Disclaimer- This paper is purely opinionated. If you don’t agree, I respect that and I hope you respect my opinion as well… But I’m still right.


I have recently watched Ender’s Game, and it isn’t all that I thought it would be. In fact, it isn’t even close to the mind-movie I was making while reading it. It basically destroyed the entire story and made a new one, which I did not enjoy. The characters looked almost nothing like I imagined; Bean was smaller in my head, Bonzo was taller, which was specifically hinted at in the book, when Ender and Bean were fighting. Mazer looked older in my head, and Petra looked completely different.

A lot of major events were missing, for example: when Ender beat one of the older kids at the video game. This helped him learn strategy. Another major component was Rabbit Army. The contrast between Salamander and Rabbit helped Ender to develop his own successful leading style. The launchy practices were also important because it helped train Ender when Bonzo didn’t. Even my favorite part, Demosthenes and Locke, wasn’t even in the movie! They only so much as introduced Peter and Valentine! They probably only got 5 minutes tops of screen time! Demosthenes and Locke were important because Peter becomes Hegemon, and it is the reason why Ender isn’t allowed back to Earth. In total, The movie was missing so much from the book that it was hardly enjoyable. The only good thing I saw in the movie was the battleroom. The battles were amazing, much better than I expected them to be, although I think that the stars could’ve been bigger. Although there was this one thing, it still is only what I expected from the movie, and it didn’t go past my expectations.

The simulator battles could’ve been better. I expected at least 10 kids there, not just six. If they had added Han Tzu or Carn Carby, maybe my opinion would be different. Also, the relationships between most characters weren’t shown enough. Other than the relationships between Ender and Petra or between Anderson and Graff, you couldn’t tell how Alai and Ender became buddies, how much Dink hated the school, Bean and Ender didn’t seem as eager to connect as in the book, and Shen didn’t even show up. I think that the part with Shen was important, even though they covered for it with Alai puking on the rocket to Battle School. Bean should never have been on the first flight with Ender because it didn’t leave room for all the jabs at Bean’s height that Ender makes in the book. Also, I think that the ages should’ve stayed close to the book’s description.

Some parts that could’ve been taken out of the movie include the incident with Dap and when Ender spends almost a minute in slow-motion, shooting everyone in sight, when in the movie the army has less than 20 people. Even though it would be hard to get, I bet it wouldn’t be hard to find volunteers for the movie, just to be in it.

The Giant’s Drink could’ve been longer, with the part on the playground and the dwarves on the Giant’s Corpse. I thought the mind game was supposed to look into your soul and help the adults to get back into your head. Even the part about the suicidal kid should’ve been included so that it would cause more suspense. There is so much more that they could’ve done to make the movie better, bigger. I would’ve preferred a six- hour movie that included everything. I don’t think it was very creative of them to make Dap salute to Ender before the final battle, because that part didn’t need to be included.

I rate this movie two stars out of five. The time elapse was terrible. This could’ve happened in three months, when the book takes years. Also, I didn’t like that they left so much out and still expected us to enjoy it.