Welcome to Gracie Mae DeLunac's life, via the computer. This is where you'll see updates on my stories and whatnot. I'll post when I can about what new stuff has occurred in my mind, in the world, and whatever goes. Benvenue, everyone!
This is my movie review for "Mystic River", originally released at the Cannes Film Festival (France) on May 23, 2003 and then later released to the public on October 15, 2003.
Three friends (Jimmy, Dave, and Sean) grew up in Boston. Jimmy and Sean witnesses their friend Dave being taken away [abducted]. Eventually getting out of the abuse that he was subjected to, Dave grows up with mental instability. When Jimmy's oldest daughter Katie's car is found smashed (and Katie found beaten to death), everyone looks for her killer. Sean is on the case as a homicide detective and Dave seems to be a suspect. Will they find the killer? Will justice be served? How will this affect the three friends?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
2.5/5 - *SPOILERS* I originally was going to rate this a 3/5 but, upon review watching the trailer, I have changed that to a 2.5/5. The reason being the fact that Dave had mental instability and no one, not even his wife!, listened to him. He had said that the reason he had blood on him was that he saw a pedophile behind a place and killed him, but it also happened on the night that Katie was killed. Since no one backed up his story, his wife started distancing herself from him. Jimmy, gone crazy because his daughter's killer(s) were still on the loose, started connected dots that seemed to go in line and acted upon it without questioning if he was right.
This is where Jimmy realizes what he did was wrong:
Why the movie doesn't end here and why Sean doesn't arrest Jimmy for what he did (though he never said what he did, but indicated through "you going to send $ per month" like Jimmy did for another family), I don't understand. Dave's wife gets no closure, Jimmy goes free, and there's a parade to make people think that "we're moving on with our lives and let's keep the skeletons in the closet because we're a neighborhood". WTF. Honestly, it should have ended with Jimmy going to jail for killing his friend and cut out the parade scene, even though Dave's wife seems guilty for not believing him either. Maybe that was the point of the ending - everyone has some sort of guilt that they have to live with (but why did Sean NOT arrest Jimmy?!).
This frustrates me so much.... I wouldn't recommend this movie, especially for the lack of respect towards those with PTSD and emotional/mental instability.
That's my movie review. Thanks for reading. More reviews to come eventually.
Where were you when the World Trade Centers towers were attacked in New York City? This movie is the story of first responders (specifically NYPD) trying to help those in the towers after they had been hit. Can they get the civilians out safely? Can they themselves survive?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3.5/5 - I remember 9/11 vaguely but also strongly. When we got to school, it was on the television all day long. In my lifetime, this is the worst thing that has happened [second worst is this COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 virus/attack and the quarantine worldwide shutting down everything {March 2020}].
As for this movie, it was very vivid and brought that day back to remembrance. It also helped get a feel for what it was like first hand there in the city for the first responders, their families, and for all other citizens. We knew that the tower would collapse but of course, the actors did not portray that - they acted as the real first responders did and merely did their jobs. Of course it was very stressful for them and I wouldn't give any problems to the actual first responders to break down under the pressure, but they kept at it. When the towers fell, I never thought about what it would have been like to be trapped under the rubble but the movie continued on about how a few of the NYPD had to try to survive as they were trapped. [Honestly, once the towers fell, I would have preferred to keep the actual NYPD people "out of mind" and dealt with how everyone outside was trying to figure out how to find them....] It seemed stupid that a random soldier, that put his military uniform on, went down to the site and helped them find the trapped people but..... {Hence the downgrade on the rating.}
This is a very interesting movie but I definitely lost a lot of attention after the towers collapsed. I don't know how it is for others; that's my beef with this movie.
Anyways, that's all I have to say about this movie. It isn't bad. I personally wouldn't pay to watch this again, but I do recommend at least part of it for reference sake.
That's my movie review. Thanks for reading! More reviews are to come eventually.
~ Gracie Mae DeLunac
P.S. NYC has built a new building to replace the towers that were taken down. It is called the Freedom Tower, or One World Trade Center. This is a video about how it has been modified to sustain damage, learning from the destruction that came around on 9/11.
