Ender's Game Trailer is Finally Here

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Why the fuck does every sci-fi movie these days look the same? Why bother if this is the best they can do?

 

[kingmob]

Don't misunderstand me, I liked the books, but the story is actually pretty silly. I think it will take almost a miracle to translate that to a film without it becoming completely ridiculous. Add to that the problem of child actors in a story that requires a lot of character building and this project is likely to fail. An animated movie would work much better imo.

And why would they show the climax in the trailer so clearly?

 

[Vhite]

Kids, and especially Ender were supposed to be around 6 years old. They have of course made him more mature so they can force in there boring teenage romance. This is exactly why author of the books rejected earlier movie offers, I don't know what made him crack and accept this one but I doubt it's gonna be anywhere as good as books were. Something tells me that it is completely gonna miss the point of books and fans are gonna hate it. Also great way to spoil the most shocking ending I ever seen in a book and show him using the doctor device right in the first trailer.

 

[Kilo24]

Kids, and especially Ender were supposed to be around 6 years old. They have of course made him more mature so they can force in there boring teenage romance.

I'm pretty sure that the casting was done because it's quite hard to find six-year-olds who are competent actors.

Spoiler

Also, they're very evidently on Earth with Graff watching on: I'm pretty sure that's his sister.

But I can't say that I have high hopes for the movie, either. Ender's Game was the story of an exploited kid put through hell by a desperate military all to slaughter an alien race that he found empathy for. This movie looks like the Chosen Teenaged Hero put in a fantastic environment saving the world: more like Harry Potter than its source material. Granted, the former is really hard to convey in a trailer aimed at the mass market - but there still have been far more poor adaptations of beloved books than good ones.

 

[Vhite]

Kids, and especially Ender were supposed to be around 6 years old. They have of course made him more mature so they can force in there boring teenage romance.

I'm pretty sure that the casting was done because it's quite hard to find six-year-olds who are competent actors.

Spoiler

Also, they're very evidently on Earth with Graff watching on: I'm pretty sure that's his sister.

But I can't say that I have high hopes for the movie, either. Ender's Game was the story of an exploited kid put through hell by a desperate military all to slaughter an alien race that he found empathy for. This movie looks like the Chosen Teenaged Hero put in a fantastic environment saving the world: more like Harry Potter than its source material. Granted, the former is really hard to convey in a trailer aimed at the mass market - but there still have been far more poor adaptations of beloved books than good ones.

Then why bother making a movie if you can't do it properly? They just want to use the name to attract already existing fanbase and they are the ones that gonna hate it most. If they wanted an easy movie they should have used Shadows series which is Enders Game spin off with more action and romance.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

I will probably go to see this - I love the book, and as long as it doesnt go too Michael Bay it shouldnt be awful...although that said, it annoys me that

Spoiler

the trailer contains one of the final moments of the book; the climax where Ender destroys the bugger homeworld. Trailers in general need to stop blowing plot points.

Lets hope that OSC keeps as far away from it as possible.

Exactly my thought, something tells me that "the little doctor" isn't going to be the mind shattering zeitgeist it was in the books.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

... but I have no intentions of putting money in the pockets of a bigot if I can avoid it.

Meh, people need to grow up. Your opinion of a man should not influence your opinion of a man's work. Looks interesting enough. Truth be told, I never found OSC all that interesting of a writer. Probably something to do with people always telling me I should like his work.

I would tend to agree. Can a piece of work not be viewed for it's own sake without a prejudgment?

I'm sure an artist would appreciate the effort.

... but I have no intentions of putting money in the pockets of a bigot if I can avoid it.

*sigh*

Captcha=right left

Oh. You are on fire today Captcha,

i do agree with seperating the artist from his work. i like lovecrafts work even though he was a rascist sod scared of women for instance.

you forget the social darwinistic part about lovecraft, and anti-semitic, but all in all, nie out of ten for political opinions.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

Spoiler

bugger homeworld.

