Almost great

Rating: 6/10 (5 December 2013)

Just watched Ender's Game. It was almost a great film. Almost. Here's why: The director (who also wrote the screenplay) obviously didn't read the book. Or if he did, he didn't understand it. It's been a long time since I read the book, but from memory here's the main problem with the film.
At some point in the original story, Ender is told that the Buggers are a hive mind. They attacked earth, thinking that humans were non-sentient. When they realised that the humans were actually individual sentient creatures, it was too late to reverse their mistake. That's why the Buggers never returned to earth again to fight. The film hints at this a couple of times, but it never says why.
This is a glaring omission from the film. Why is it so important? Because it makes everything Ender achieved worthless. The Buggers were never going to return to attack Earth, so the human pursuit to the Bugger homeworld was unnecessary. Ender, though thinking his part of the war was just a simulation, is responsible for the death of what was ultimately a peaceful civilisation. That is the great tragedy of Ender's game; all that death was unnecessary, and Ender was the unwitting architect of it.
By completely failing to understand this, the director made a film that is largely pointless. Yes, Ender was tricked into thinking the "command school" battles were just a simulation, but the full extent of the horror he inflicted on the Buggers is unsaid, and that demeans the whole story.
Poor, poor effort, Gavin Hood.