It opened in cinemas on the 25th in the UK and my friends and I went to see it on the 28th; I had read the book on many previous occasions whilst they had not. None of us were impressed for pretty much the same reasons. Sure the acting is great, the visuals, sets and music too, but the film is way too short at 114mins and could really have done with another thirty mins or possibly more; the plot is just way too fast and feels very rushed.
I also think they did a disservice to the main themes of the book, which was really a case study in child manipulation and child abuse; the scenes in Battle School fly past so quick that you don't get any of Ender's struggle and progression, nor how much it wears him down and tires him out. In the book by the time he fights the two armies he's broken and about ready to quit, which he actually does.
Now I'm not saying they should have copied the book scene for scene, in fact I think it would have worked better if they diverged from the book but kept it's soul and themes. For example it wouldn't have been hard to include a few scenes where Ender get's numerous medicals over time (Not in the book), and then have the doctors report to Graff and Anderson how the intensive battles are effecting his body, with Anderson perhaps giving a running commentary as Dragon's test scores in their normal lessons plummet as more pressure is applied. They could even have shown a few members of Dragon army collapsing from exhaustion or having breakdowns, or have Ender lose it whilst he's alone to show how it's getting to him. Instead though we got Ender the launchie, then Ender promoted to Salamander and then Ender is Commander of Dragon army, and yeah it was a bit hard but we coped okay didn't we? Basically they watered it down too much.
Lastly is the issue of Ender's perceived age and how that effects how you relate to him. Now don't get me wrong Asa was probably one of the best things about the film he was that good; he's good in all his films especially Hugo, and he certainly can't be blamed for Hood's shitty screenplay, but the one thing against him is his height and to a lesser extent his looks, but especially his voice. Had they filmed when Asa was a bit younger i.e. how he looked in Hugo, then he would have been absolutely perfect for the role, and the audience would have had a much easier time sympathizing with him, especially with the manipulation and abuse factor. Of course I get the idea that it's hard to find a bunch of child stars, but they never needed to so long as they nailed Ender; it's not like the kids had much to do in the film anyway so did it really matter if they weren't the next Haley Joel Osment?
