Before I say what I have to say, I'm sad that this sub forum doesn't seem to be really alive. I love Sci-Fi, and I hope it gets life again.

Anyways, so I wanted to talk about Ender's Game. I read the book about two years before the movie, and then I saw the movie and I was like "Close enough." Ender's Game is one of my all time favorite books. Ironically, I never read any of the books after that one, mostly because my buddies told me that they really weren't on par with the original.

If you haven't seen the movie, spoilers below.

Anyways, I like how the movie was pretty accurate towards the book. I mean, the book had so much going on, and they managed to put a good chunk of it into the movie. For instance, the book had what I believe was three instances where Ender would fight in the bathroom, before ultimately near killing the kid. I believe in the movie they only show it once, and I don't remember him near killing the kid in the movie. Yet, it still managed to work.

The zero G battles were awesome on the movie. It actually looked a lot better on screen than what I had in my head. I kind of thing of it like Blitzball from Final Fantasy X and like Lazer Tag combined. The CG was pretty good, too. To me, they really had to nail this part of the book, and they pretty much did. They obviously couldn't show the insane amount of tactics talked about in the book, but they did cover the mains ones. The color coded floors and stuff were awesome too, it's always neat seeing something that actually matches how you pictured it would look.

I won't talk about the ending, but I mean it was awesome. It was basically 100% accurate to the book, and obviously I can get behind that. I'm not sure if they'll continue to make more movies, but if they do it'll be neat because I actually haven't read any of the other ones. It'll be surprising when big events happen, so here's crossing my fingers to that!

End of spoilers, don't read above.

I never read the book but I did know about the series and bits and pieces of it for like 5 years before the movie and then I saw the movie in IMAX the day after it came out and then again the next day with a friend. It was really really good, the graphics and animation were great and some of the music was amazing. It was up there like the 2nd or 3rd best movie I have seen in 2013.

zanderlex : I can't believe you got to see it in IMAX, that makes me unbelievably jealous. We don't have those near where I live.

I've read through the book a couple different times over my lifetime. It's certainly one of my favorites in the Sci-Fi genre. When I heard they were finally making a movie about it, I was super excited.

Although the movie wasn't anything spectacular, I enjoyed it. Watched through it a few times.

Skilledtree : I saw it in IMAX both times too, but I was really disappointed that it wasn't in IMAX 3D because the movie was already great the way it looked before, but if I could have seen all the action and flying in 3D, it would have been so insanly awesome. But it was still amazing.

Yeah, I'd bet!

It's weird they wouldn't have that in IMAX 3D, I mean the movie is basically perfect for that sort of thing. I've personally never been a huge fan of 3D, just because it seems to hurt my head for whatever reason. Still, there are some movies where I'm okay with it. Almost exclusively Sci Fi, with a touch of a few action movies that I felt could have gotten some 3D love.

I think a movie like that might not actually be able to handle 3D because apparently not that many big space movies were in 3D either, like Interstellar and Gravity. Both were in IMAX na both would have been awesome in 3D but did not get it so maybe it has something to do with being an outer space movie in general.

Jordanv78 : I totally overlooked this reply until just now.

Yeah, I totally know what you're talking about. The book is definitely one of my favorites too, it's pretty much what got me hooked on the genre itself.

The book was indeed amazing. For some reason, I feel that Card should not have

I seem to have an affection for that character.
Also, I read "Speaker of the Dead". It was great. I have to wait for the further books ("Xenocide", "Children of the Mind") to come out in Estonian.

As a reader of the book myself I really couldn't appreciate the movie at all, everything that really made the book appeal to me was lost during the change in format. Instead it left me both confused and frustrated with what should have been a easy enough adaptation to build that was driven into the dirt as a quick and dirty cash grab.

Rose de Nose and Bonzo were both rolled together into a single character, they spent much of the movie trying to set up or imply some kind of romance between Petra and Ender only to suddenly drop it in the end. Dink was almost nowhere to be seen, nor was any of his real supporting characters like Hot Soup, barely any Bean, and so on. The Bonzo thing in particular was very strange that they made him both short and hotheaded when in the book he was particularly described as being larger than Ender was. While prone to errors in judgement on account of "Spanish pride", he was still considered "so careful he'd piss on a plate and it would never make a splash". The lack of Ender's internal monologue also really dragged the story down, making it seem to be about "a poor child abused by his brother and never allowed to get close to anyone becomes a psychopathic violence driven killer of men and species". You can't sympathize with his character at all which makes it impossible to relate to the main character.

Taken as a regular movie not just an adaptation the whole thing felt very rushed and slipshod. Harrison Ford phoned in his entire appearance in the film. They spend the first half of the movie with a countdown clock only to completely discard it halfway through by sending the characters into stasis for a long trip. Despite the fact years are supposed to have passed, characters seem as though barely a month has gone by as everything is just sort of thrown together in a half-considered highlights reel of the book. Attempts were made to play off battle school as a Hogwarts-like setting, except the fact it's so sterile, militant, and depressing no kid in their right mind would want to go there. Even the trailer gave away the "Big Reveal" the entire book spent its story building up to.

In all honesty, I think I would have much rather seen Ender's Game split into two movies, the first being dedicated to Battle School and the events leading up to his "Graduation". Then the second movie would start with the scene in the lake with Ender and his sister convincing him to go back just before the starting credits and be about the post battle school material dealing with Razer Mackham and the "training sessions" on Eros to finish up the story. They'd have had far more time to explore the story and flesh out battle school itself with a touch more wonderment and to give the story the time it needed to properly develop inter-character relationships.

My English teacher showed the class this movie and it is AMAZING. Especially the soundtrack. One of the best movie soundtracks I have ever heard.