Discussion
Went to see this last night and I'm a bit...Meh!
Realy don't know what to make of it, certainly wasn't blown away by it, but also wouldn't say it was abysmal.
An interseting concept that kept me wanting to know more.
Unfortunately its clearly aimed at younger teens as the plot is laid out so obviously you can see most things well in advance.
Casting could have been better, can't believe they used Nonso Anonzie as the drill Sgt, had scarier hairdressers than him.
Clearly left open for the sequal, in fact it would have been better if they'd just ended with "look forward to Enders Game 2" in the credits.
So overall? Enjoyable, entertainment for a Sunday afternoon, but not quite worth an evening in the cinema, unless you have young teens of course!
Realy don't know what to make of it, certainly wasn't blown away by it, but also wouldn't say it was abysmal.
An interseting concept that kept me wanting to know more.
Unfortunately its clearly aimed at younger teens as the plot is laid out so obviously you can see most things well in advance.
Casting could have been better, can't believe they used Nonso Anonzie as the drill Sgt, had scarier hairdressers than him.
Clearly left open for the sequal, in fact it would have been better if they'd just ended with "look forward to Enders Game 2" in the credits.
So overall? Enjoyable, entertainment for a Sunday afternoon, but not quite worth an evening in the cinema, unless you have young teens of course!
I read the books as a teen, even then there was talk of a film and it was always going to struggle to translate really well to screen.
I need to watch it again but I think it was a fairly ok job, not disappointed by it but unlike say Harry Potter where the films equal the books it doesn't feel as epic in the film as it does on paper.
But it was funny to hear the name change of the buggers
I need to watch it again but I think it was a fairly ok job, not disappointed by it but unlike say Harry Potter where the films equal the books it doesn't feel as epic in the film as it does on paper.
But it was funny to hear the name change of the buggers
B3NNL said:
So having read the book and seen the film, is it worth me reading it or is the film pretty much on par?
The book is more interesting, it lead to a so far life long addiction to SciFi so it must have been half decent. Just don't read anything about the author ... he's a bit of an arse. There's also more than one book so it goes on to what Ender did with the 'package' he acquired at the end. There's also a parallel set of books telling Beans story, which tbh is equally as good. The film never mentions how he became to be which is a shame as its quite a good tale of survival of the fittest and most intelligent.
B3NNL said:
So having read the book and seen the film, is it worth me reading it or is the film pretty much on par?
As big fans of the books, we went to see it last night.We both thought it was subpar, nog "Eragon" bad, but far from good.
A couple of things were well done though.
The books far, far exceed what the movie shows you. They did stay quite true to concept, the "open ending" you talked about is almost literally from the first book.
To me it felt very, very rushed. For example, in the books they talk about numerous "tablet games", and a LOT of battle games, where in the movie, due to time constraints, they just show one of each, while they make the books very interesting as to how Ender solves each puzzle.
A couple of changes though irked me, especially considering the following books if they ever get to the silver screen, might contain a small spoiler for the next book:
Odd that they call him "Andrew Ender Wiggin", as in the books Ender is nothing but a nickname that -iirc- only his sister calls him. This is quite important in following books.
All in all we went to see it because we both love the books and the trailers looked alright -as they do-, but I think the fact we like the books so much somewhat ruined the movie for us. I'm curious to see what people that actually didn't read the books think of it?
I'm also a huge fan of the books and went to see last night expecting to leave disappointed. I actually enjoyed it, it was more faithful than I expected and considered it an abridged film, telling the basic story quickly but only at surface level. Books are 100 times better however, especially when you read both the shadow series and enders books
Saw this last night. It was OK, but not great. One thing I didn't quite get was the fact that Ford's screen at one point said incoming invasion in 28 days, and that time was of the essence, but later on they say that the bugs had not begun an attack, and probably weren't going to. Maybe I've missed something, anyone care to explain?
George7 said:
Saw this last night. It was OK, but not great. One thing I didn't quite get was the fact that Ford's screen at one point said incoming invasion in 28 days, and that time was of the essence, but later on they say that the bugs had not begun an attack, and probably weren't going to. Maybe I've missed something, anyone care to explain?
Spoiler alert might be in place!In the books, like in the movie, it's the humans that are doing the invasion, his screen was deliberately vague about that as per the plot twist.
The logic behind is that they sent a number of ships into subspace/warp, going to various locations but coordinated so they are only off by a couple of hours/days. This is done to surprise the buggers and make sure they can't communicate what's happening. The furthest away ships (buggers home planet) are the ones sent first and thus the oldest. They figured to just sent them and then they have a couple of decades to find the perfect Admiral (as communication is instantaneous). The countdown then is actually when the ships drop out of warp so they have to start attacking. I agree that this wasn't that clear in the movie if you haven't read the book.
ZesPak said:
Spoiler alert might be in place!
In the books, like in the movie, it's the humans that are doing the invasion, his screen was deliberately vague about that as per the plot twist.
The logic behind is that they sent a number of ships into subspace/warp, going to various locations but coordinated so they are only off by a couple of hours/days. This is done to surprise the buggers and make sure they can't communicate what's happening. The furthest away ships (buggers home planet) are the ones sent first and thus the oldest. They figured to just sent them and then they have a couple of decades to find the perfect Admiral (as communication is instantaneous). The countdown then is actually when the ships drop out of warp so they have to start attacking. I agree that this wasn't that clear in the movie if you haven't read the book.
