How to destroy everything unique about a novel.

Rating: 2/10 (9 March 2014)

I first read Ender's game during my senior year of High School and I was taken with the depth of characters. As a youth who had been put through all sorts of advanced placement classes, the book really did resonate with me as did it's sequels. Now, I am pretty forgiving of movie adaptations normally as I understand the difficulties in translating the written word to the silver screen. I accept that things will have to be left out, and even accept changing minor parts to tighten up a story so it can be told in a compressed time frame. Sadly, this movie just does everything wrong when it comes to telling this wonderful story. The visual effects are solid, the acting is good, and by all accounts, it should have been a great movie. There was just far too much about the character of Ender that was erased for no good reason which, in turn, made this movie no more than another overblown Transformers wanna be. Ender was supposed to be the youngest and smallest child, up until that time, ever accepted into battle school. He was already isolated because, in a world in which families were only allowed two children, he was a third child. He was an exception to the rule which isolated him even more. They pay some lip service to this in the movie, but it never really resonates. One of the best examples was the fight with his Army leader, "Bonzo Madrid". In the book, Ender is more than a foot shorter much slighter of build and Bonzo is probably closer to 17 years old where Ender hasn't even hit his teens yet. In the movie, Bonzo is a foot shorter than Ender and the fight just doesn't have any real impact whereas, in the book, it was a pivotal moment. I could spend all day picking apart decisions made in this movie and still have no answers. If you've never read the book and enjoyed the movie, I highly recommend that you grab the books. If you have read the books and enjoyed them, stay far far away from this movie.