Shockingly Un-Disappointing

Rating: 9/10 (6 November 2013)

Like many sci-fi fans who have read this book, and been severely disappointed by many horrible, half-baked book-to-film adaptations of many other excellent books of all genres (but especially sci-fi), I went into this film fully expecting to be at best mildly entertained, and at worst once again severely disappointed by a terrible film that looked great in previews.
By the time it was halfway over I was already slack-jawed in amazement at what the director, writers, producers and actors had managed to accomplish. Not since the Lord of the Rings adaptations have I been this impressed with a movie based on a book.
Many are saying, for some reason, that the acting is bad or nonexistent, and characters one-dimensional. I have said similar things about many, many other films, and bad acting is one of the things that ruins many movies for me, but that was not my impression of this film. To me, the acting here was precisely on point and precisely what was required to tell THIS STORY with THESE CHARACTERS. In fact, the lead actor in particular gave an extraordinary performance as far as I'm concerned. Subtle and precise. Even the bullies/villains were accurate and not over or underdone. It followed the essence of the book extremely well. Key word: essence.
People are also saying that no one could possibly "get" this movie or follow the plot without reading the book. These are all people who have read the book, of course, and believe their understanding of the story is vastly superior simply because they've read the book. On the contrary, I believe it's quite easy to follow the plot, and I think it's best if you've either never read the book or read it so long ago that you've had time to forget some of the finer details. My wife has never read the book and is no particular fan of sci-fi or fantasy, but she was easily able to pick up on all the subtle psychological plot points and ethical concepts and character relationships that made the story so great, and found nothing confusing about the plot at all. The important parts are all there, unless you slept through half the movie. Will you have an even deeper understanding of the story if you read the book? Sure. But that will always be true with any book adaptation.
If you've just recently read (or re-read) the book and you have a good imagination and expect this movie to perfectly match the "movie" you saw in your mind's eye when you read the book, well, I hate to tell you this but no movie will ever be able to match that. Any details that don't match your imagination will probably grate on your nerves. If however you have more reasonable expectations and have any idea how hard it is to bring together hundreds of people to create a film like this and have it turn out anywhere near this good and this true to the heart and soul of the source material, you will hopefully realize when you see it that you are privileged to witness something quite extraordinary.
Gratifyingly, the filmmakers were able to restrain themselves from pulling any typical Hollywood idiocy and inserting some kind of maudlin teen romance that A) was not in the book and B) would be totally unnecessary to tell the story. My wife and I both thank them for that. After the film we were discussing how impressed we were that it was specifically NOT ruined in such a way, when it so easily could have been.
So go see Ender's Game. And when the DVD comes out, buy it. In this particular case the filmmakers deserve to be richly rewarded. It may not qualify as a masterpiece for the ages but it is very, very, VERY good. And I can say with absolute certainty that you will never in your lifetime see a better adaptation of one of the best sci-fi novels ever written.