Thanks, makes much more sense now! In the books, like in the movie, it's the humans that are doing the invasion, his screen was deliberately vague about that as per the plot twist.
The logic behind is that they sent a number of ships into subspace/warp, going to various locations but coordinated so they are only off by a couple of hours/days. This is done to surprise the buggers and make sure they can't communicate what's happening. The furthest away ships (buggers home planet) are the ones sent first and thus the oldest. They figured to just sent them and then they have a couple of decades to find the perfect Admiral (as communication is instantaneous). The countdown then is actually when the ships drop out of warp so they have to start attacking. I agree that this wasn't that clear in the movie if you haven't read the book.
laam999 said:
I'm also a huge fan of the books and went to see last night expecting to leave disappointed. I actually enjoyed it, it was more faithful than I expected and considered it an abridged film, telling the basic story quickly but only at surface level.
I would agree with this; I was glad they kept the heart of the first book - ie, the ending - as it would have been easy for Hollywood to have dropped it.But hard to really follow what's going on or appreciate the character development when months and years of book is squished into days and weeks of film.
Jasandjules said:
I thought it was a pretty reasonable film.
As per the OP, it basically was a first film and waiting for a sequel was it not?
Left open maybe, but quite a lot of the things in the later books wouldn't translate very well to film imo from what I remember. They get a bit meta with the buggers and Ender, the side story of Bean made a good book but would just be like retelling a chunk of the first film....As per the OP, it basically was a first film and waiting for a sequel was it not?
There's also the issue with the author of the books who is the target of quite a lot of (possibly not uncalled for) hate and protest, so the film got a bit of that too if I remember. Bad press basically, not the kind that works well for the production either.
So I think it's unlikely to get a sequel.
It was a decent attempt at bringing a book to the big screen. Unfortunately as many have already said it does miss a lot out, mainly due to time restrictions for this kind of movie.
I still feel the production was good with focus on the main points of the story and not just lots of flashy action scenes.
Hope they don't produce a sequel simply because movies never really live up to the books for one reason or another.
I still feel the production was good with focus on the main points of the story and not just lots of flashy action scenes.
Hope they don't produce a sequel simply because movies never really live up to the books for one reason or another.
I thought the film was sadly lacking in comparison to the book. The book was excellent.
I have been reading the sequels (books) and am now on number 5! They shouldn't make these into films, they won't translate and none are as good as the first.
Enjoyable sci-fi reading, though, which is usual with the ever excellent Orson Scott Card.
I have been reading the sequels (books) and am now on number 5! They shouldn't make these into films, they won't translate and none are as good as the first.
Enjoyable sci-fi reading, though, which is usual with the ever excellent Orson Scott Card.
Great writing, shame for his public outings in which he seems like a homophobe nutcase, but he has stepped down from this big time in the last couple of years.
Anyway, a bit like Tom Cruise in that aspect for me, doesn't mean that I don't agree with his view on the world that I can't enjoy his work I guess.
Don said:
I thought the film was sadly lacking in comparison to the book. The book was excellent.
This pretty much stands for virtually every film adaption ever?I haven't read the book; so when sitting down to watch the film with my son we had no major expectations. We both reckon it was a cracking film.
clonmult said:
This pretty much stands for virtually every film adaption ever?
I haven't read the book; so when sitting down to watch the film with my son we had no major expectations. We both reckon it was a cracking film.
Ender's Game for me is in the same league as Eragon. The movie is OK-ish (6/10), not unwatchable bad. But they don't live up to the books at all, to the extend that you want to forget them and won't think of them in the same sentence.I haven't read the book; so when sitting down to watch the film with my son we had no major expectations. We both reckon it was a cracking film.
With Lord of the Rings, Godfather, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) to name a few, the source material is for always linked to the live action adaptation.
ZesPak said:
clonmult said:
This pretty much stands for virtually every film adaption ever?
I haven't read the book; so when sitting down to watch the film with my son we had no major expectations. We both reckon it was a cracking film.
Ender's Game for me is in the same league as Eragon. The movie is OK-ish (6/10), not unwatchable bad. But they don't live up to the books at all, to the extend that you want to forget them and won't think of them in the same sentence.I haven't read the book; so when sitting down to watch the film with my son we had no major expectations. We both reckon it was a cracking film.
With Lord of the Rings, Godfather, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire) to name a few, the source material is for always linked to the live action adaptation.
The film firstly made the mistake of trying to appeal to a teen audience and make Ender too sympathetic. He was supposed to be the next Alexander or Napoleon but they bottled it really. He was not a monster, but was very scary at times, to take away the deliberate kills he committed (without fully realising what he had done) was a big mistake IMO. Instead of a tale of the military misusing brilliant children we had a holiday camp in space.
Secondly they had too short a run time (linked in with trying to appeal to a teen audience). The siblings sub-plot was, and should have been, excised, but they were limited to telling rather than showing the brilliance of Ender, due to time restrictions really. Even an extra 20 minutes could have been enough to tackle this in the battle room and fleet engagements.
I don't think they fully had confidence in the source material (which IMO is probably the best sci-fi short story of all time and still a very good novel in its longer form) and hence why they ended up with something that is just average really.
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