ENDER'S GAME - Trailer Announcement & Preview
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The preview is out. I am not impressed. Not only is Ender way too old, heck all of the kids are teenagers. Ender went to battle school as a 6 year old. he was in command school by age 11. All of the kids are teenagers, it completely misses one of the key points of the novel. plus they have created a battle school where the battle room is a giant ball which appears to look out into space; completely misses the point of the nine battle rooms in the book; Graff isn't anywhere fat enough (and I don't like Harrison Ford as Hyrum Graff anyways); and the dang preview gives away the ending of the movie. The fighting scenes do not look anything at all like a computer simulation; a video game.
Only God knows if they will even have the Fantasy game, and what that will look like.
I fear hollywood has taken one of my favorite novels, a book I can - and usually do - re-read every year, and completely ruin it.
Only God knows if they will even have the Fantasy game, and what that will look like.
I fear hollywood has taken one of my favorite novels, a book I can - and usually do - re-read every year, and completely ruin it.
Rocky:
I was scratching my head at the ages of the characters myself. Haven't watched the trailer yet, I'm somewhat afraid to do so.
It's also one of my favorite SciFi books, and I re-read it now and again.
I was scratching my head at the ages of the characters myself. Haven't watched the trailer yet, I'm somewhat afraid to do so.
It's also one of my favorite SciFi books, and I re-read it now and again.
For me, Card ruined the book itself by falling in love with his characters and allowing $$$ to overrule knowing when to end a story. He already ruined the Ender story by writing Ender's Shadow and the subsequent war on earth series.
I also loved the original. First read it as a novelette long before Card redid it as a full blown novel. Thought he did a good job on the transition. However, IMHO Card does not do well when he tries to milk an idea into multiple novels. My favorite Card has always been the one-offs such as Pastwatch, Magic Street and the delightful Enchantment.
As for the movie, it is tough to name any movie that has done justice to the book. I can only think of a few examples, and they are mostly because the book was poorly written and simply used as a launching point for something different. M*A*S*H is an example of that. The book is unreadable tripe, but Altman did a Vietnam movie instead and nailed it. You aren't going to see that with Ender's Game
I also loved the original. First read it as a novelette long before Card redid it as a full blown novel. Thought he did a good job on the transition. However, IMHO Card does not do well when he tries to milk an idea into multiple novels. My favorite Card has always been the one-offs such as Pastwatch, Magic Street and the delightful Enchantment.
As for the movie, it is tough to name any movie that has done justice to the book. I can only think of a few examples, and they are mostly because the book was poorly written and simply used as a launching point for something different. M*A*S*H is an example of that. The book is unreadable tripe, but Altman did a Vietnam movie instead and nailed it. You aren't going to see that with Ender's Game
I disagree about Shadow. The original parallel novel is a great twist on a story, up until they bring Achilles to battle school. That is just silly. I agree wholeheartedly about all the other shadow books, they are terrible. Enders game and the speaker for the Dead trilogy are classics. I am in my annual re-read (or listen) and am half way through Xenocide. I won't say the conclusion, children of the mind is a classic, it isn't, but speaker fr the dead is an excellent novel.
I love the character if Ender Wiggin, and hate how Hollywood will ruin it.
OSC is a author who created somel books that are among my favorites, and yet has written much I think is garbage, and as a person is someone based on his political statements, I don't admire. Yet, my affinity for Ender is above and separate from it all.
I love the character if Ender Wiggin, and hate how Hollywood will ruin it.
OSC is a author who created somel books that are among my favorites, and yet has written much I think is garbage, and as a person is someone based on his political statements, I don't admire. Yet, my affinity for Ender is above and separate from it all.
Well crap! Another movie based on a book that misses the basic theme altogether! 
While it may turn out to be a good movie, it won't be Ender's Game at all.
While it may turn out to be a good movie, it won't be Ender's Game at all.
Heinlein refused to sell rights to Hollywood after the Destination Moon affair. Turns out he had good reason, because both movies made from his books - Starship Troopers and The Puppet Masters missed his main themes. However, both worked as movies and Starship Troopers was a hit.