Am I to believe these children are striking back against the catholic church?

I really dont understand what you mean... :s

"bugger" is english slang for turd burgling.

I am English, and technically it does, but no one says that...bugger is just a general everyday expletive, like crap.

Well everyone still knows what crap means, and the context is rather heavily

what meaning he's using

I honestly thought he was making some kind of "catholics are aliens" comment...I havent been here long, dont know how tolerant people are of religions and whatnot.

Catholics are alien? I find the notion kind of hilarious, most of my close knit circle of friends think that this is hilarious as well.

It actually goes quite a ways to describe how most second generation immigrants are perceived by the kind of people who disregards someone purely by their beliefs. Or the way that they were raised....

YOu've made my day hen.

 

[Kilo24]

Kids, and especially Ender were supposed to be around 6 years old. They have of course made him more mature so they can force in there boring teenage romance.

I'm pretty sure that the casting was done because it's quite hard to find six-year-olds who are competent actors.

Spoiler

Also, they're very evidently on Earth with Graff watching on: I'm pretty sure that's his sister.

But I can't say that I have high hopes for the movie, either. Ender's Game was the story of an exploited kid put through hell by a desperate military all to slaughter an alien race that he found empathy for. This movie looks like the Chosen Teenaged Hero put in a fantastic environment saving the world: more like Harry Potter than its source material. Granted, the former is really hard to convey in a trailer aimed at the mass market - but there still have been far more poor adaptations of beloved books than good ones.

Then why bother making a movie if you can't do it properly? They just want to use the name to attract already existing fanbase and they are the ones that gonna hate it most. If they wanted an easy movie they should have used Shadows series which is Enders Game spin off with more action and romance.

Because Hollywood can make nearly any book into an easy movie. Because all the people who loved the book are still quite likely to watch the movie and/or buy it when it comes out. Because it's a potential teen franchise like Hunger Games, Twilight, and Harry Potter. Because there's a lot of people in Hollywood who view simplification a necessity for adapting a book into a movie, and don't think that the movie is missing the point of the book so much as being a fundamentally different product from the book.

I don't want to judge the film too early, as trailers habitually murder any nuance that the film has. It could very well possibly be an excellent adaptation, especially since the original author seems to be decently involved. But my hopes are not high.

Ender's Shadow and its series might be a better fit for filming (I'm disinclined to agree with that, but it's been a while since I've read them), but it's going to have neither the same love nor recognition that Ender's Game does, nor does it have as many sequels to worry about. It's also much more into politics, which is really hard to convey well in film.

 

[UrinalDook]

Artistic =/= art.

Books, movies, and video games are meant to be entertainment sold to the vast public, that is why they exist. That kind of automatically disqualifies them as art.

So... the moment something becomes entertaining it stops being art?

Does this also mean that a painting completely loses its artistic value the moment it's sold by the artist?

Sigh, look at it this way, movies/books/video games are products.

Okay... While I'm still able to restrain myself from launching into a string of ad hominems, let me ask you one question.

What about poetry?

OT: Loved the book, and was apparently one of the few to be excited by the prospect of a movie. While I do share some of the grievances a lot of you do with this trailer - the inclusion of certain plot elements and the emphasis on busy visuals - I'm still excited. The reason for that is because I've known how hard it would be to tease such a slow burning plot. I'm hoping that the trailer we've seen there is using a large portion of the film's action scenes, and that we'll get all the required contemplative stuff for the bulk of the run time.

But coming in with that approach, I'd decided before watching it to ignore the content and focus on the presentation. The most reassuring thing is that it doesn't look like they've skimped on the budget. The visuals look good, the acting, direction and composition look decent and most importantly it looks like they've given the battle room the love it needs. The battle room scenes in the book are exciting on a cerebral level, but I've always had the sense that they would be just as impressive visually. Hopefully, those scenes will be the centrepiece of the film (perhaps why we saw little of it, that's what they want to surprise their audience with) and the brief look we're given shows a lot of movement and fluidity.

