Ender's Game - Comparison between the movie and the book. I think my close IMT friends are well aware that I love the Ender's Game novels. I put this together Friday night after seeing the movie.
***SPOILER ALERT***
***Disclaimer - references to the book and movie are from memory, so where I make mistakes they are my own and I apologize***
If you are one of the fans of Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel Ender's Game then it's likely that you are aware that the movie has just been release to the box-office. I have been eagerly anticipating this movie ever since it was officially announced so I made sure to go with some friends on opening weekend to see it. While the movie entered into production a lot of us wondered how the movie would vary from the book and there was a good amount of speculation on the matter. Now that I have seen the movie I have an understanding on how the book and the new movie are different. I am the type of person who tends to enjoy movies more than others and worry much less about the details. Phantom Menace, Michael Bay's Transformers, The Hulk movie, I enjoyed all of these despite the departure from what the hardcore fans of each franchise would have preferred. Within the following details I will include a review of the overall movie and my thoughts on why each change seemed necessary. So if you never read the book but saw the movie and want to know how it compares then this is for you. Or perhaps you read the book, saw the movie and you're still wondering what were some of the less obvious difference, then you are in the right place. So let's get into the details.
Over all I was surprised how close the movie followed the book. I really expected a lot more deviation from the source material but so much was left in tact that it makes it fairly easy to make a comparison between the two. Considering why each change needed to happen, I couldn't be happier with the movie overall.
The most obvious change are the ages of the children in the movie. In the books Ender goes to Battle School when he's 6 and finishes the final battle at the age of 12. In the movie the entire scenario takes place around the age of 12 over the course of a year. I believe the producers made sure to make everyone well aware of this early on so there would be no surprises or let downs due to this issue. The fact of the matter is that in order to film the movie they would have wanted the same actor to play Ender the whole time and this huge change addresses this most basic issue.
Opening Scenes:
The movie begins with an explanation of the situation, the formics attacked earth twice, millions dies but Mazer Rackham saved us all. The movie is good at helping us to rembmer the name Mazer Rakham well before the character is actually introduced. Then we find Ender at school with a monitor on his neck. He is playing a war game on his "desk" (or iPad for those less familiar with the book) against Stilson. This gives the movie a chance to develop a reason for Stilson to dislike Ender. This scene is not in the book but it leads into the book.
Then we basically pick up the story at Chapter 1, paragraph one, line for line Colonel Graff and Anderson give the dialog as originally written by Orson Scott Card. In fact all of the teacher dialog from the book is given to Graff and Anderson to speak outloud to the audience. Then the movie pretty much follows the book. Sure Ender's and Stilson's fight take place at school rather than outside, sure Peter's dialog about picking on Ender and Valentine is much shorter, but there is hardly anything to complain about here. So let's deviate and talk about people rather than the chronological order for a bit.
Supporting Cast:
* Peter Wiggen - Ender's bigger brother has almost no lines besides playing Buggers vs Astronauts with Ender and expressing how he should have been chosen for battle school. This means that throughout the movie there is no Locke... and no Demosthenes, which are the online personas of Ender's siblings. It's unfortunate because the potential within the Wiggen family is lost due to time constraints but it would also detract from the main story so it's understandable.
* Valentine Wiggen - Valentine is throughout the movie at all the parts you expect her to be, in the beginning to try to keep Ender safe from Peter's bullying, in the Mind Game briefly and when Ender briefly returns to earth. In the book Ender goes to battle school to escape Peter, save his parents from the shame of have a "third" child and to keep Valentine safe from the potential third bugger invasion. The first reason is left out of the story, the second reason is mentioned but the third ends up playing a much larger roll, especially once Ender returns to earth for what seems like a day rather than a month. I was happy to see that the raft Ender built was in that scene as well even though the explanation that he built it was left out. As stated before, Valentine and Peter's escapades on the "net" (or internet for those less familiar with the book) is not included so the persona of Demosthenes is gone, including Valentine using her persuasion to keep Ender from ever returning to earth after the final battle to keep him from falling under the control of their ambitious older bother Peter. An interesting change is that when Ender gets burned out at Battle School and quits, he doesn't actually quit. In the book Ender quits, completely gives up and Graff take Ender back to earth for a month in order to remind him what he's fighting for, which is Valentine. Graff takes a lot of heat for "breaking" our last and best chance at survival. In the movie Ender demands to return to earth to see Valentine against a threat to quit the program all together. It's a minor difference but the reason become clear after the discussion between Valentine and Ender. As Ender decides to return to Battle School he makes an additional demand to Graff that allows him to stay in contact with Valentine through e-mails going forward. This gives the movie a chance to use the letters to Valentine as a vehicle to get into Ender's thoughts for the final "training" at command school.
