Enders Game

[Space Pirate Roberts]

It's not like the guy is funneling the money into hate groups.

Actually it's exactly like that, but whatever. I wasn't even talking about this specific case, I was commenting on how idiotic it is to insinuate that those who preach tolerance are being hypocritical when they don't tolerate bigotry. A tolerance movement that failed to rightly stigmatize intolerance would be, as I said, utterly pointless and self-defeating.

[James]

Boycotting Ender's Game is silly. Having anything to do with Orson Scott Card is sillier, though. I'm not boycotting his movies, books, or games, but I don't want to have anything to do with the miserable fucker. Too bad, I actually liked Ender's Game and a couple of his other books. And then Card's talent evaporated as he got older and crazier. He can say what he wants and live his life as he sees fit, but I'm under no obligation to give him my money.

James

[A Robot Bit Me]

Actually it's exactly like that, but whatever.

Check the date. Card threw in the towel post-DOMA ruling. Love some of the reasons in here, though:

He rewrote Hamlet to make Hamlet’s father a pedophile who molested Horatio, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Laertes, turning them gay in the process (Source).

Gay fan fiction? Now I've heard it all!

Hamlet X Laertes: What Dreams May Cum

If well-to-do suburbanites want to organize a boycott for a silly movie that has nothing to do with the grounds for the boycott, go sick. I just wish that time and energy were appropriated to something that matters more than One Mediocre Author's Opinion of Sodomy. The movie flopping will do nothing for the acceptance of gay marriage.

[ChaoofNee]

This movie was pretty serviceable!

It's just a shame you'd have to read the book to understand what's going on without noticing holes in just about everything. Pay attention like a normal person and you'll find huge plotholes that are easily filled by faster-than light travel and the ansible, concepts barely mentioned in the movie. I saw this with friends who had never read the books and they had lists of questions. If you don't think too hard and watch a boy outsmart people and the military be assholes for two hours it can be a decent movie with CRAZY FAST pacing, though.

Seems like the ending set this up so we'll never see a Speaker for the Dead movie, though. I would think you can't really do that with Valentine back on Earth!

[Compass]

I saw this. I liked it, but I'm a pretty big fan of the book. The twist felt really telegraphed here, but obviously I knew it was coming so I'm not the best source. In the book [big spoilers coming] the simulations were done with little dots, as I guess Card hadn't predicted videogame visual advancement. Since the battles in the movie were all lifelike, that maybe made it more obvious that hmm, this might be the real deal!

For a book I only read once, over twenty years ago, and how bad my memory is nowadays, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I remembered, usually while noticing they cut it out! Yeah, this should have been two movies. I think the book spanned at least a couple years, but the movie feels like it covers all of two months.

I think the Bugger home planet was all but vaporized in the book. I didn't like how it was simply charred in the movie. Plus Ender's horror at annihilating an entire species felt kind of stupid in the movie. "They only came to Earth and killed millions of humans fifty years ago! Why are we being so mean to them?!" I think the final battle was just a single ship against a whole screen of Buggers in the book. Ender got frustrated at how unfair the "game" had become and said "Eh, whatevs, I'll just use the little doctor on everyone and take out their home planet while I'm at it." He thought he was being a smart-ass. Didn't go down like that at all in the movie.

Then again, my memories may be faultier than I realize.

Anyway, I liked it well enough. Most of the kid actors were pretty crappy. Wish it hadn't felt so rushed.

[ChaoofNee]

No, your memories are spot on. Those were all really big issues. The movie was good at picking out the scenes that are ultimately the most important to getting the plot across. Most of those scenes lack any of the emotional impact they got in the book because the cut scenes weren't there to back them up. Also, that rushed pace...

The nerd in me was also pissed that they used "Formics" instead of "Buggers." They also had a 3D rendering of one when humanity never got a real good look yet in the books. Bleh.

NERRRRDDDD

[Timber]

I liked the movie but I think it's only because I loved the books so much.

The main thing that bugged me was how they downplayed Bean. I get the movie wasn't long enough to go into Ender's Shadow but if I didn't know any better Bean was just portrayed as a smaller kid without anything really special about him.

[GohanX]

I saw the movie a few days ago and enjoyed it, but yeah, huge holes that I never questioned only because I knew this was based on a book. I may pick up a copy and read it to fill it in.

[Timber]

If you like the book grab Ender's Shadow after you're done. It takes place during the same time as Ender's Game but all from Bean's perspective.

[GohanX]

That sounds pretty awesome.