ENDER'S GAME: movie review
Where to even start? I have such mixed feelings about this movie.
WARNING - THIS POST IS REALLY LONG AND CONTAINS SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK!
On the one hand, I really loved a lot about the movie.
The CastI thought the casting was perfect. Asa Butterfield as Ender was excellent. He did a fantastic job of showing the depths of feeling that Ender experienced throughout his training and at the end. He really "became" Ender, and to someone who loves the book, that was no mean feat. He showed a lot of emotion and his acting was wonderful. I also enjoyed how the writers sort of "merged" the character of Bean into Ender a little bit... as I have always liked Bean better than Ender anyway, I thought it was nice that Ender was not portrayed as being constantly depressed.
Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff. Brilliant. He managed to portray the gruffness, the absolute strictness and unwavering belief that what he was doing was necessary, and yet he also managed to make me believe that he truly cared about Ender and understood that what was being done to Ender was not right. I absolutely loved his portrayal of Graff, it was perfect.
Moises Arias as Bonzo Madrid was a surprise, but wow! Did he ever pull it off! Spectacular.
Ben Kingsly as Mazer Rackham - not as large of a role as I would have preferred, but still a solidly performed character.
Abigail Breslin is pretty brilliant no matter what role she's playing, so no complaints there.
And Viola Davis as Major Anderson was a complete twist, but one I really enjoyed. (Anderson is genderless in the book, you never really see the "person" that Graff is speaking with, so although I always pictured him as a guy, it made sense to have another female character in the movie).
Some of the ChangesI really appreciated the way the story got "cleaned up" a bit. There is a lot of swearing and name-calling in the book, and there was very little of it in the movie. I was glad that the script managed to convey the darkness of the story without all the foul language.
I didn't even mind the weird sort of pseudo-romance between Ender and Petra (even though it's not there in the books, and Petra ends up with Bean), because it helped make the characters feel more real and as if they cared about what happened to each other.
Bean and Ender arriving on the same shuttle... no, not how it happens in the book, but makes sense in the movie.
It took me a bit by surprise how old the kids were in the movie (I knew they'd be a little older, 6 year old actors who are good enough to pull off this kind of movie would be incredibly difficult to find), but I was still caught off guard by how big most of the kids were. However, I liked that while Ender was not always the shortest kid in a group, he was still very often the "smallest" - not being as muscular or physically strong-looking.
The EffectsOf course the special effects were going to be a big part of this movie, and had the potential to make or break the film. They were done excellently, and even though things may not have looked exactly the way I pictured them as I read the book, I thought that the movie's take on the way things looked was very nice. The Battle Room was every bit as awesome to look at as it was to imagine (but there's enough mystery about the Battle Room in the book that I don't feel the movie will overpower my imagination the next time I read the book). And the simulator at Command School was pretty snazzy.
The StoryThe movie definitely covered the major points of the story. Having talked with several people who went to see the movie who had NOT read the book I think the movie did an excellent job of condensing the story into the "important" parts, and showing the true depth of the plot.
However, this is where we get to the "on the other hand" part of my opening statement and begin delving into what I didn't like about the movie... and that was mostly centered around the dialogue, length, and pacing of the story.
First of all, the dialogue was a bit stilted. Some things between the kids (particularly the conversation between Valentine and Ender on the lake) just felt forced and delivered awkwardly.
Secondly, the pace. At 114 minutes (and that includes the credits) this movie is not even 2 hours long. The movie clips along at a somewhat breakneck speed, throwing the story at you and hoping you catch the details. And then there are so many details that simply got "left out" of the script. My major complaint about the movie is that it was far too short. To be perfectly honest I felt like I was watching a "highlights" reel, or an extended trailer. I didn't care about the things that were changed... Just so we're clear, I'm not complaining about the changes from book to movie, I understand completely that different mediums for story telling often require some changes and tweaks.
What I am talking about are the things they simply left out. The details. The little conversations or events that would have gripped the audience and made them LOVE the story and the characters.
For example: the most interesting and exciting parts of the book occur during Battle School. Ender learning the "game" and training with his old Launchie buddies because nobody else will train with him. Ender getting his own army. Ender's Dragon Army moving up through the ranks against all odds. All the various tactics and strategies he uses to be ready for anything the teachers throw at him during the "battles."
Instead, they showed ONE battle. ONE battle with Dragon Army (after you watch a brief conversation between Graff and Anderson in which, on a screen behind them you can see, if you're paying attention, that "Dragon Army" is rising higher and higher on the board).
And then it's on to Command School.
What?
Wait... what just happened?
I mean, 20 more minutes and you could have SHOWN some of that struggle... instead of just TELLING me about it. And that's where I feel this movie fell short the most. It relied on telling, rather than showing, the story.
Maybe there will be an Ender's Shadow movie where the holes get filled in. That would be cool.
Or maybe it's just that Gavin Hood wasn't quite experienced enough of a script-writer/director to take on this kind of project. I think he did a great job. I really do. But I also think he just missed it. He had all the pieces to make this movie one of the all-time greats. But in my opinion, it fell a little short of that mark, which was more than a bit disappointing. I may like it better the second time through... but these are my initial, knee-jerk reactions to the movie. I think I would have actually liked it better if I hadn't read the book. :)
The EndThe only other thing I kind of wished, is that I kind of wished that there had been an actual "conversation" that we could hear (maybe in hissing voices) between Ender and the last queen. I kept expecting it, and was disappointed when it didn't happen, where the queen explains that they had no idea that every single human was an individual, and that when they realized what they had done during the first invasion they knew that their punishment was coming, and that it was even deserved - you get to "listen in" to the thought-conversation that occurs in the book.
(Because communicating through stares is only something that movie-makers seem to find effective... but we learned in King Kong and the Twilight movies that it isn't always as useful as some writers/directors seem to think it is, now didn't we? It's a little like lens flares... one or two is good... but overuse can transform them into something ridiculous)
I just felt like the way they left it sort of "vilified" Graff, and the human race as a whole. And I get that there's the whole parallel between how the Formics did not realize they were killing millions of "queens" and how Ender did not mean to kill Stillson or Bonzo... but there is a major difference between them. Ender did not start either of those fights, while the Formics did invade earth, planning to kill everyone on the planet and take the planet for themselves. Just because they thought they were only going to kill a handful of actual individuals doesn't make it any better than coming with full knowledge of killing millions. At the end of the BOOK, the queen Ender talks to admits that. She has passed on her knowledge of humans to the new queen, in hopes of atoning for and avoiding the mistakes that she made.
So... would I recommend the movie? Yeah. It did a good job telling the main points of the story. But if you've read the book, you may just end up disappointed in the end.