Ender's Game Movie Gets Final Trailer

[StewShearerOld]

It's odd that the one completely unforgivable change for me is one no one else seems to be bothered about, which is the age of the kids. Making them teenagers is a clear attempt to capture the Twilight/Hunger Games market but completely destroys the original point of the book. It's a bit like when the Lord Of The Flies movie changed Jack's gang from choirboys to army cadets.

Not that I'd have gone to see it anyway because, you know, Orson Scott Card, but still.

It might have more to do with the film studio (and audiences to be frank) probably not being comfortable putting so much child on child violence in a film. In the book Ender is kindergarten age when he first enters Battle School. Some people were shocked by the Hunger Games. Watching a 9 year old beat another child to death might not go over too well.

Not to mention that finding an entire cast of skilled child actors to pull off the film would have been a tremendous challenge, especially since they age considerably over the course of the story.

 

[Kahani]

The Ender's Game movie has been gifted with a final, explosion filled trailer before its November release.

Which is odd, because I can't remember a single explosion in the entire book.

It might have more to do with the film studio (and audiences to be frank) probably not being comfortable putting so much child on child violence in a film. In the book Ender is kindergarten age when he first enters Battle School. Some people were shocked by the Hunger Games. Watching a 9 year old beat another child to death might not go over too well.

And of course, Ender was only 6 and hadn't had any military training at all when he committed his first murder.

Not to mention that finding an entire cast of skilled child actors to pull off the film would have been a tremendous challenge, especially since they age considerably over the course of the story.

I think the bigger challenge would simply be that not a single character ever acts even remotely like a child. Making them older so that some of it can actually make sense isn't just an acceptable change, I don't see how it could possibly be done without.

That said, I still think the film is likely to suck. The book has two focusses - the thoughts of a bunch of super-intelligent but brainwashed children, and said children playing laser tag. As a side focus, a couple of other kids try to take over the world through the power of blogging. It's just not the sort of thing that's ever going to look good on the big screen. And how to the trailers try to let us know they've figured out how to actually film such a tricky adaptation? Explosions. I don't expect adaptations in different media to be exact copies, but I'll be amazed if this bears any resemblance to the book at all.

 

[Flatfrog]

It's odd that the one completely unforgivable change for me is one no one else seems to be bothered about, which is the age of the kids. Making them teenagers is a clear attempt to capture the Twilight/Hunger Games market but completely destroys the original point of the book. It's a bit like when the Lord Of The Flies movie changed Jack's gang from choirboys to army cadets.

Not that I'd have gone to see it anyway because, you know, Orson Scott Card, but still.

It might have more to do with the film studio (and audiences to be frank) probably not being comfortable putting so much child on child violence in a film. In the book Ender is kindergarten age when he first enters Battle School. Some people were shocked by the Hunger Games. Watching a 9 year old beat another child to death might not go over too well.

Not to mention that finding an entire cast of skilled child actors to pull off the film would have been a tremendous challenge, especially since they age considerably over the course of the story.

Fair points, but I think they could have got round them without quite so dramatically missing the point of the book. They could have made them ten/eleven, and condensed the action of the story into a year. There's plenty of talented young actors who could pull it off at that age (with the help of a decent director, at least). And yes, watching kids kill each other would be uncomfortable (I'd bet anything they cut that from the movie as it is) but again, that's where the power of the story comes from - the betrayal of innocence. Otherwise, as Kahani says, it's kids playing laser tag to control giant space ships and kill bug-monsters - it might as well be Pacific Rim.

 

[Flatfrog]

The book has two focusses - the thoughts of a bunch of super-intelligent but brainwashed children, and said children playing laser tag. As a side focus, a couple of other kids try to take over the world through the power of blogging.

Lol. But you missed the third strand - kid gets psychoanalysed through a game of Skyrim.

 

[Littaly]

I hope they put more emphasis on the more human aspect of the book, with the psychological tormenting of the main character and all, than the trailer suggests. I'm not overly concerned about that though, I wouldn't expect that to be the kind of stuff they'd put in a trailer. Besides, they wouldn't go through the trouble of assembling such an A-list cast of child actors if they didn't require them to turn in some pretty heavy performances. So yeah, not the world's most engaging trailer, but I still think this has the potential to be good.

