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a haunted movie
i watched ender's game on DVD yesterday. as i'd expected from the trailers, it needs to be edited down into a good movie. the movie has an unusual problem: the unnecessary footage isn't typical creative excess, where somebody in charge needs to murder a few of the director's darlings. no, the movie is haunted. it's haunted by the ghost of sequels future.
lionsgate, the studio that made the movie, really wanted to turn ender's game into a franchise. as a result, the movie introduces a lot of characters from the novels that don't do much. peter and valentine, enders's older siblings, get introduced, but do precious little in the movie. the only point valentine has is to help ender collect a pointless plot coupon. graff, harrison ford's character, is apparently intended as a continuing supporting character, but all he does in this movie is intone variations on the same line about ender's amazing abilities over and over again. ditto anderson, the movie's child psychologist.
frankly, all that could be cut. the movie would be much better starting as "ender's game" (the original short story) does: in media res. peter and val are superfluous and the fragmentary love interest ender has with petra can be dropped. that never goes anywhere anyway, and i wonder if a lot of that subplot ended up on the cutting room floor. i'd keep the "mind game" which the novel introduced, since that helps characterize ender. but the curious transition to speaker for the dead they tacked on at the end goes, so the movie would end as the short story does, with the big reveal, rapid denouement, and conclusion.
the movie has one other problem: it's got only one real character (ender) and a couple of partial ones (mazer and bean). everybody else is just a spear-carrier: required on stage to have the story make sense, but completely one-dimensional. ben kingsley does a good job with the little of mazer there is, but there's not much there to work with. asa butterfield does a good job with ender; he'll probably make a fine adult actor one day.
the movie does have some nice SF/X; the battle room scenes really shine. some of the space battles are a bit silly, but they look good at least. (the only battle that matters is well done, though.)
if you like the original works, the movie is worth watching on DVD with an itchy fast-forward finger. i think watching it like an anti-drinking-game works: any time harrison ford appears on screen after the launching shuttle, skip (ahead). but if you don't know the source material, i'm not sure the movie is all that comprehensible or interesting.
lionsgate, the studio that made the movie, really wanted to turn ender's game into a franchise. as a result, the movie introduces a lot of characters from the novels that don't do much. peter and valentine, enders's older siblings, get introduced, but do precious little in the movie. the only point valentine has is to help ender collect a pointless plot coupon. graff, harrison ford's character, is apparently intended as a continuing supporting character, but all he does in this movie is intone variations on the same line about ender's amazing abilities over and over again. ditto anderson, the movie's child psychologist.
frankly, all that could be cut. the movie would be much better starting as "ender's game" (the original short story) does: in media res. peter and val are superfluous and the fragmentary love interest ender has with petra can be dropped. that never goes anywhere anyway, and i wonder if a lot of that subplot ended up on the cutting room floor. i'd keep the "mind game" which the novel introduced, since that helps characterize ender. but the curious transition to speaker for the dead they tacked on at the end goes, so the movie would end as the short story does, with the big reveal, rapid denouement, and conclusion.
the movie has one other problem: it's got only one real character (ender) and a couple of partial ones (mazer and bean). everybody else is just a spear-carrier: required on stage to have the story make sense, but completely one-dimensional. ben kingsley does a good job with the little of mazer there is, but there's not much there to work with. asa butterfield does a good job with ender; he'll probably make a fine adult actor one day.
the movie does have some nice SF/X; the battle room scenes really shine. some of the space battles are a bit silly, but they look good at least. (the only battle that matters is well done, though.)
if you like the original works, the movie is worth watching on DVD with an itchy fast-forward finger. i think watching it like an anti-drinking-game works: any time harrison ford appears on screen after the launching shuttle, skip (ahead). but if you don't know the source material, i'm not sure the movie is all that comprehensible or interesting.