Review of Ender's Game (2013) by Conrad L — 05 May 2014

Took a smelly dump all over my favorite book. I was excited when I first heard there would be a movie adaptation but that was soon replaced with the dread of knowing how much I would likely hate it, followed by denial and pathetic hope against all odds that it would find a way to be good.

Don't get your hopes up if you're a fan of the book; and if you haven't read the book, DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM (before reading the book at least). As much as the director tried to say that this book meant a lot to him as a kid and he wanted to do it justice (which I am sure is true) it just doesn't.

It's BAD....BAD BAD BAD. I would give it half a star but the visual effects were very good so at least it was fun to look at. I know I am biased but I can't look at this through any other lens.

The feeling one has when reading the book can't be described and, although I know that is very hard to adapt to a screenplay, I really disliked the character arcs (or lack thereof) in this film because of how important they were to the story.

The random mis-placement of events in the timeline are annoying and don't seem necessary and some of the major plot points that are completely changed or just missing altogether make the story seem so hackneyed even if one hasn't read the book I don't know if even the casual movie goer would get a sense of what the story was supposed to be.

I got so angry reading pre screening reviews stating that this was a stupid story about some kids playing video games that had no right to be in theaters because the actual story is such gold that no one could ever describe it like that.

But after watching this movie I can see how one could miss the point that badly and think this a mundane and lackluster tale about nothing. So sad.