* Teresa and John Paul Wiggen - The roll of Ender's mom, Teresa, is lacking in the movie. The parents are there at the opening but they don't really do much. Oddly when Ender returns to earth after going to battle school and finally gets to see Valentine again, Valentine is not collected from her school such as if found in the book but she instead finds Graff at her own home where her mother is waiting for her with the single line, "They won't let me see Ender." Perhaps it would have been better to just let Graff meet Valentine at her school and stick with the original story that the parents never even knew that Ender was back on the planet. Teresa comes off as week in the brief house scene. On the other hand, though also lacking in dialog, John Paul feels well fleshed out as a strong, brooding father figure with the appropriate Polish accent. His new dialog to console Ender when Ender is first relieved of his monitor is brief and to the point.
* Stilson - as stated earlier, Stilson plays a strategy game against Ender in the very beginning. He calls Ender a cheater and later, after Ender loses his monitor, Stilson's gang confronts ender and Ender beats him up. In the movie there is no indication that Ender killed Stilson and he is never mentioned again after Ender leaves earth.
* Hyrum Graff - This was a very interesting roll reversal for the movie, because in the books Hyurm basically runs the Battle School while Anderson runs the battle room simulation. Instead, in the movie, Graff runs the battle room while Anderson is a phycologist. Hyrum's care for Ender is never explored although his use of Ender as a tool is well developed. For the most part, any teacher dialog form the book is given to Graff and Anderson.
* Major Anderson - Is a woman rather than a man. I think this was a positive change since Anderson ends up being a phycologist who is deeply concerned for Ender more than anything else. Speaking of women, the book makes it very clear that there are very few girls in battle school but in the movie, in Ender's Launch group there are 5 girls alone, let alone throughout the rest of the battle school. As opposed to the book, Major Anderson is later seen on Eros with Colonel Graff. The movie strives to keep the relationship you developed with the characters rather than constantly introducing more and more new faces.
* Bean - Bean is the subject of some of the biggest changes from the book to the movie. If you saw a trailer then you learned early on that Bean was no longer going to be the shortest kid in battle school, in fact he's taller than a few others in his launch group. But the biggest change is that Bean is added to Ender's initial launch group, rather than entering battle school a few years later. Bean greats Ender on the shuttle on the way to Battle School and briefly explains that his name comes form his life on the streets. Later in the movie Bean replaced Alai as the person who discovers how to use the flash suits and guns in the battle rooms along side Ender. During this scene Ender and Bean discuss orientation in the zero G room and mutually agree that the enemy's gate is down. This gives a reason as to why Bean says in the final battle, "The Enemy's Gate is Down". Later battle scenes are cut short or cut out, as will be described further down in this review so Ender is never show training Dragon Army where the line "The Enemy's Gate is Down" actually belongs. On that note, Ender never actually gets transferred out of Dragon Army into Command School, rather he is surprised with the fact after he leaves the earth for a second time. This means that Bean and Ender never discuss Ender being burnt out and Bean getting his own army. It is important to note that basically none of the book Ender's Shadow is in this movie, no Nikolai, no Rotterdam, no Achilles, nothing of Bean's army in Battle School, Bean never leads in the final battles in Ender's absence, for the most part Beans absolute brilliance and mental superiority is left out of the story. This is Ender's Game after all.
* Alai - I almost thought Alai wasn't going to be in the movie, until later in a class room scene he was mentioned as having the best class scores along with Bean and Ender. It was at this point that I realized that the kid throwing up in the launch group was Alai. Bernard was in the class scene too, but rather than talking about Alai shimmying his butt as he walked he instead made a joke about Alai throwing up. Later as Ender gets transferred out of his launch group to join Salamander Army Alai meets with Ender in the hall way to say "salom", which occurred in the battle room in the book, unrelated to a transfer. Towards the end where Ender meets with his Jeesh for the final battles Alai is not the first one to speak, although he does get to say "salom" again.
* Bernard got a really interesting roll in the movie. Bernard does not hit Ender's seat-back on the shuttle. He still ends up as the bully in Ender's launch group but instead of being forgotten for the rest of the story he ends up makes his way into Ender's Dragon Army and into Command School, which both deviate from the book. Bernard is given all of the "obious" statements in order to explain situations and plot devices to the audience which makes this change worked out really well. The story never explains that all the students at Command School with Ender are those who are the brightest who will also follow Ender from Battle School.