This film is not going to be ground breaking. The book has existed for years, and much of its originality has been transcribed into more derivative works. I'm not expecting a rehash of the book either, and I pity anyone who does as much as I pity those who complain about Faramir in the LotR movies, or the change ups in Game of Thrones. What I am expecting as an absolute visual treat, some well developed themes and something of a different emphasis than most sci-fi we see today. On that front, this trailer is encouraging.

 

[moggett88]

Spoiler

bugger homeworld.

Am I to believe these children are striking back against the catholic church?

I really dont understand what you mean... :s

"bugger" is english slang for turd burgling.

I am English, and technically it does, but no one says that...bugger is just a general everyday expletive, like crap.

Well everyone still knows what crap means, and the context is rather heavily

what meaning he's using

I honestly thought he was making some kind of "catholics are aliens" comment...I havent been here long, dont know how tolerant people are of religions and whatnot.

Catholics are alien? I find the notion kind of hilarious, most of my close knit circle of friends think that this is hilarious as well.

It actually goes quite a ways to describe how most second generation immigrants are perceived by the kind of people who disregards someone purely by their beliefs. Or the way that they were raised....

YOu've made my day hen.

As a second gen immigrant myself (my grandparents are originally from Poland) I can say that the locals treat us more like blood-sucking vampires than aliens :s

 

[Flatfrog]

TL;DR I love the works of art. I am appalled that the artist behind them seems to lack the themes of his own work.

YES. This is my feeling exactly. I was truly astounded when I read Card's writings on the subject of homosexuality because I just couldn't make it match in my head with the things of his I've read (admittedly, I haven't read his specifically Mormon-themed books such as Alvin Maker so I can't comment on those).

The first Card book I read was Songmaster, which from my memory (admittedly faded and filtered through a fourteen-year-old reader's eyes) featured an extremely sympathetic and rather warm homosexual relationship - admittedly doomed and tragic, but certainly not one that felt in any way homophobic. And as you said, Ender's Game and the rest of the series come across as fairly liberal-minded. So Card the person and Card the author just feel like two different people.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Perhaps the greater stumbling block will be the Ender's Game author himself, Orson Scott Card, who's earned a rather ugly reputation for his staunch - some would say fanatical - opposition to marriage equality. Card's planned participation in a Superman comic was "put on hold" by DC Comics earlier this year after the artist on the book canceled [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122519-Artist-Quits-Superman-Book-Over-Orson-Scott-Card-Furor] at the urging of Epic Games. Card is serving as producer on the film, which could (and almost certainly will) lead to some degree of backlash.

You know what though? I think this is thoroughly disgusting....on the part of the DC artist and Epic Games. I don't agree with Card's opinion, but he damn well has the right to it. As soon as DC and Epic cancelled those things, they brought politics into places where it doesn't belong and disrespected a man's right to his opinion.

So it's okay to watch Mel Gibson films when he's one of the vilest racists and anti-semites in Hollywood? It's okay to buy Tommy Hilfiger clothes when he said on TV "I would never have made them if I knew blacks or asians would wear them"? It's okay to wear Abercrombie and Fitch though they are a vile company [http://elitedaily.com/news/world/abercrombie-fitch-ceo-explains-why-he-hates-fat-chicks/]? It's okay for Fox News to broadcast their right-wing, completely biased sensationalist bullshit where truth is only used if it suits their agenda?

Seriously disappointed in Epic and DC for that.

 

[Timmey]

...So is this related to Zone of the Enders?



Okay in all seriousness, I had never heard of that novel until the whole 'author against gay marriage' controversy.



And this trailer...looks fricking horrible. Wtf is up with Ben Kingsley's face? He looks like the Indian guy from the Streetfighter movie. Besides, these days I don't trust anything with Harrison Ford in it.

He plays Mazer Rackham, who is from New Zealand and a Maori. Mentioned in the book.

