So I Saw Ender’s Game…

October 26, 2013 8 Comments

Ender's Game The Movie

Rarely do I get a chance to go to the movies these days. Yesterday I did, so I went to see Ender’s Game, a brand new movie adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s classic military sci-fi novel from 1985. I’ve never read the book, and always thought the premise sounded a bit gimmicky. Having seen the movie – which I think is pretty good overall – I’ll definitely will give it a read now.

The following article will inevitably contain spoilers. You’ve been warned.

Ender: “In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them…. I destroy them.”

#1 – Story & Spoilers!

All right. There really is no way to discuss this movie without spoiling at least one of the twists (which, as I said, I knew about beforehand, even though I never even read the book).

The story is set in the future, 50 years after humanity managed to fight back an invasion from an insectoid alien species called the Formics (a name made just for the movie, I hear).

Humanity is arming up for an inevitable new clash. Ender, the main character of the story, is a child-prodigy for space-combat warfare. He goes through various stages of training, eventually ending up in “Command School”, where he and his crew starts to simulate space-warfare with the Formics. The last “graduation” simulation is the battle for the Formics’ home-world.

Spoiler! Seriously!

After successfully completing the final mission, he (and the audience) finds out that the simulations weren’t simulations, but the real thing. When Ender destroyed the Formics’ home world in the last battle, he really did in that moment commit genocide, thinking he was only in a simulation.

There are a few other twists I will not spoil. And while this is (I think) a big reveal of the book, the movie doesn’t set it up to be a Shyamalan-style twist, but plays this part very openly (even hinting at in in the trailer), presumably because they knew they’re adapting a 30-year old book.

#2 – Ender’s Game Movie Trailer

#3 – Why I Want To Read The Book Now

In a nutshell, I want to read the book now, because I really liked the movie (and the many things it touched up), but also thought it sometimes felt like a story played at fast-forward. It felt a lot like an adaptation with lots of things missing or cut short, simply to keep it at movie-length.

The movie itself is largely made up of two parts.

The first part is Ender going through different stages of training, including fighting in a tactical zero-G combat game pitching different teams of recruits against each other. Obviously, Ender is the tactical genius among the recruits, and he wins these team-games (which are pretty nicely done effects-wise) and continues to move up the hierarchy.

It’s easy to see how this part could’ve deteriorated into a kind of Harry Potter / Quidditch in space. If the book would’ve been written in 2005 instead of 1985, it probably would have. Fortunately, Ender’s Game keeps this part mostly free of too many “school-competition” cliches. Instead, it raises some interesting questions on wartime leadership and the necessary qualities of a (future) military leader. It is definitely one of the parts where I hope the book provides a bit more depth.

The second part sees Ender quit the programme, being persuaded to re-join by his older Sister, and finally commanding humanity’s space fleet in the (not-so-simulated) war against the Formics.

Ender’s brother (who failed the programme for being too aggressive) and sister (who failed the programme for being too compassionate) also seem to carry symbolic meanings in the story that are only hinted at in the movie, especially as they appear in some of the more surreal scenes.

Also, the destruction of the Formics’ home world isn’t truly the end of the movie, and there’s a few more scenes that cramp a lot of heavy stuff into a few final minutes.

#3 – Final Thoughts

I’m not really a person doing movie reviews. If I were, there are a few points that should be mentioned. The movie has an odd pace at times. Harrison Ford, I thought, was miscast as Colonel Graff, because Harrison Ford is far too nice for the role he plays. He still looks like an older Han Solo who wants to crack one-liners, but can’t (because it wouldn’t fit this character).

Colonel Graff: “I am not the enemy.”
Ender: “I’m not so sure.”

Also, if you’re in it for lots of space battles-actions, you’ll probably be disappointed.

Ender’s Game is probably not “the best sci-fi” movie you’ll see this year, but it does manage to get a lot of that brooding “1980s sci-fi” across, which I thought was a rare treat in today’s action obsessed (sci-fi in particular) cinema.

Of course, Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game, is also known for having “pulled a Mel Gibson” on his career with some deeply reactionary views, so I wonder if/how this plays into his books from the 80s. It didn’t seem to affect the movie (which he also produced).

Anyhow. Let me know what you think.

  • Have you seen Ender’s Game? Have you read the original book?
  • Did you enjoy the movie? The book?
  • Have you seen/read both? If so, how do you think they compare?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Z.

Zweischneid

Zweischneid

I am Zweischneid. Wargame Addict. Hopeless painter and founder of Pins of War. I hope you enjoyed this article. Don't forget to share your favourite miniature pictures and wargaming videos at www.pinsofwar.net.
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  • Paintingbuddha

    Never heard of it. Skipped most of your text because I hate spoilers.
    But the mere fact that you reported on it makes me wanna see it now :D

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      Lol. Ok.

      Though, in case you skipped it along with the spoilers, I wrote an article about it (a) because it’s been the first time in .. .um .. a few months I’ve actually been to the cinema, and (b) because it gave me things to think about.

      I did not (!) cover it because it’s the greatest movie ever, or even this year, or something like that ;)

  • Edohiguma

    Never read the book, because even back when it came out in my area of the world I quickly dismissed it as “yet another humans vs aliens” and then I was already reading a ton of sci-fi, partly written by much better authors with much better plots and writing (one of those series is still going strong.) The whole thing smells like the classic brooding 1980s dime novel garbage that gets hyped out of proportion to mask unimpressive writing, convoluted plot and really terrible ideas with insane fanboying and hype.

    Not too interested in the movie, cause, guess what, “yet another humans vs aliens”. But most importantly because Hollywood child actors are usually so bloody annoying that I would set them on fire and throw them under a bus, and then throw that wreck under another bus, if it was legal. Not all of them, mind you, but the vast majority of them? Bus. And double bus. And maybe triple bus.

    Also the plot is lacking extremely. From all the soldiers and officers on the entire planet not one could think outside the box and be creative and they need a kid to do that? Yeah… that’s about as realistic as Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith flying a UFO. Wait no, the UFO is more realistic. I’ll pass and rather watch a real movie with real actors and a real plot than yet another pseudo-intellectual cluster F from Hollyweird.

  • Douglas Nicol

    probably won’t bother as i loved that book as a youth so don’t want the memory ruined.

  • James_33

    I’m a big Orson Scott Card fan and have read most of the Ender’s Game series (there are multiple sequels as well as a spin-off series). I’ve also enjoyed several of his fantasy and sci-fi books, some of which are even better than Ender’s Game. I don’t go to the movies very often, but I’ll be making an exception for this one.

    As for “pulling a Mel Gibson”, I have yet to read a book of his that was obviously affected by the opinions in question. And unlike Mel Gibson, Card’s views are relatively common among traditional Christians. Card addresses the controversy on his website and says that what he’s said in the past has been taken out of context to cast him in the worst possible light.

  • dawfydd

    Saw it today and really enjoyed it. See your point about Ford, but it’s actually interesting to see him play that more ambiguous authority figure. I do wonder if there is a longer cut we might one day see, but genuinely impressed that so much of the book made it to the screen

  • Chris

    The book was famously on the US marine corp reading list as an accessible way of communicating leadership ideas.

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      Yeah. I can believe that.

      Watching the movie, I most definitely had the feeling that they were touching on a lot of things like this in the parts the follow Ender’s training and ascension to command.

      At the same time, I also felt like it was rushed, or condensed, in the way many book-adaptation must do it, to get the full story into regular feature-film length.