Saw it.
I was pleased with what they did with it. As I had hoped, they made it more a coming of age movie than anything else. It does bring up moral questions but, I think that is one of the things good Sci-Fi should do.

I recommend the movie.

*not endorsing the author, just the movie.

I'd agree. I brought my son, who had also read the book. He complained that the movie should have been longer, to explore more of Ender's internal struggles, but at 2 hours, it seemed the right size to me. (Of course, this is a common complaint with movies from books, and this may be the first time he's experienced it.)

My son and I both loved it. We'll probably go see it again.

And yeah, it "should" have been longer. And harsher. One of the big changes I noticed was that, while it did a lot of talking about making Ender's life rough, you didn't see much of that on screen. Mostly he spent his time supported by people who liked and respected him.

But what you did see, the thing the film did make paramount and visceral in a way the novel wasn't able to, was the pressure he/they were under to get this thing done.

My general feeling all the way through was that this wasn't Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, but rather a different vision altogether. All in all I thought it was a wonderful adaptation.

I thought it was an amazing and immersive experience. I'm not sure it could have been done any better than it was.

I thought they did a great job of visualizing what was hard to visualize in the battle training, and the acting was very good.  The moral questions were also very well done.  My main complaint was that the battle training seemed rushed and skipped over a lot of meat because they only had 2 hours.  It should have been longer, or even split into two movies, because the battle training is where we grow to appreciate the genius of Ender and how he can get those under his command to support and care for him.

I was very disappointed in the Bean adaptation.  Anyone who's read the later books about Bean probably understand what I'm talking about.  He's supposedly the smartest kid who ever went there, thanks to genetic tampering, but he comes off as a doofus.

I read the book ages ago, so as someone only slightly invested in it, I'd say that breaking it into two books would have been a mistake. Remember, movies aren't books, and aren't supposed to be books. 2 hours was sufficient to tell the story, quickly, and wrap it up nicely, even if that requires cutting some things.

My only complaint was how they ended the movie. The last five minutes were, IMO, a mistake.

I believe the last five minutes were there to appease the author.
Remember this is a 3 book series so he is vested.

I don't believe it harmed the movie but I would have preferred the time to be spent with the training instead.
=

In reply to GreenTongue (msg # 6):

It's a four book series, actually. At least, the series that focuses on Ender is four books. The series that focuses on Bean is five books (including Ender's Game).

I thought there could have been another twenty minutes or so without hurting the overall thrust of the film. But I love how-to in any movie, so the minutiae of training and battling would been fascinating to me anyway, even if I hadn't read the  books.

EDIT: Apparently Card has written one more novel in the Bean series, and is planning one more that will link both plot-lines. So ten books all told.
This message was last edited by the user at 19:06, Tue 05 Nov 2013.

In reply to katisara (msg # 5):

I tend to agree, though the last five minutes obviously ties into the Speaker For the Dead sequel and shows how the Mind Game is important.  (The Mind Game also later develops into an AI, but that's outside the scope of the movie.)  The last 5 minutes is really Ender's rebirth and redemption in the messianic archetype that is being developed throughout the book/movie.

I'm not saying to add more from the book just to see it out there.  I'm saying more from the training would help the movie because that's really where the audience begins to see how Ender is not just a military genius, but how he wins the love of his troops and is a great leader as well.

(It's sort of like when you see Anakin Obi Wan Kenobi turn from good to bad in just a few scenes in Star Wars.  It didn't get the audience there through enough finesse.)
This message was last edited by the user at 19:04, Wed 06 Nov 2013.

Obiwan?

Don't you remember the scene where Obi-wan killed a bunch of kittens and landed a Corellian Corvette on a bunch of handicapped grandmothers? I'm surprised Alec Guinness agreed to it...

:-p

One very important question:  Was it filled with lens flare and shaky cam?

If it was, I think we've had a sneak-peek at Episode 7...the reboot...*grin*

Oops, sorry, I mean Anakin.

Obi-wan made it funnier :-p

...and me stupider.  ;)

But is the film done with shaky cam?  No one has answered that yet!  :(

No, there's no shaky cam in Ender's Game.

Woo-hoo!  Time to go see it.

After I see Thor.  :)