 

[axlryder]

... but I have no intentions of putting money in the pockets of a bigot if I can avoid it.

Meh, people need to grow up. Your opinion of a man should not influence your opinion of a man's work. Looks interesting enough. Truth be told, I never found OSC all that interesting of a writer. Probably something to do with people always telling me I should like his work.

I would tend to agree. Can a piece of work not be viewed for it's own sake without a prejudgment?

I'm sure an artist would appreciate the effort.

... but I have no intentions of putting money in the pockets of a bigot if I can avoid it.

*sigh*

Captcha=right left

Oh. You are on fire today Captcha,

Art is the expression of the artist. If you want to call something art, you then cannot separate the art from the artist.

No matter the content of that artist?

On that note, literature is not art.

?!?
Really?

I think there are quite afew authors who would disagree with you immensely.

But when the Author then centers his works around his beliefs, that is where problems arise.
Ender's Game does not center around OSC's offensive beliefs, but a lot of his other books do.

So you ARE able to seperate a peice of work from the artist. Or is it content creator? :?

Then those authors are delusional, literature is educational and/or entertainment. Movies are not art, video games are not art. Does not mean these things can not be so good that people can compare them to art, still does not make them art.

What definition of art are you using? Literature and movies have been considered art for a very very long time.

EDIT: Not to mention the "Video games are not art" can of worms. How are any of those things not art?

Artistic =/= art.

Books, movies, and video games are meant to be entertainment sold to the vast public, that is why they exist. That kind of automatically disqualifies them as art.

Such utter nonsense. The Sistine Chapel's ceiling was a commission piece done for the church (the iconography contained within intended to convey Biblical stories). Norman Rockwell was paid to do all those covers for the Saturday Evening Post. Great works of art have often been done for money/mass consumption.

Trailer looks bad, btw. It appears as though they've played down the psychodrama in favor of generic action sci-fi. Not necessarily damning though, given the fact that a trailer like this is probably more likely to get asses in the seats than a trailer of people talking for 2 minutes.

The Sistine Chapel was commissioned, it was open to the public, it's function was to inspire. I am fairly certain people did not have to purchase entrance into the chapel.

Great you brought up Norman Rockwell; similar to Monet's postcards, Rockwell's magazine covers are debatable in whether or not they can be considered works of art. Monet and Rockwell used their commercial success to fund actual artwork though, so I can give them some leeway in this regards. Strange how Andy Warhol doing similar things to Rockwell automatically became graphic design when it was for commercial use, held in separate regard to his pop art projects.

Did you not see the part about the religious iconography designed to inform the masses of biblical teachings in visual form? It was at least partly for education. To try and discriminate between that and other works of art done for education just comes off as a ridiculous double standard. Whether or not something was done for money, created with a purpose in mind, or costs money to view simply aren't qualifiers for "art". Even the concept of qualifiers based on whether it is done for commission or for commercial distribution is silly. The client will often have influence over their work, even if it is only establishing premises/sizes/etc. Often times commercial work will have the exact same limitations on the artist, and the artist will put about as much consideration into the fact that the art will be sold to others as they put into the fact that they're selling it to someone else. These are conditional variables under which that art was created, not conditions for qualifying the art itself. Trying to sift through various artists and their work and determine what is and isn't art based on such shaky parameters just leaves you with all sorts of contradictions and gray areas. I've seen vast amounts of passion and creativity put into commericial work, my own work included, and very hollow drawings done for personal purposes.

No one cares if you're willing to give Rockwell some "leeway", since the SEP covers are universally considered great works of art. I've yet to see someone say they aren't, and if you want to source someone who might contest it then feel free to do so. Graphic design itself was NOT considered "not art", it's a sub-categorization. Hell, Warhol himself is a good example of how much of his work was done on a seemingly hollow commercial level, when in cases it may have been designed to elucidate/encapsulate the highly manufactured and superficial nature of American culture. In shilling his passionless work, he was making a statement, thus enhancing its artistic authenticity. Yet you might class it as commercial non-art simply because it was sold.

