Excellent Adaptation Notwithstanding Deviations from Novel

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2013)

At the risk of inviting the scorn of the legions of strict adaptationists, I enjoyed this adaptation of Ender's Game.
I can understand the frustration. I derived much of my enjoyment of the novel from the deliberate, evenhanded pacing and masterful character development. Condensing this bildungsroman epic into a two- hour film inevitably resulted in some loss of literary fidelity.
In that sense, I think the film is a bit of a victim of the novel's success; those who revere the novel will no doubt notice the inconsistencies and shortcuts taken by film. Admittedly, some of these deviations are somewhat vexing. And those who are enjoying Ender's Game for the first time in either medium may feel harried by the film's unforgiving pace and confused given its bare-bones plot exposition.
Yet for all the quibbles over where it stumbles, the film carries itself with a stirring gravitas. The art direction is sublime, and Steve Jablonsky's booming score is tremendous, giving me goosebumps on several occasions. Even if I couldn't find myself emotionally invested in the characters as I was reading the novel, the film evokes a sense of wonder which I found to be emotionally-compelling, per se. One might fairly characterize my taste in films as idiosyncratic, but I haven't been as engrossed in a movie's atmosphere since I first saw The Dark Knight.
9/10.