How Gavin Hood Ruined Ender's Game

Rating: 3/10 (2 November 2013)

First off, let's get one thing straight. Ender's Game was a well done movie, with amazing graphics and great acting. But the film it's self did not closely follow the book. In fact, they completely demolished it. Some of the changes were understandable, but most completely ruined the mood that the book had.
Now where do we start? Let's start with the Formic Wars. The first formic war took place on earth, and Mazer Rackham had nothing to do with it, let alone sacrifice himself. The second Formic War took place around the rings of Saturn in space to my knowledge, and that is the Formic war Rackham participated in.
Then there's Stilson, in the movie ender simply kicked the crap out him. The book describes Ender kicking him until he had this dead look in his eyes, so that later this could be compared to his fight with Bonzo, in the book he also killed Stilson, and never used some science experiment to do it. Not the biggest of mistakes, but I felt the film was definitely lacking do to this.
Then we come to launch of the shuttle, and the whole film goes downhill from there. In the book Ender walks aboard the shuttle with all of the other boys, he doesn't come in late, and he NEVER sat beside Bean. Bean was not even in his launch group. Bean and Ender were not supposed to become friends until Bean joined Dragon Army. So that unfortunately happens, and then the shuttle takes off. Now in the book, launchies were not allowed to eat for 24 hours prior to the launch, to avoid sickness. So please tell me why Alai puked his guts out when they got in space? Then Graff comes out to see the launchies, and when he does he comes out horizontally. In the book he comes in upside down and Ender laughs because it seems as if Graff were standing on his head. In the movie Ender laughs, and then explains publicly why your orientation can be any way in space.
No we get Bernard. Most likely one of the biggest mistakes in the movie. In the book, Bernard was bothering Ender, and Ender proceeded to break his arm. This lead to a feud that lasted between them for a long time in battle school. And never was Bernard part of Ender's Jeesh. He was never that smart.
Where did Shen go? Shen was one of Ender's first friends when he arrived to battle school, because Shen himself was also a misfit, singled out and picked on by Bernard for the way his butt moved when he walked. This lead to Ender hacking into the desks and posting about how Bernard is always watching your butts. A classic comedic moment of the book that never made it's way into the movie along with Shen.
Now to the Battle room, why oh why were the walls glass? And why was there only one battle room?In the book there were 8 closed in rooms, and the lighting could be controlled to hinder the student's visibility. And when they arrived why were Bean and Ender experimenting with the guns? It was always Ender and Alai, and they never discussed the enemy's gate being down at that time. Oh and let's not forget the way the decided to merge two very defining battles in the book, just to save a little screen time.
On the subject of the battle room, lets discuss armies. Why were they so small? In the movie I don't think I saw more than a dozen kids in each army. In the books there were forty soldiers and a commander in each army.
What happened to Rat Army?? Why was Ender transferred from Salamander to Dragon, instead of Salamander to Rat. And I'm pretty sure that's where Ender meets Dink Meeker, and not in salamander.
What happened to Bean's special ops force?? They completely got rid of that, leaving no explanation as to why bean was carrying rope.
Bonzo. Pronounced Bon-so. I don't remember hearing that in the movie, even though it was very, very emphasized in the book. They managed to capture his personality pretty well, but his death scene was less than satisfactory. What was with the whole hitting his head on the ground and breaking his neck? It didn't bring out the intensity of the scene that the book portrayed. Ender was supposed to bash Bonzo's nose into his brain, and then kick him in the balls as he stands like a dead man before collapsing, and dying on the spot. There was no infirmary scene in the book, and Ender never to think that he might of killed him until after the league war.
Then we arrive on Eros. Ender begins his training with Mazer, and when he walks into the simulator his entire Jeesh is in the room with 500 other kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give me a break, They only people in that room were Mazer and Ender, the rest of his Jeesh was in a different simulator, and they never explained the toll it took on Ender's Jeesh and how Petra broke down.
The final battle was not that bad, but after his fight with Graff, the rest was crap. They completely threw out he book with the bathwater. They ignored the league war, and moved the last Formic larvae to eros. They then proceed to send Ender out into the Stars abandoning his sister on Earth, instead of leaving with his sister like in the books.
Finally Throughout the Film they never elaborated on Demothenese and Locke. A key element to the story about Peter and Valantine that amounted to just about half the book.
Overall Ender's Game should have been broken down into 2 movies, instead of cramming it all into Gavin Hood's 2 hours of Crap.