Rapid story succession with no character development

Rating: 3/10 (27 April 2014)

The fact that I'd take the time to review the movie version of a book that I wasn't particularly fond of should speak for itself. Yes, I've read the book, which in most cases I think ruins your suspension of disbelief when it comes to the film version, but in this case it was the only way I would understand the plot of the film. The film took off rapidly and immediately grabs Ender and pulls him from his special Earth based school and pushes him into military school on an space station. We get a brief moment to see that he is, I guess, supposed to be very close to his sister while having a horrible and abusive relationship with his older brother. I personally didn't get anymore out of it than his brother was a bully (much is left to desire after knowing how psychotic and much of a sociopath the character of his brother is in the book). Ender is whisked off the military school where I guess he does well? We miss out on countless battles described in the books that show how Ender continuously outsmarts his contemporaries and superiors. He's boosted from one position from the next for seemingly showing a slight amount of ingenuity in battle. Again, it's kind of hard to tell. I really wasn't sure what was supposed to be going on in the first battle, all I know is that it made his commander look bad for some reason. Ender should have friends that he gains during this time, people who look up to him and who he might hurt mistakenly. We get introduced to them vaguely. Honestly, I really don't car about anyone in this movie at this point. He has some kind of almost romantic thing happening with Petra, but again, I don't care about either of these characters. I've been given no real reason to. They haven't been developed, Ender only vaguely so, but I don't care about this dude or anyone he meets. Whatever, then he gets to command his own group, then suddenly Ender gets in a fight and injures another kid and he's like "no I don't want to do this", but then they let his sister visit him and she's like "Ender you totally have to do this", and Ender is like "Okay, I guess I go back in do it because you're my sister and we're supposed to be close and stuff". Seriously, that's what I got from it. Ender is then whisked off to a space station on an asteroid for his final Commander training. We meet the guy who defeated the bad guys they last time the attacked. Wait, this dude is still alive? If he's so great then why isn't he commanding the armies to take down the baddies? I don't know, it's never explained. Then all of Ender's old "friends" show up to be his special command team. I have to emphasize again, I don't care about these kids. They showed up to help and I'm like, whatever. You could have disappeared for the rest of the movie and I wouldn't have realized it BECAUSE NONE OF YOU WERE EVER Developed AS CHARACTERS. Ahem, excuse me I got a little out of control. Ender fights his final simulations in order to graduate command school and then win and stuff, yay whatever. And then they're like, "No Ender, that was real, you killed the bad guys" and Ender is like "What, I wiped out a species I'm so sad". Why do we care? All we've really been shown is that these dudes attacked us first so we just got them before they could get us again. But Ender is sad saying we might have been able to communicate with them. I haven't been given any reason to empathize with any human characters so far, so you can bet that I have absolutely no empathy for the aliens at this point. Who cares? Seriously? Yes, this is a synopsis coupled with a review, but this film took no time to develop any of its characters it jumped into what was supposed to be excitement, but what was really just confusing battle (I guess?) sequences. I know these characters from the book, they have personalities, they're interesting. I have no idea who any of them are in the movie. I don't even care about Ender, I don't know why I should care about his sister short of the fact that she's his sister. There is an entire side story between Ender's brother and sister that are ignored in the film. The plot is muddled, action scenes are confusing, and the characters are completely forgettable. Let me remind you, I didn't even like the book. So shame on you film executives.