Fracking (defined by the Oxford definition by Google: "the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas") has been causing stress on the tectonic plates near Los Angeles, California. Supposedly, the stress of the fracking has caused minor earthquakes around the area and, if people don't do something about it soon, the small earthquakes will combined into "THE big earthquake" (a 10.0 on the Richter scale) and will destroy all of Los Angeles. There is no time to warn everyone to evacuate! How can the characters stop the 10.0 from coming? How can everyone survive? And how can the main character Jack find his daughter in all of the chaos?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
2.5/5 - I was not impressed with this movie when I watched it in August of 2019. The plot line, the lack of character development, the scattered scientific reasons, and the short "yup, I guess we did it but let's just walk away" ending just did not sit well with me. Sure, I get that you want to save your daughter but it seemed like he is just going out to find her because he didn't get the time with her that he wanted (because she decided at the beginning of the movie to go out with some friends for camping and sex). The connection between him and his wife (soon to be ex?) and their daughter was so separated already and it never was emotionally fixed with this movie; it was, above all, a fight for survival. And when they do go to "stop" the 10.0 earthquake, there is not a time where they are testing or checking. They just do the thing (with someone sacrificing himself after he had been a complete corporate dick fracking for more $) and "we're good".
In my honest opinion, this movie really wasn't worth it. We kept watching because we thought it would get better but it just never did. I don't really recommend it but I do give it better than a 0/5 or 1/5 because it did hold the attention, though it was terrible.
Anyways, that's my movie review. Thanks for reading. More reviews are to come eventually so keep an eye out.
This is my movie review for "Welcome to Leith", originally released January 26, 2015 at the Sundance Film Festival and posted to the Internet on December 15, 2015.
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 1 Hour and 25 Minutes
Trailer
Plot
Can white supremacists (with their swastika flags and extreme beliefs) live peacefully with others? When Craig Cobb tried to buy up the land in the small rural town of Leith, North Dakota, this was the issue. The town had a population of about 15 people before Cobb moved in and was a quiet place. How will they respond to Cobb and the white supremacists coming in? Will this be a good thing or a bad thing?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3/5 - Very informative though it probably left out a good amount of information (from both sides). I found it interesting that both sides of the conflict seemed to accelerate or escalate the issue. If they had been able to sit down like peaceful people together, maybe there could have been co-habitation. Of course it would have been difficult, especially for the one non-white human in the town but for all because it would have been a change.
Mind you, I am not advocating white supremacists but it could have been better. Cobb's group could have been kinder and quieter about their beliefs, less confrontational. The town could have given them more leeway. When Cobb started shoving the beliefs down the town's throat, though, that's when the town got defensive because they had been there first and had a right to have their own family/property protected.
In 2012, after moving to Leith, Craig Cobb began buying up land, at one point, reportedly owning at least 12 plots of land. Cobb has expressed a desire to turn the town into a white nationalist community.[7] As a reaction to Cobb, some locals have advocated to disincorporate Leith back into Grant County proper.[8] In November 2013 Cobb was arrested and charged with three counts of terrorizing stemming from an incident in which he confronted another town resident with both a shotgun and a rifle.[9]
Today, Cobb no longer owns any buildings in Leith. He deeded six properties back to the town at no charge and sold off a few others. Three are still owned by other white supremacists, but they have shown little inclination to take up where Cobb left off.[10]
I know, this isn't much info to go off of for the movie review but I think that people should watch this just to see what human nature can do. It might not be enjoyable but this is reality.
That's my movie review. Thanks for reading! More movie reviews to come eventually.
Ted Striker has been trying to get back with Elaine Dickinson for a long time. He finally tries to overcome his fear of flying and gets on one of her flights (she is an air stewardess) at last minute. Of course, there is an issue with the flight food and many people that ate the fish are terribly sick (including the captain). Is there anyone that can safely bring the airplane in?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3.5/5 - Super cheesy movie with a lame plot line. The cheesy jokes are what make this movie awesome, though I wouldn't jump to watch this again anytime soon. The jokes include the PA announcements (at the airport) actually arguing with each other about where parking is available and where is drop-only, crash positions, two guys jive talking, Mayo clinic calling about a passenger needing a heart transplant [but the wall behind him is full of jars of mayonnaise and there is a heart beating on the desk and jumping around during the phone call...], automatic pilot (deflating and how to get it re-inflated), and one of the guys on the ground constantly saying "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit...." [amphetamines, sniffing glue, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, etc.].
