Ender’s Game Movie Review
Ender’s Game takes place in the near future. Years before, a hostile alien race attacked planet Earth hoping to repopulate on planet Earth. These aliens are known as Formics. The formics resemble the ants on Earth, but they are about the size of a man. In the first invasion a hero, Mazer Rackham destroyed the mother ship and stopped the invasion. To prevent the Earth from total annihilation by a second invasion, the International Military uses a complex monitoring system to determine the smartest children. Those children are then brought to Battle School, a space compound where those children train in preparation for the speculated second invasion. One boy, Andrew Ender Wiggin, has shown exceptional intellect in his curriculum on battle school.
I believe that the movie Ender’s Game was not as good as the book because the movie had to fit a whole book into a two hour long movie. Even though the movie had all the characters in the book I think they should have been introduced in the way they were in the book. One example was Bean. He was introduced in the movie with Ender’s launch group. I think he should’ve arrived when Ender first had his army. I think they added Bean in the beginning because they didn’t describe the recruits of Dragon Army well so they made Bean a character from the beginning.
The setting in the movie is Battle School where the children are first taken. This is where Ender first gets challenged physically and mentally. One of the antagonists that lived in Battle School was Bonzo Madrid. Bonzo was Salamander Army’s commander. When Ender is transferred to Salamander Army, Bonzo orders Ender to not participate in battles because of his inexperience. In his first battle, Ender decides he can change the flow of battle and disobeys Bonzo’s orders. Even though Ender wins the game, Bonzo is infuriated with Ender and they become enemies. Another setting is Command School. Command School is found in space like Battle School, but the planet Eros where it is found on was previously inhabited by the formics. Command School is where Ender is taken because it is decided that Ender would be the best candidate as Earth’s savior. Even though command school isn’t described as thorough as it is in the book, it’s where Ender completes his training.
One character that seemed to be portrayed differently in the movie is Bernard. In the beginning of the movie Bernard seemed like the character in the book who was mean and belittled everyone. During the middle of the movie, it seemed like he acted nicer to Ender. Another character that was different in the movie was Bonzo Madrid. Even though he was always annoyed at Ender and revoked Ender of his training. In his physical features he seemed different. I imagined his as a tall person who looked strong. In the movie he was very short and scrawny person.
One element that was departed from the text is when Valentine and Peter start writing under the alias of Demosthenes and Locke. I think that they didn’t add this part because the movie mainly focused on Ender. I think it’s better that they left that part out because during the end of the movie, the humans didn’t use the bugger’s planet to colonize. Another reason why the movie didn’t focus on Demosthenes and Locke is because in the movie, the politics on Earth wasn’t very interesting.
I think in this movie, the theme is to know your enemy. An example of this is during the games in Battle School. Ender anticipates his enemy’s actions and uses that information to use his forces to its maximum efficiency. In Command School, Mazer Rackham puts an emphasis on telling Ender to use every thing to your advantage. While Ender is on the simulator he uses his knowledge from his past battles to expect the future actions of the enemy.
I think that this movie was not as god as the book because the plot strayed away from the storyline of the book. Also because the details of Battle School and Command School life. In the movie, Ender’s growth from Battle School and his isolation was almost nonexistent. In the book, Ender is isolated when Colonel Graff singles him out as the brightest in his class. In the movie, his friends who care for him constantly surround Ender. Overall, the movie wasn’t as good as the book but for people who didn’t read the book the movie was great because they don’t know the original plot for the book. I prefer to read the book because it was more detailed in the settings of the book and the characters emotions and their actions. In the end, the movie cut out about half the book.