 

[dakkster]

Then those authors are delusional, literature is educational and/or entertainment. Movies are not art, video games are not art. Does not mean these things can not be so good that people can compare them to art, still does not make them art.

Yeah, you're simply dead wrong here. Nothing else to it. Move along.

 

[dakkster]

Sigh, look at it this way, movies/books/video games are products.

You being all high and mighty about this doesn't make your point stronger. Everything that has ever been considered art in human society has been a product. You seem to like definitions. Look up the definition for the word product. Something that is produced. Something that is created. It is artificial. Art is created and artificial. Its purpose is to convey or induce different emotions or experiences.

You are wrong.

 

[wolf thing]

Perhaps the greater stumbling block will be the Ender's Game author himself, Orson Scott Card, who's earned a rather ugly reputation for his staunch - some would say fanatical - opposition to marriage equality. Card's planned participation in a Superman comic was "put on hold" by DC Comics earlier this year after the artist on the book canceled [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122519-Artist-Quits-Superman-Book-Over-Orson-Scott-Card-Furor] at the urging of Epic Games. Card is serving as producer on the film, which could (and almost certainly will) lead to some degree of backlash.

You know what though? I think this is thoroughly disgusting....on the part of the DC artist and Epic Games. I don't agree with Card's opinion, but he damn well has the right to it. As soon as DC and Epic cancelled those things, they brought politics into places where it doesn't belong and disrespected a man's right to his opinion.

So it's okay to watch Mel Gibson films when he's one of the vilest racists and anti-semites in Hollywood? It's okay to buy Tommy Hilfiger clothes when he said on TV "I would never have made them if I knew blacks or asians would wear them"? It's okay to wear Abercrombie and Fitch though they are a vile company [http://elitedaily.com/news/world/abercrombie-fitch-ceo-explains-why-he-hates-fat-chicks/]? It's okay for Fox News to broadcast their right-wing, completely biased sensationalist bullshit where truth is only used if it suits their agenda?

Seriously disappointed in Epic and DC for that.

well DC and epic have a right to their opinions, if they feel that working with a certain author will put across a message they do not want for company there well with in there rights not to work with them, it is goo that the DC artist refused to work with card, standing up for what you believe in usually a good thing and it what card does all the time, you seem to be okay with card having an opinion so why not the artist. as for epic game if they started to make the game and then backout sure thats in poor tasted but you can bash them for having there own opinions, i dont know any of the details but working with such a homophobic author could have caused argument in the company and you could be sure that it would effect the game sales.

right work boths way if card is alowed to be homophobic then people are alowed to not work with him, he does nit just dislike the gays he active works against them using using his money to fund movements which try to reduce there right, threatans the American government with violance if the gay are allowed to be marride and not to mention all the essay he has written about the evils of homosexuality.

what i find destructing is that people think its okay for card to try and oppress a group of people but not okay for people to call him wrong

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

... but I have no intentions of putting money in the pockets of a bigot if I can avoid it.

Meh, people need to grow up. Your opinion of a man should not influence your opinion of a man's work. Looks interesting enough. Truth be told, I never found OSC all that interesting of a writer. Probably something to do with people always telling me I should like his work.

I would tend to agree. Can a piece of work not be viewed for it's own sake without a prejudgment?

I'm sure an artist would appreciate the effort.

... but I have no intentions of putting money in the pockets of a bigot if I can avoid it.

*sigh*

Captcha=right left

Oh. You are on fire today Captcha,

Art is the expression of the artist. If you want to call something art, you then cannot separate the art from the artist.

No matter the content of that artist?

On that note, literature is not art.

?!?
Really?

I think there are quite afew authors who would disagree with you immensely.

But when the Author then centers his works around his beliefs, that is where problems arise.
Ender's Game does not center around OSC's offensive beliefs, but a lot of his other books do.