Here's the autopilot, Otto:
Decent movie. I don't get how they got only a PG (maybe should have been PG-13 especially with the "blow-job" for Otto and smacking one of the passengers).
Anyways, that's my movie review. Thanks for reading! More reviews are to come eventually.
Michael MacCauley, former cop turned insurance worker, gets fired from insurance right before getting his tenure. His daily routine is thrown out of the window as he had daily (for years) gotten a ride to the train station from his loving wife, so to save on gas going to work so his kid can eventually go to college. So, after a good drink at the pub with an old cop buddy that is still on the force, he goes to catch his normal train home but this time things are slightly different. A lady that claims to merely trying to see "to what lengths will you go" starts a series of actions which puts Michael MacCauley into detective mode. Can he figure out the puzzle? Can he save everyone on the train?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
2.5/5 - I originally rated this 3/5 when I watched it but since it has been nine months since I watched it, I had to freshen up on the movie. I did so by watching Let Me Explain's video on this movie. Thinking back on it now, there were some things that made no sense with the plot line. Yes, it did keep my attention but how are there so many people "overseeing" what is happening and able to kill off so many other people on the train (or just off of the train) but they can't kill the witness to a murder that happened earlier? Oh, because we don't know exactly who that is but we can still randomly kill those on the train and make it look like Michael is going crazy, taking the train hostage. That bothers me - he is supposed to be helping you but you're making him look like the bad guy?
The twist at the end was kinda to be expected, especially since we managed to derail a train car and all managed to not get hurt, nor did the windows get smashed out... And so, "you had a heck of a time dealing with this situation. Since you don't have a job anymore, why not join the police again?". Honestly, after all of that, I would have been like "eff this, I'm going home and rethinking my life, thank you very much. Oh em gee... I almost died and he asked me to get back into police work. What the heck is he thinking?".
It is a good action flick but not necessarily one to waste time/money on, especially when you see how bad they messed up the plot line with omniscient people and huge coincidences that are supposed to be planned.
That's my movie review! Thanks for reading. More reviews to come eventually.
World War II - there is war and death everywhere. An office that deals with sending out notes to families of fallen soldiers finds out that three (of four) biological brothers have died recently and that the mother would be notified very soon. To help ease the pain of the loss, the military decides to try to extract the last remaining son who is out on the front line. To do so, they send Captain Miller and a small troupe to go find and extract Private Ryan. Can they find Private Ryan? Will he be alive? Can they get him out safely so he can return home to his family?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
4/5 - *SPOILERS*
Very good war movie. I believe this is the best war movie I have ever seen outside of documentaries. This movie showed soldier reactions to war/killing: accepting, throwing up, cowering, trudging through, etc. Listening to the tanks grind towards them and the graphic deaths of soldiers, I can see why so many soldiers had PTSD after the world wars (and sometimes after even smaller battles and other wars). I cried at the end because of missing my paternal grandfather Grampy [he was a military nurse back when he was active, had passed away years ago, and was buried in the national cemetery nearby] and the feeling of loss from war.
I enjoyed how the troupe stayed and helped fight the battle where they were at because if they hadn't, the troupe that Private Ryan was a part of would certainly died without the support. True, Miller gambled on a lot to be able to help them, but I think it paid off. I do believe that Private Ryan was grateful for the extraction, especially after they were able to cause so much damage to the other side in that stand off.
I won't say much else because I honestly think that this is one of those movies that needs to be seen for the sheer artwork and truth-telling form that it is. I enjoyed it and would be interested in watching it again, though not right this moment.
That's my movie review. Thank you for reading. More reviews will come in the future.