 

[Ldude893]

You are kidding me.

Go to 0:15 seconds into the trailer. Now compare it to this. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN1SyaSdCeM]

What the hell, trailer? Are you so lazy that you have to steal entire clips from other mediocre movies just to make yourself slightly less generic somehow?

 

[RobotDinosaur]

They danced around it the whole trailer with far too direct lines like "your the only one" and "you can save us all" when in the book it could be ANY of the students.

I was wondering about that myself. Been a while since I read the book, but I thought that Ender was pretty much just another Battle School student, maybe more promising than most, but he wasn't some sort of Chosen One like the trailer makes him out to be. At least, not until maybe late in the book after he leaves Battle School and had demonstrated that he was an exceptional tactician. The purpose of the Battle School was to filter out the promising candidates for Command School, so presumably there were pretty good candidates before Ender, and would have been more after him had he not worked out.

 

[darthzew]

Harrison Ford looks like he just wants to get back his nap.

I have no expectations for this movie and I didn't care for the book. Maybe my opinion is bad.

 

[Lionsfan]

You are kidding me.

Go to 0:15 seconds into the trailer. Now compare it to this. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN1SyaSdCeM]

What the hell, trailer? Are you so lazy that you have to steal entire clips from other mediocre movies just to make yourself slightly less generic somehow?

I dunno if it's "stealing", since both films are being distributed by Summit Entertainment, but that's still dumb to just reuse stock footage. Good eye

...was there a SINGLE shot of Battle School itself anywhere in that trailer?

1:15, 1:26. It's only like 6 total seconds though. Which is disappointing, since it looks like they're going to be focusing on the final space battles, which ran like 10 pages on my paperback, rather than the other 90% of the book

They danced around it the whole trailer with far too direct lines like "your the only one" and "you can save us all" when in the book it could be ANY of the students.

I was wondering about that myself. Been a while since I read the book, but I thought that Ender was pretty much just another Battle School student, maybe more promising than most, but he wasn't some sort of Chosen One like the trailer makes him out to be. At least, not until maybe late in the book after he leaves Battle School and had demonstrated that he was an exceptional tactician. The purpose of the Battle School was to filter out the promising candidates for Command School, so presumably there were pretty good candidates before Ender, and would have been more after him had he not worked out.

I just read the book again, and before most chapters, Graff and somebody else are talking about how Ender could be "The One", but nobody ever says anything outright to Ender until he finishes Battle School, and that's 3/4 of the way through the book

 

[Saucycarpdog]

You seriously need to put "spoiler heavy" in the title because the trailer bullet points make a very clear outline of the plot even if you haven't read the books, if you want to enjoy this to the fullest do not watch this trailer.

Hopefully the movie goes deep enough for this spoiler be mitigated but it's an incredibly stupid thing to do none the less.

I haven't read the books and don't really plan to, so would it be possible for you to tell me what this spoiler is? Maybe in a message or something?

OT: Looks pretty flashy. I was hoping for so more character-oriented trailers but I guess Hollywood still believes CGI sells a movie.

 

[Dangit2019]

I haven't read the books and don't really plan to, so would it be possible for you to tell me what this spoiler is? Maybe in a message or something?

I highly recommend reading the book before having it spoiled, but...

Spoiler

Okay, after finishing Battle School (which takes up the majority of the story), Ender is paired up with a famed military leader who trains him further trough a simulator with the help of his Battle School friends acting as lesser leaders.

He takes on simulated battles and wins them all, and there's always a crowd of spectators watching in the room with him.

He is taken to the last battle, which will be his final test before sent out to fight the aliens. Facing him is an simulation of the bugger (alien) planet and its full navy.

He makes big sacrifices, but eventually just nukes the entire bugger planet to kingdom come.

Suddenly, the spectators around him start rejoicing and crying in celebration. It is revealed that his commands were being sent to real life squadrons, and what was disguised as a simulator was him winning the final Bugger War.

I'm not going to give away the very end, though, as it gets weirder, numerous things get resolved, and JUST BUY THE BOOK.