Good but misses slightly

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2014)

First, a caveat - people who don't care for science fiction should not bother with this film. It does not have "cross-genre" appeal.
With that out of the way - I am a fan of the book, so it is difficult for me to assess how people who haven't read it will respond to it. I asked my husband, who'd not read the book, what he thought and generally he liked it but thought it was a bit draggy in spots relating to Ender's military training. He did add, however, that that was necessary to show how SPOILER Ender went from a disrespected "wimpy kid" to a commanding presence. Apart from that he liked it a lot.
As to my own assessment ... I did like it and am giving it a thumbs up; it was well cast, the special effects were terrific, and the SPOILER devastating point made at the end impacts as it should. But I do have a criticism relating to content that was omitted from the book. SPOILER Readers of the book will know that Ender kept seeing strange images in his video games (or whatever the electronic devices were called) and could not figure out what they really were - unsuccessful attempts by the aliens to communicate - until too late to SPOILER stop the unjustified annihilation of an entire species. This made it all the more tragic when he realized they were wiped out without justification.
The movie includes a couple of instances of this attempt at communication but did not include it as a recurring theme. So at the end after the devastation and Ender realizes that that is what the strange video game events were really about, it seems a bit tacked on. My guess is the film makers figured more instances of physical fighting would appeal to audiences more than more instances of strange video-game encounters. This is counter to the book and is unnecessary since, after all, SPOILER, physical fighting was "beside the point" in winning the war against the aliens; rather, computer-game skill was they key. This is the reason I am not giving it a higher score, but would nevertheless, recommend it.