I first watched back in fall of 2013 in theater, without doing a movie review (whoops), and re-watched on July 17, 2019 after reading the book by Orson Scott Card [which I will do the movie review in a little].
I had read a good amount of the books back when I was in High School and was so excited to see it coming out in theaters but had not thought about if it was actually going to be accurate to the book. So in 2019, I bought a copy of the book for cheap at a local thrift store and read it.
"Ender's Game"
Author: Orson Scott Card
Language Read: English
Published: 1985
Genre: Science Fiction
Plot
Humans (Earthlings) are not the only advanced creatures in the universe. There is a race, named the Formics [or nicknamed the "buggers"], that have gotten into a major scuffle with humans. There was a war years ago, lead by the fearless Mazer Rackham, in space between the two species. The war was stopped but humans still lived in fear afterwards because the Formics might come bring the war to Earth and could they survive an at-home fight?
The humans have set down a rule that each family can only have a maximum of 2 children per family, for population control. A family by the name of Wiggin was of interest to the intelligence agency that searched for children that they could mold into a war general. The first born son was named Peter and he didn't match up because of his extreme violent tendency. The second born child was a daughter named Valentine that didn't match up because of her compassionate nature. The government, seeing the way the two children were, hoped that if they authorized a third child, that they would get a good candidate for the military school. So Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was born, third of the Wiggin family. Thirds were not well accepted, however, and he was picked on for years by his brother and by the kids at school. Just when the family thought that he would not be chosen for military school, the military shows up at the house and asks him if he wants to come to join the Battle School (a military training school that is in the Earth's atmosphere). Ender agrees and starts his career in the Battle School.
Most of the story is Ender's life at the Battle School. Could he be the next war general like Mazer Rackham? Why do the other kids still pick on him (is it because they don't like him or are the teachers isolating him for a reason)? Can he survive Battle School? What will his future hold? Will they ever find a chance to beat the buggers and finish the wars completely?
Review
4/5 - This is still one of my most favorite science fiction books I have ever read. True, everything revolves around the military world but that was intentional. I have been raised by an Army father and know that there are things that keep the soldiers on their feet when they are active duty [he would come home exhausted from training on the weekend]. Though I personally was not in the military, the story still made sense to me and the military scenarios did not bother me (unlike what I hear from people that have been in the military). I would give Orson Scott Card a break on it because he himself had not been in the military but had done his research into it.
According to the preface, Orson Scott Card had been written the "Ender's Game" story as a short story, which I have found a hard copy but have not sat down to read. The story was mainly about the battle room and the rest of the story was built to have that included. I have heard people say that the book makes no sense, that the rest of the story is jumbled up and has very little meaning to it, which could be because it was written years after the original section of the story had been published. I don't think it is that bad because in my opinion, the battle room was essential for Ender to show that he could strategize. Actually, it was for any student to show that they could strategize, hold command and get others to follow, etc. If you could show that you were capable of winning battles in the battle room, then you most likely would be able to graduate to Command School. If not, you would take a lower position in the school system or be phased out of Battle School to be sent down to Earth. So for Ender to be pushed to gain command of 40 students, a lot older than him and some younger, that were thrown together into an army that hadn't worked together as a group, that was awesome. To top that off, they pushed him to fight daily or twice daily battles, which had been unheard of. The higher commanding people in the school (especially Graff) were trying to test him and have him on an advanced {and highly sped up} course towards becoming the next Mazer Rackham [the guy who temporarily defeated the Formics like 50 years ago; he had been sent out into space and brought back, where the time traveled was shorter than the time that passed on Earth].
The problem with the 2013 movie [that the book showed with all of the words] was the fact that the advanced course really messed with Ender's emotional, physical and mental state. He never got time to rest and he had a feeling he knew somewhat what they were doing (grooming him for "greatness" and with urgency). The military exploited the fact that he loved his sister, and had blackmail over her because they knew about Valentine/Peter egging on the social media to get a voice heard in public, to get Ender to stay with the program. If they didn't have that blackmail or if he didn't love his sister so much, he might have never continued with the program. But he did and then continued on to Command School on that advanced course, still only about 10 years of age.
