week 16: Hannah Pulley

(It seems that Rotten Tomatoes isn’t showing some people’s reviews, here is the copied version.)

Last weekend several of my friends and I saw Ender’s Game. The people that I’ve asked that haven’t read the book mostly agree that they liked the movie, and that’s usually the case with movie adaptations. Your perception of the movie is favorable at first, but that feeling weakens when held up next to the book. While the storyline of the movie was faithful to the book and well-explained enough to stand on its own, I wasn’t blown away.

I realize that in the transition from 300 pages to a 100 minute film, every frame counts; in giving a minimal explanation of a subplot, the director / writers run the risk of the audience being confused. With that in mind, the storyline of Demosthenes and Locke being cut is disappointing, but understandable. The book makes is clear that Valentine and Peter were just as smart as Ender, but passed over because they didn’t have the right temperament to survive battle school. Back on Earth they put their minds to work arguing, trying to stir up discussion and get people to start questioning what they heard and believed. The movie misses all of this, every hint that things were still happening within Ender’s family even if he wasn’t present.

Many of the other reviewers on RT note that the movie ended on a note of “that’s it?” Yes, the ending was left wide open for a sequel because there are several other books in the series. Honestly, I don’t see any of the rest of the series being made into movies in the remote future. If the film version means that more people are discussing the questions posed in the story, the ethics of “victory at all costs,” then it’s one small achievement.