Thank you. You look at your 11 year old nephew holding onto his kidneys, as he says that he needs to go to the toilet and that you need to take him and you try to figure out if he's old enough to go to the movie theatre toilets by himself... Which is when you realize that you don't think that even you are old enough to go to the movie theatre toilets by yourself.
I've been eagerly awaiting this movie since it was announced like 15 years ago, so, there is no way I was going to not be disappointed with it. Even if it was a faithful and complete adaptation of the book I would still be disappointed. Still, I thought it might not be terrible and definitely worth seeing. I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I would be, which is probably the best this could have possibly turned out. The switch to teenagers from children is understandable, and didn't take away too much from the film. The main reason it's been in development for over a decade is that, while it might be possible to find one or two child actors capable of playing these characters, the 20 or more actually needed was logistically impossible. This movie wasn't getting made until someone said "fuck it, they're teenagers now." I also liked how Bonzo was really short. It made sense for his personality. I could imagine him being taunted for his size when he was a Launchie and resolving to never let anyone push him around or make him look bad. Also, the fight in the bathroom, the part where Ender said "I could break your arm right now" in the same tone Peter said "I could kill you like this" near the beginning was awesome. When Bonzo was in the infirmary after the fight, I noticed something funny. It looked like the machine was repairing occipital lobe damage. The impact he sustained at the end of the fight also likely caused frontal lobe damage as well. Frontal lobe damage often results in personality changes. I could imagine the doctors saying "wait, lets not fix that yet. Maybe he'll be less of a dick now." Including just enough of the fantasy game to establish that the bug queen was using it for communication and to reference The Giant's Drink was probably the best way to go about things without fully hashing it out and spending too much time with it. I wish they would have also shown Peter and Val trying to take over the world just enough to establish that it happened. As for what I didn't like: The Full Metal Jacket references were very tiresome. There probably won't be a sequel at this point, but the movie didn't leave a lot of options for adapting the existing novels. Completely ignoring the Peter and Val subplot doesn't really allow for for the Shadow books, and the FTL drive and that the ansible has a limited range for instantaneous communication really screws up possibilities for the original sequels. That, and most of the other books are different and don't make for good space-battle movies. The Shadow books were far more politics-based, and the original sequels were-- whatever it was they were supposed to be. It might be possible to Speaker for the Dead by changing the plot significantly and using all the books for source material. Apply the political unrest of Earth to the new colonies instead, have Peter unite the colonies instead of Earth, and have this happening at the same time as the stuff on the planet with the pigs who become trees when they die, and have some space battles and stuff.
The domestic box office fell 62 percent this weekend, dropping from 1st place to 5th. I waited two decades for this movie, and it looks like it will quickly fade away. http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3751&p=.htm
Did anyone else notice in the scene where Graf is talking to Ender after cracking the short leader boy's head open... Harrison Ford has a piece of food hanging below his lip? It's there for all his close ups, then when they end on a medium shot it's gone. Also, I don't remember the post-credit scene being in the the book, where Graf tells Ender now they must prepare for their next war against the Sodomites. Was that the next book or something? I only read the first one...
I just saw it, and as someone who is a big fan of the book and waited a long time for it, I was pleased with it. It was good, but not great. I don't know why they had to cut the running time so much, there was a lot they left out or covered too quickly. They changed or left out a lot of the cruder and more childish language(like the repeated references to "fart, fart-eater," etc.)) which was a good move. Leaving out the "Demosthenes and Locke" internet subplot made sense.
Having purchased the book over a decade ago and not having read it yet, I had no preconceptions. It was OK. Not a particularly good story, but an O.K. film - I didn't want my money back and I don't want a sequel...
Holy crap. This might be the only time you haven't used metaphor or hyperbole in a sentence. I've only ever used the restroom one time during a movie and that was Return of the King. 3.5 hours was enough. ***** I just saw the movie last night. I was pretty excited about the film since its inception until my interest was dampened by the trailers. I'm glad I finally saw it, but it was sadly on par with what I thought it was going to be. Just an OK adaptation. I think the screenplay was great, but some of the visuals and acting were really iffy.
I finally got to see it a few days ago. It's bizarre that I did not manage to see it earlier, since I have been eagerly awaiting this movie since the 90's (and it even starred Han Solo!) but real life prevents me from indulging immediately in every movie I want to see. Anyway, I liked it. Of course it wasn't nearly as good as the book, but I never expected it to be. Despite some big changes that others have pointed out (like the FTL traveling and the condensed period of training time) it actually followed the book more closely than I was expecting. It's a shame it didn't do better at the box office, because I thought the filmmakers did well.
I read the book so long ago that it would have been going in without preconception (had I not decided to refresh myself on the book). But I still found it to be an enjoyable film. Nothing spectacular but I can think of much worse ways to spend a couple hours. The acting was hit or miss and sometimes it was hard to feel connected to the characters but I thought the special effects were well done and the overall story enjoyable.