The reason that Ender was so good at his job of defeating the Formics was that he was a perfect balance between his violent-tendency brother and his compassion-tendency sister. Ender studied the Formics with all the video that he could get his hands on because knowing your enemy makes it easier to know how to defeat them. He understood them, which made it much easier for him to make that final move, though he didn't know what he was doing. He had been pushed by Mazer for so long, losing the ability to sleep or eat because of the stress that Mazer was pressing on him. It took a lot of effort for him to even make it to "graduation day" which turned out to be the day of the Formic's xenocide. Afterwards, he passed out and cried for days on end because it did affect him so much (but the 2013 movie didn't show).
Orson Scott Card did a very good job at getting into the brain of this child character, showing how much pain he was having though not physically, and makes the reader care for Ender. The relationship development between Ender and the others (Petra, Bean, and Alai especially) even while the teachers were trying to keep Ender isolated made the connections that much more meaningful.
In the end, the relationship with his sister (though slightly strained because he had been isolated from her too) helped him move away from Earth. Some humans wanted him to come back, the hero of humanity. Others saw him as a monster and never wanted him back. The hegemon, his brother Peter taking that position, wanted to welcome him back and to potentially use him as a political power against other countries. Valentine, however, saw through Peter's plan and took the broken-spirited Ender away from Earth to a human colony. With her help, he was able to start forgiving himself and took on the role of the "speaker for the dead", which let him atone for his sin of committing xenocide of the Formic race and gave service to others out there. In fact, the role of speaker for the dead became a huge thing. Ender started it by writing the truth about the Formics and it took hold amongst the humans. Speaker for the dead became a respected role.
"Speakers for the Dead were wandering representatives of a Humanist movement. Though they were not associated with any religion, they were treated with the respect accorded a priest or cleric. Speakers researched a deceased person's life and gave a speech that attempted to speak for them, describing the person's life as he or she lived it.
Speakers for the Dead arose as a movement in response to the novels The Hive Queen and The Hegemon, written by the pen name of Andrew Wiggin, the Speaker for the Dead. These books gave the explanation of the Hive Queen's and Peter Wiggin's lives from their own perspectives, slowly subverting humanity's perception of the Formics and changed it from hatred and fear into sorrow over a Xenocide, the complete extinction of an alien race. The movement began soon after The Hegemon was published, as it was more relatable to the human race than The Hive Queen.
Any citizen of a planet would have the legal right to summon a Speaker (or a priest of any faith, which Speakers are legally considered) to mark the death of a family member"
It has been many years since I have read the "Speaker for the Dead" but I remember enjoying it thoroughly. It shows that even someone that has done something bad can repent and make a new life for themself, and try to make it better for others. That's what I want to leave this book review at - try not to cause harm to others but always look for self improvement (especially if it can help others later).
That's my book review. I highly recommend this book and am very glad that I have a paper copy of it in my library.
Thank you for reading! I will have at least two more book reviews to post in 2020 (Stieg Larsson's "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl That Played With Fire") so keep an eye out for them!
~ Gracie Mae DeLunac
P.S. I also recommend "Ender's Shadow" which is about Ender's friend Bean that was in the Battle School with him and followed him through his military career, even with the graduation day's game. It is a very good remake of "Ender's Game" but still has its own unique viewpoint to not make it merely a remake. I remember thoroughly enjoying it back in High School, though I had already read "Ender's Game".
Also, if you enjoy "Ender's Game", the series continues with "Speaker for the Dead", "Xenocide", and "Children of the Mind", which were all good books as far as I recall. I just heard about "Ender in Exile" that came out in 2008 and have never read it.
There is the political side of the story with "Shadow of the Hegemon", "Shadow Puppets", "Shadow of the Giant", "Shadows in Flight". I never read the Shadow series but might be interested in the future.
I also just found out that there are stories written about the first Formic wars, which sounds more interesting than the Shadow sub-series: "Earth Unaware", "Earth Afire", and "Earth Awakens".
I know, lots of info so here's the Wikipedia on the Ender's Game series books.
I personally recommend at least "Ender's Shadow" or "Ender's Game". You decide from there. :-D
This is my movie review for "Ender's Game", released October 28, 2013.
