Ender’s Game is the story of a young boy growing up on Earth, in the year 2086, that is under threat of being annihilated by an alien species, called the Formics, that attacked the planet once before, but was defeated. In this future the International Fleet relies on children to be the next great Commanders of their space fleet. Children are selected at a young age to attend Battle School, a space station floating in the Atmosphere above Earth, where they learn military strategy and how to coordinate and fight in a Zero-G environment.
Ender is a candidate in this program, and after a monitored duration of time he has been selected to go to Battle School. Colonel Graff, the man in charge of Battle School, believes that Ender is the one to lead them to victory in the war against the Formics. Graff’s plan for Ender is to make him feel isolated and hated, so that he will have a hard time connecting with any of the other trainees, and force him to stay alert for the ones that feel threatened by the position the teachers keep putting him in.
Over the course of his stay at Battle School Ender overcomes all obstacles that Graff puts in his way. As he becomes a leader of his own squad, and leads them on to victory in a series of training sessions against other squads. Feeling jealous and threatened by Enders success one of the other squad leaders gets in an altercation with Ender, but Ender is far more adept at strategy and wins the fight. Getting fed up with all the things Graff is putting him through, Ender decides he doesn’t want to be a pawn in this game Graff is playing, so he quits Battle School and goes back to Earth.
Having invested far too much time in Enders training, Graff has to find a way to bring him back. He uses Ender’s sister Valentine to convince him to return, as much as he doesn’t want to Ender can’t deny that he is the best option for leading the fleet into war. Instead of returning to Battle School, Ender is shuttled off to a forward command base to start his training in Command School. Here he runs through simulations to help prepare him for the war that Earth has decided to take to the Formics instead of waiting for the next invasion.
I will end my synopsis there because this much information was given away in the trailer, and I am not here to spoil anything just give my review.
As with most book to screen adaptations there are things that get changed or left out completely, this is no different. The movie cuts out all non-Ender centered material, in fact the longest amount of time Ender is not on screen in one stretch is about 30-40 seconds. All training that Ender goes through in Battle School happens in 20 minutes and mostly through montage, so you never get to see how clever he really is. That being said, they mostly stayed true to the book on the scenes that were in the movie.
If you haven’t read the book the movie won’t have too many problems for you, other than wanting more from certain segments that they montage through.
So in summation, if you enjoyed the movie, please read the book, things will make sense in a whole new way that you won’t have understood just by watching the movie.
I give the movie a 3 out of 5
Review by Jeff Potts
I read the book first, and then watched the movie. I think the book was fabulous. I was wondering how they would make a movie while doing the book justice. I actually felt that the movie would be good advertisement for the book. Watch the movie and enjoy. When you get hooked and want to know more about Ender's time, then read the book. I gave the movie 4 out of 5, only because if you can get me to enjoy sci-fi, than you know you did something wonderful.
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