today, and it looks like a few others have come out as well. It's currently sitting at a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes.

IGN's review seemed pretty hopeful as they gave it a 7/10 where the complaints were some of the child actors weren't great (big surprise there ), and how the movie lost some of the intricacy of the book (another big surprise ).

I'll still probably see it since I really like the book.

well tonight its up to 71%... so looks like its rising some.

 

[mikegg]

Does the movie still retain the book's mega surprise at the end or did they alter the story?

 

[Fayd]

Spoiler

Does the bully from the beginning die? I know Ender seriously injured him and I think he ends up in a coma, but I don't remember if he ends up dying. I know that Ender kills Bonzo during the bathroom brawl.

yes.

Spoiler

this detail of the first kid's death is not revealed till later in a conversation about bonzo's death and the need to hide it from ender