I first watched back in fall of 2013 in theater, without doing a movie review (whoops), and re-watched on July 17, 2019 after reading the book by Orson Scott Card [which I will do the movie review in a little]. I had read a good amount of the books back when I was in High School and was so excited to see it coming out in theaters but had not thought about if it was actually going to be accurate to the book. So in 2019, I bought a copy of the book for cheap at a local thrift store and read it. Afterwards, I was so excited to watch the movie and this is the result of the review - notes straight from my note pad about the movie as I watched it in comparison to the book.
Humans (Earthlings) are not the only advanced creatures in the universe. There is a race, named the Formics [or nicknamed the "buggers"], that have gotten into a major scuffle with humans. There was a war years ago, lead by the fearless Mazer Rackham, in space between the two species. The war was stopped but humans still lived in fear afterwards because the Formics might come bring the war to Earth and could they survive an at-home fight?
The humans have set down a rule that each family can only have a maximum of 2 children per family, for population control. A family by the name of Wiggin was of interest to the intelligence agency that searched for children that they could mold into a war general. The first born son was named Peter and he didn't match up because of his extreme violent tendency. The second born child was a daughter named Valentine that didn't match up because of her compassionate nature. The government, seeing the way the two children were, hoped that if they authorized a third child, that they would get a good candidate for the military school. So Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was born, third of the Wiggin family. Thirds were not well accepted, however, and he was picked on for years by his brother and by the kids at school. Just when the family thought that he would not be chosen for military school, the military shows up at the house and asks him if he wants to come to join the Battle School (a military training school that is in the Earth's atmosphere). Ender agrees and starts his career in the Battle School.
Most of the story is Ender's life at the Battle School. Could he be the next war general like Mazer Rackham? Why do the other kids still pick on him (is it because they don't like him or are the teachers isolating him for a reason)? Can he survive Battle School? What will his future hold? Will they ever find a chance to beat the buggers and finish the wars completely?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
*SPOILERS* Bear with me on this because I loved the book and I really think that the movie did not do the book justice. I cannot completely split the review apart between "if it were a stand alone" versus "how it did as an adaption" but I will try.
2.5/5 - Adaption
When Ender was in the flight up to the Battle School, Graff pointed out that Ender was the only one that understood that space did not have the same views on direction (being gravity free) instead of the floor of the shuttle being down like when they boarded the ship. This incited the others in the flight (NOT Bean and Alai, because they came in different groups) to pick on Ender because he had been pointed out as Graff's favorite, which made them want to put him down more [down with the teacher's pet]. In the book, there had been a fight where Ender was being hit on the head by one of the kids (Bernard) during the flight. Ender timed his grab just right and yanked the boy down. The boy bounced and broke his arm, but that didn't happen in the movie - we just see Graff saying "the only one on this launch with brains so far is Ender Wiggin".
In the movie, the Launchies started respecting Ender after he asked Graff why their outbound emails were being blocked. He never confronted nor even talked about the emails being blocked in the book.
Dap was an asshole in the movie whereas he tried to be the "launch mom" in the book. Minor character so onward goes the review. [And he didn't have any more time in the book aside when Ender was in the Launchie group.]
Hand-to-hand combat, studying the Formic attack patterns, and "basic rocket science" never happened in the book though it was good for the movie as a stand-alone movie.
The seating next to Ender in the movie is not as epic because they don't show the isolation (since the Launchies started respecting Ender after he confronted Graff regarding the emails) or the fight between him and Bernard on the flight.
The size of Bonzo makes Wiggin look older in the movie since Bonzo is so small.
In the movie, the armies are smaller than 40 students. It is more impressive to see an 8-year-old commanding an army of 40 than how few they show in the movie.
What happened to the whole "more than one battle room" idea? In the movie it seems to have only one but the special effects for the battle room is pretty amazing. One battle room makes sense for the movie because that was the biggest thing for the Battle School and they did dump a lot of effort into it for the movie but Petra specifically said that there were more than one because one could be practicing in one battle room while another does a battle in another. But check out this special effects in the battle room. They did pretty awesome, which made me squeal in the movie theater with joy.