Hollywood does not have a responsibility to remain faithful to the author. Its job is to make product that entertains and which turns a profit. I would go so far as to suggest that anyone who loves this book stay away from the movie.
Hollywood does not have a responsibility to remain faithful to the author. Its job is to make product that entertains and which turns a profit. I would go so far as to suggest that anyone who loves this book stay away from the movie.
I don't have a problem compartmentalizing the book from the movie and enjoy them as seperate entities. Does the movie get the essence of the book? That's all you can ask for.
While Starship Troopers made money, I thought it was a terrible film. Oh well, I'm not everybody, just myself.
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While Starship Troopers made money, I thought it was a terrible film. Oh well, I'm not everybody, just myself.
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Starship Troopers WAS a terrible film. Agreed. My gut says Enders Game will be a terrible film too.
The reason I say Starship Troopers worked is because it made money and has a loyal fan base of kids too young to appreciate the book. That is not us, but it does work for the overload you with action crowd.
For Ender's Game, the book is well known to all of the people they will be marketing it to. it will backfire. I wish they just made it as an animated film, then they could have had Ender progress from 6 to 11 years old. Impossible with a movie without changing the actors constantly.
I wonder when they shot the live action part. He just turned 16 (April 1) in real life. If they shot the live action last year he could have been 14-15 and they can make 14 year olds look pretty young sometimes.
He does not look young in the trailer. And 14 is still 3 years older than when Ender had "his game" and 8 years after he would have entered battle school.
I appreciate a good scifi/action flick as much as anybody. But it wasn't good.
I always read the book as being somewhat satirical myself. Maybe not -- opinion varies.
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And we're back to accepting the movie as a seperate entity unto itself (or not).
I don't think it will satisfy those that want it to be a very literal interpretation of the book. Is that the audience though?
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To have him start as a teenager is to take the CORE of the book and throw it away. That is my biggest issue. They were little kids sent to battle school; not teenagers.
Note, I never said it was GOOD. I'm a big Heinlein fan myself, and that movie missed the entire point. I was just saying it was successful and loved by a younger generation that doesn't relate to duty and responsibility and who gets excited by action.
I never throught Starship Troopers was satirical. Remember, it was written at the height of the cold war by a Naval Academy man. The one that was satirical was Haldeman's answer book, The Forever War
Getting in to this at a late stage, only to defend Starship Troopers to a degree. This movie took elements of Heinlein's book and presented them in a way that could be accepted by the moviegoers of the early 21st century. Which is to say that the J.J. Abrahms of the world run the movies and today's moviegoers are expecting more of the same.
I never heard of "Ender's Game" until I was watching some TWiT program and they were decrying the trailer, saying it gave away the ending of the book and would ruin the book if you hadn't read it already.
I used to read tons of books, but hardly do anymore. I'd like to read the "Fire and Ice" books as the few episodes of "Game of Thrones" I watched during the HBO free weekends have me intrigued.
I have zero expectation that a movie based on a book will have much resemblance to that book. That's based on 50+ years of reading and going to the movies. Probably the worse example was the 1960s "Casino Royale" farce with David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen. As a teenager I thought it was silly and fun, and when I picked up the copy of "Casino Royale" that was on the bookshelf and started reading it, I was dragged back to reality!
The new Peter Jackson version of "The Hobbit" gets to me because Jackson can nail certain scenes perfectly and then pull the stupidest crud from his creative tract with the "Great White Orc", for no reason other than making sure there is enough action and drama to fill three full-length movies.
Anyway, I plan on seeing "Ender's Game" in November and may enjoy it more for not having read the book.
I'd read Enders Game before I read GOT. Martin's books are good, but dang, they are LONG, LONG, LONG... and more than necessarily-so. I like the tv-adaptation of them though.
I will see Ender's Game, but I have a hard time imagining how I will not walk away disappointed. part of the problem is much of Ender's Game takes place "in his head" in various ways; an issue that OSC pointed out a long time ago. I suspect Ender's Game will combine elements from both Ender's Game, and Ender's Shadow, the parallel novel.
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