Twenty years ago I read what became, one of my favorite novels. I went on to read it at least four more times, and that doesn’t even include the subsequent books which grew out of the original story. Last week millions were introduced to Ender’s Game via the new movie starring Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield. Now I should say, I’ve never actually forgiven Mr. Ford for that terrible showing he made in that latest Indiana Jones fiasco, so the odds were good I was going to be disappointed in this one too.
For those who’ve never read the book before allow me to ruin it for you. Just kidding. The story is set in the somewhat near future. Humanity has recently beaten back an alien species who had designs on the planet. The problem is they don’t really know how they won. And now, on the verge of a counterattack, humanity must find a leader for its fleet, so they begin sifting the population of the planet looking for the perfect little genius to lead the attack. Enter Ender Wiggin.
Author of the book Orson Scott Card, played a key role in the making on the film, and was unafraid to pull the plug on earlier theatrical incarnations of his book, so I was cautiously optimistic, despite the presence of Mr. Ford. But honestly, by the time I got into the theater I was pretty excited. The film version looked great. The actors did a really good job with their roles, (including Harrison actually), and in most respects I enjoyed the movie… in most respects. I terms of its faithfulness to the original story, It’s not quite what I was hoping for. Not that it diverges from the book exactly, but some fairly significant plot points are excluded for the sake of time.
From the stand point of length I understand the editing choices that had to be made. But I won’t pretend not to be a little disappointed either. Overall I thought the film kept to the spirit of the Novel. The central characters were well cast, and the setting was much like what I had envisioned. I think however I would have preferred to see a miniseries, on the order of Battlestar, or Game of Thrones, (without the lewdness of the latter). Ultimately Ender’s Game is a great movie, particularly if you’ve never read the book. For the rest of us, maybe we’ll be inspired to reread our favorite novels.