The Formic queen never appeared in the game in the book. I don't know why they decided to have her actually show in the movie. Maybe because it was to show how "connected" he was to them?
To unlock the enemy's gate during a battle, so to win, the movie got rid of the "use 4 helmets to unlock the gate" which was a huge issue in the book because you had to have 5 viable players to win a game formally by taking their gate. It was a huge strategy thing that every commander had to deal with, but the movie got rid of that.
Time lapse between the start of Battle School and the rest of the movie does not coincide with the book's timeline. They made Ender older and pushed him through the school far faster in the movie than what happened in the book. I think that the movie producers did this so they didn't have to worry about how to age an actor from 6 years of age to 8 years to 11 years.
They didn't show how much the Battle School pushed and pushed and pushed Ender to the point of breaking by running him in battles twice daily.
To continue Ender's training after getting a visit to Earth to see Valentine and to get him back into the training, Ender went up to Eros (an asteroid near Mars) but there was Formic ruins there? No, in the book, they went out to a planet with tunnels near the Formic home world.
However, the design of the Formic ruins was very well done for the movie. It was very alien and intriguing.
I don't know why they made Mazer have tattoos on his face (as he didn't have that in the book at all) but it was a good tie in for the "speaker for the dead" theme, which could help them create the foundation for the "Speaker for the Dead" movie but I doubt they will do that.
The emotional stress that he was under in the book was not in the movie. He merely was going along with what he was taught to do. True he did get mad because he would be known as the one that ordered mass xenocide, but he didn't get to break down crying.
Finding the queen larva was not with Petra on the world that the Command School was on, but for some reason that's what they did in the movie. Yes, he did find the larva but....why in that manner for the movie? And yes, he did know the Formics the best but that's because he studied their fighting patterns and tried to think like them, not because they had a telepathic link.
Ender says that humanity "left me to my own devices" at the end of the movie without saying he'd be a speaker for the dead was really messed up. It left so much hanging out there unanswered. It was an unfinished feel to the end of the movie with him leaving seemingly alone and saying he had a precious cargo with him, but did not become the speaker for the dead. This is contrary to the movie where Valentine convinces him to come with her to a colony that the earthlings were making on a different world. He then wrote his book and became the speaker for the dead before he moved on to find a new world for the Formic larva.
2.5/5 - Stand Alone Movie
Movie is too rushed. The kids that come with him up to command school as his underlings are thrown together from those that he had had contact with, even if he didn't seem to be buddies with. The relationships that Ender had with the others were shallow, though they hadn't been in the movie (Shalom, said Alai when they parted, which was forbidden because his language had been cut out from society). You can't feel the camaraderie between the kids though there was a little bit between Petra and Ender when she was teaching him. The genius (smarts and strategies) were not shown because it was all rushed.
Ender doesn't show much emotion throughout the whole movie, which rather sucks because he was bullied, pushed beyond his limits, isolated, etc. Instead, he merely did what he was told and was very good at the games.
Yes, the special effects were very awesome (especially in the Battle Room) and the Formic creature, ship, and ruins designs were done very creatively but that cannot be the main focus of a movie. Stand alone or not, it just can't.
Between the two: 2.5/5
If you want to see a rushed movie with good special effect movie, go ahead and see this. If you read the book, avoid unless you don't remember the book!
As for me, I won't be watching this movie again. Knowing that it had so many deviations from the book really put me off, if you couldn't tell. I haven't written this much on a movie review since "A Serbian Film"...
If you want to get the story right, go read the book. Seriously, it is a good story. The characters are well developed, the emotional/psychological stress is well defined, and it is well written. I haven't finished reading the novelette it originated from but that will come at a MUCH later date as I work to catch up on over 40 movie reviews from movies watched between 7/17/19 to 4/19/20 (and 2 book reviews, including the "Ender's Game" book) and I have a copy of Stephen King's "Four Past Midnight" sitting on the bedroom nightstand waiting to get attention.
