We liked it but they could have been truer to the book in a few places

Rating: 7/10 (1 November 2013)

SPOILERS AHEAD - skip now if that's an issue for you.
The beginning was very strong, establishing that the children were all potential recruits. This was nicely done. I wish they could have done more with Valentine and Peter but there was only so much time so I get that.
The scene on the lake with the raft was a missed opportunity to really see Ender's inner struggle with what he must do to survive. They made an attempt at it but to me, it fell short of how he wrestles with his inner demons - his inner Peter.
The battle room was way cool. Very nicely done. I wish there could have been more exploration of that as a vehicle but there is only so much time and no doubt that stuff must have been pretty expensive to pull off.
Where I was definitely unhappy was the one time where Graff is in his office and they show the real fleet approaching the detection zone of the Formics. It was just under 30 days out, and to me, this hinders the suspension of disbelief that the war is "soon but not quite when". Sure I've read the book many times over the last 20 years so I KNOW what's going to happen but there is no need to make it so Blatant that soon is NOW, not ... in a few years. The stress of the timeline was best conveyed in the urgency of the dialog between Graff, Ender, Major Anderson, Rackam, and a few others.
The confrontation between Ender and Bonzo could have been REALLY good but clearly someone in Hollywood didn't want a child viciously taking out another on screen. It is tragic that they made Enders defeat of Bonzo into an accident. The whole notion of Ender is that he is forced to rely only on himself, that no adult will EVER come to his aid. And he MUST destroy, and not merely defeat his enemies, to make sure they can never ever hurt him. Someone really wimped out and oh gosh ... Bonzo hit his head when he fell - instead of Ender being shown to smash him ... and then - rightly so - being torn and tormented by his own brutality.
This fear of becoming Peter ... becoming the killer could then have been played out much better in the lake scene with Valentine.
Then we have the final confrontation ... and it's "game over" ... and the kids are like "yeah" and the adults in the observation booth are anything but ecstatic that he has done it and the world is safe. They played it a different way and it worked for what it was. But the way that it should have been was as written ... the kids exhausted at their months-long ordeal, finally over for now .... knowing that they'll be fighting it for real in the next few years .... and confused by the adults who are hugging, laughing and crying that it's over.
Another missed opportunity, at least to me, was near the ending, where Ender is on the forward outpost after the final conflict, and he meets the dying Queen. This would have been a great chance for Ender to have a monologue, expressing how sorry he was, and understanding that the Queen was also tormented by the murder that they had committed - not knowing then that each person was an individual and the sanctity of life. And that she forgave the humans. They really could have tied that into the notion that Ender would become a speaker for the dead ... as Mazer indicated in their interaction earlier.
Anyway ... it was good but not great. Ford was just outstanding as was Viola Davis. Asa Butterfield did a really nice job as Ender, a nice blend of cold calculation and empathy.