So you ARE able to seperate a peice of work from the artist. Or is it content creator? :?

Then those authors are delusional, literature is educational and/or entertainment. Movies are not art, video games are not art. Does not mean these things can not be so good that people can compare them to art, still does not make them art.

What definition of art are you using? Literature and movies have been considered art for a very very long time.

EDIT: Not to mention the "Video games are not art" can of worms. How are any of those things not art?

Artistic =/= art.

Books, movies, and video games are meant to be entertainment sold to the vast public, that is why they exist. That kind of automatically disqualifies them as art.

Such utter nonsense. The Sistine Chapel's ceiling was a commission piece done for the church (the iconography contained within intended to convey Biblical stories). Norman Rockwell was paid to do all those covers for the Saturday Evening Post. Great works of art have often been done for money/mass consumption.

Trailer looks bad, btw. It appears as though they've played down the psychodrama in favor of generic action sci-fi. Not necessarily damning though, given the fact that a trailer like this is probably more likely to get asses in the seats than a trailer of people talking for 2 minutes.

The Sistine Chapel was commissioned, it was open to the public, it's function was to inspire. I am fairly certain people did not have to purchase entrance into the chapel.

Great you brought up Norman Rockwell; similar to Monet's postcards, Rockwell's magazine covers are debatable in whether or not they can be considered works of art. Monet and Rockwell used their commercial success to fund actual artwork though, so I can give them some leeway in this regards. Strange how Andy Warhol doing similar things to Rockwell automatically became graphic design when it was for commercial use, held in separate regard to his pop art projects.

I'm sorry, but you don't know much about art or the Renaissance. Art was commissioned and directed in part by the commissioner, which by your definition means that almost no art was produced in the Renaissance. Or the Medieval period. Or the Greco-Roman period. Or any time before the modern period, for that matter. It's an extremely elitist and narrow definition that makes almost nothing art.

 

[MagunBFP]

well DC and epic have a right to their opinions, if they feel that working with a certain author will put across a message they do not want for company there well with in there rights not to work with them, it is goo that the DC artist refused to work with card, standing up for what you believe in usually a good thing and it what card does all the time, you seem to be okay with card having an opinion so why not the artist. as for epic game if they started to make the game and then backout sure thats in poor tasted but you can bash them for having there own opinions, i dont know any of the details but working with such a homophobic author could have caused argument in the company and you could be sure that it would effect the game sales.

right work boths way if card is alowed to be homophobic then people are alowed to not work with him, he does nit just dislike the gays he active works against them using using his money to fund movements which try to reduce there right, threatans the American government with violance if the gay are allowed to be marride and not to mention all the essay he has written about the evils of homosexuality.

what i find destructing is that people think its okay for card to try and oppress a group of people but not okay for people to call him wrong

There is nothing wrong with having an opinion, and unlikely many other people Card is actually backing up his opinions with action. That he is wrong or right is besides the point, he knows that his god has said the homosexuality is wrong, just like many of us know that abortion is wrong because it's murder, or its not wrong because it should be a woman's choice. When it comes to a question of moral right, there's no correct answer just the current socially popular one.

As for using the pathetic excuse of "working with such a homophobic author could have caused an argument in the company" whatever happened to being professional at work and leaving your personal issues at home?

Personally I think Card is an great author and Enders Game is the only book that I have literally read to destruction and had to replace. I also think Card is an idiot because his arguement against homosexuality is based on god and I heap upon him the same scorn I heap on any other bible bashing person who avoids reality by allowing a supernatural being to determine right from wrong, but god damn if Enders Game isn't an awesome book.

OT: I'm ashamed to say I'm going to watch this movie because it's called Enders Game, and I might actually enjoy it, but from that trailer it looks nothing like the story in the book. If we're lucky it will become the next Starship Troopers, awesome book, pretty cool movie but only barely the same story.