Anyways, I'll end this by saying that's my movie review. Thanks for reading this lengthy post. There will be more reviews coming eventually so keep an eye out for them!
Everything Wrong with Ender's Game in 16 Minutes or Less
Credit to @CinemaSins
According to @CinemaSins, the reveal about the graduation day game being a real life battle is "where the movie fails. If one has read the book, and knows how the story ends, then the entire movie is a lie, and one knows it, and it can't help but keep one from truly experiencing and enjoying the ride. It's the rare example where a book's twist is so great that the movie ends up being pretty much made solely for the people who never read the book".
This is my movie review for "Cube Zero", originally released at the Screamfest Film Festival (USA) on October 15, 2004. I watched this via Tubi on July 16, 2019.
Third installment of the Cube trilogy and this one is a "prequel" but yet isn't. This one shows workers outside of the Cube and a group inside of the Cube. How did this situation get set up like this? Why are those inside of the Cube there? Is there a way out and, if so, is there a way for "forgiveness"?
Official MPAA Rating (According to
IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute
waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of
something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but
could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly
amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all
around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3/5 - Decent Cube movie diving into the people behind the scenes of the Cube; good sci-fi prison movie but better understanding of the "guards" instead of the prisoners. The trials that the "criminals" face (before being put in the prison) were not shown, so they might have been kangaroo courts. The consent forms (which told the government that they were okay for them to be sent to the Cube) look like they might have been signed when applying for work/military, so watch out for that. The set up of the government/leadership seemed far too strict and far too mysterious but would be interesting to learn more of how they got to that point of society to drop people into this death maze prison.
The whole movie seemed to focus on the fact that the one "guard" had a thing for one of the "prisoners". He watched her from outside the Cube and then decided to go into it to help get her out, which is really dumb in my opinion. The traps then get worse once he gets into the Cube because "oh, they know I'm here".
For a prequel, this movie sucked because it didn't give much new information to give the first movie ("Cube" 1997) more meaning. It was a semi decent stand alone movie but I personally won't be jumping up to volunteer to watch it again.
Anyways, that's my movie review. Thanks for reading! More movie reviews to come eventually.
This is a movie review for "Cube 2: Hypercube", originally released at the München Fantasy Filmfest (Germany) on July 29, 2002. I watched this on July 15, 2019 via Tubi.
Eight people wake up inside of a cube prison and have to figure out how they got there, why they are there, how to survive and how to get out. However, unlike the first Cube, this one doesn't have numbers separating the rooms to say if there are traps located within. And, this one also seems to be erasing itself as it is not a solid object. Can they get out or will this be the end of them? And how can there be a space that is not defined by the standard rules of physics?
Official MPAA Rating (According to IMDB.com):
G / General Audiences
PG / Parental Guidance Suggested
PG-13 / Parents Strongly Cautioned
R / Restricted
X
Not Rated
Rating Criteria
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around. – characters, music, theme, story line, etc.
3/5 - *SPOILERS*
Good sci-fi prison escape movie but not as good as the first movie. There were connections for each person to the company Izon but they didn't go into many details about it. The rhyme and reason for the shifting time or alternate reality was not explained well but made the story interesting when we saw other potential lines cross paths (Simon meets Jerry at least 3 times and is old immediately after Kate stabbed him in the eye). Sasha being Alex was not a surprise to me because I wondered if Alex was going to be amongst the group. The construct/use of the hypercube was not explained though it probably could have been virtual, considering it is a cube with one more dimension (time) or a tesseract. I would have preferred more traps like in the original Cube movie but that's just me.
I downgraded this movie because there were so many plot holes surrounding the creation/implementation of the hypercube. And the way that the characters react to the hypercube was sometimes ridiculous, like going insane after another timeline warned of one of them being not trustworthy or killing the same guy over and over again so that the one guy had sustenance.
I personally would not jump to watch this one again. If you want one of the Cube trilogy movies, go for the original Cube movie from 1997. The Cube Zero movie is good too (and my next movie to review!) but Cube 2: Hypercube failed to be outstanding..
That's my movie review. Thanks for reading! More reviews are to come eventually so keep an eye out.