* Sgt Dap - Dap is the teacher who oversee's Ender's launch group. Because Bean is combined into Ender's launch group Dimack isn't in the movie. His authority is well displayed but his compassion to the new recruits is missing. Dap ended up on Eros as well which is not the case in the book. The movie also added Dap stating to Ender, "I will never salute you", when towards the end we find Dap on Eros saluting Ender.
* Bonzo Madrid - What a great job with Bonzo in the movie, casting, acting, filming, it all came together. Bonzo's distaste for Ender is well developed. Ender's second commander, Rose the Nose, is not in the movie. Ender goes straight from Bonzo's Salamander Army to his own Dragon Army. This means that Petra and Dink are both in Bonzo's army, not Rose's. Dink has a minor roll.
* Petra - what an interesting use of Petra in the movie. In the book Petra like's Ender more than a friend though she never shows it. In the movie it is made clear as well that there is something between Ender and Petra but it never gets acted upon. It seems well played. Petra trains Ender to shoot in private time where they hold hands and have fun together but then it goes one extra step. When Ender betrays Bonzo's orders in the book it's simply because he felt he had to do something to salvage the battle. In the movie, when Ender disobeys Bonzo and enter's the battle it's because Petra gets knocked across the room and Ender runs/flies off to save her from a collision. Also, Dragon Army never faces off against Petra's army, in fact Petra ends up playing as a substitute in Dragon Army's. In the final series of battles at Command School Petra never faints to exhaustion. Petra also takes the place of Abra at the End of the movie to a certain extent.
* Missing students - Crazy Tom, Hot Soup, Carn Carby, Fly Molo, Dumper... if they are there then they aren't mentioned by name.
* The Mind Game from the book is present in the movie using only the most relevant parts such as the giant and the end of the world. Through dialog between Graff and Anderson the movie explains exactly what the Battle School staff is learning about Ender through the mind game, which is not explained so bluntly in the book. It also becomes apparent at the end that the formics were trying to communicate to Ender through the mind game rather than in his dreams while in Command School. When Ender finds the formic queen egg at the very end, it is not in the carcus of the giant and not at a playground.
* Mazer Rakham - is pretty much the same from book to movie, quotes and all. The only real change are the face tattoos which he explains as a Maori custom to link him to the dead, to "speak for them"... makes you think "Speaker of the Dead" which is of course the name of the sequel to Ender's Game.
Considering how difficult it is to take a book, one that takes 10 hours to listen to in audio book format and turn it into a 2 hour movie, I feel that everyone got their own fair share of screen time and only necessary changes were made. I was very happy with the rolls of each character, which is very important to me because I follow series of books because I grow attached to the characters.
Besides the cast, many other details vary as well, such as the following:
* Formics - what a beautiful movie, but the formics were never shown, except in the Mind Game, that is until the end. When Ender finds the formic queen egg, there is a dying formic queen there too to wipe Ender's tears and motion ender towards the egg. Of course, all of the happens in Ender's mind in the book once he finds the formic queen egg and Ender never actually comes face to face with any formics. Apparently they wanted more than a disembodied voice speaking to ender.
* The Battle Room - Wow, I can not say enough good about the battle rooms. This movie better win some special effects awards here. It felt right, looked beautiful and the director made the best of camera angles. But on with the story, the rules of the "game" in the Battle School was simplified in the movie. Rather than disabling the opposing team with 3 or more soldiers remaining the goals was changed to getting one soldier through the enemies "gate". This simplification gave more room to enjoy the strategy Ender employed rather than the details of the game. Speaking of which...
* Battle Scenes - Ender had one scene in the battle room with his launch group, one in Bonzo's Salamander Army and one in his Dragon Army. In the movie there were no special training sessions with other soldiers or launches as had been in the book with the exception of single sessions he had with Petra. Most importantly, all of Ender's tricks as the leader of Dragon army were combined into one battle, Bean's rope, the human shields, fighting two armies at once, all of this was in one battle.
* Ending on Eros - In the book Ender leaves to lead a colony to a now uninhabited formic planet. There, he discovers the only remaining formic Queen Egg, left there specifically so Ender would find it. In the movie all of this takes place on Eros, the same place where the final battle that destroyed the formic home-world took place. Ender then leaves in a shuttle, explaining in an e-mail to Valentine that he is off to find out if he is as good at peace as he is with war. Valentine does not travel with Ender.
I really enjoyed this movie. I've been a longtime fan of the series and it is wonderful to finally see it hit the big screen, which I truly never thought would never happen. If the movie does well enough to warrant a sequel then I would expect it to follow the books into Speaker for the Dead. The movie was well set up for exactly that and not enough information was given to follow with an "Ender's Shadow" storyline.
Cinco de Mayo