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.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Family
Run Time: 1 Hour and 54 Minutes
Trailer
Notable Cast
Asa Butterfield ... Ender Wiggin
Harrison Ford ... Colonel Graff
Hailee Steinfeld ... Petra Arkanian
Abigail Breslin ... Valentine Wiggin
Ben Kingsley ... Mazer Rackham
Viola Davis ... Major Gwen Anderson
Aramis Knight ... Bean
Suraj Partha ... Alai (as Suraj Parthasarathy)
Moises Arias ... Bonzo Madrid
Khylin Rhambo ... Dink Meeker
Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak ... Peter Wiggin (as Jimmy Jax Pinchak)
Harrison Ford ... Colonel Graff
Hailee Steinfeld ... Petra Arkanian
Abigail Breslin ... Valentine Wiggin
Ben Kingsley ... Mazer Rackham
Viola Davis ... Major Gwen Anderson
Aramis Knight ... Bean
Suraj Partha ... Alai (as Suraj Parthasarathy)
Moises Arias ... Bonzo Madrid
Khylin Rhambo ... Dink Meeker
Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak ... Peter Wiggin (as Jimmy Jax Pinchak)
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?
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!
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!
~ Gracie Mae DeLunac
Contact me?
Twitter @gracie_delunac
Skype gracelyn2019@yahoo.com
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".
2274.
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