Recensioni degli utenti

I hesitated to watch this movie for a long time - reason being my endless love for the adapted book, which is my absolute favorite. It is needed to be said in the review, because even with all the effort it is impossible for me to review the movie without influence of the book.

Movie did actually better job than I expected. I liked the cast of the main characters, Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield. Both did very good job. A big positive surprise for me was the visual aspect of the movie, I liked it actually so much, it is the main reason, why I keep my rating for the movie so high despite the negatives.

The biggest problem of the Ender's Game adaptation is the race against the time. The movie tries to squeeze huge amount of information in a short time and it just does not work. I cannot imagine, how I would feel without having any background information from the book. Even if we can discuss whether the "Earth" sideline with Ender's siblings has to or doesn't have to be in the movie (it does not), there is the main storyline describing Ender's time spend in Battle school and it is handled so shallowly and quickly, it hurts. This story just needs more space. Without it there is almost no character development. No emotions towards side characters, like Bean or Petra or all the others, barely recognizable for the viewer. Even the great ending is ripped of emotions partially because of it. I felt all the aspects of the movie are more handled as trailers to that aspect than actually diving into it. And it is a pity.

It was still a nice experience, seeing the universe come to life.

Remember, the enemy's gate is down!

This movie was actually really good! I thoroughly enjoyed it, the characters were great, storyline was intriguing, and acting was good. I expected a 6.6 movie, but got one way better than that.

The box-office failure of big budget (110m$) book adaptation 'Ender's Game' doesn't bode well for the future of my favorite movie genre. Writer Orson Scott Card has had many offers since the book release in 1985 to turn it into a film. He rejected many of them because of creative differences and because most Studios insisted on making Ender older (in the book he's 6 to 10 years old). There were plans in 2003 by Warner Brothers to let Wolfgang Petersen have a go at it with a script written by Card himself. Card's script was a fusion of 'Ender's Game' and 'Ender's Shadow'. In 2010 Gavin Hood got attached as director and screenwriter and the script became based on the first book again with plans to make it into a franchise or a TV series if successful. Unfortunately EG made only 112m$ worldwide (although it opened first place in the US with 27m$) so all future plans have been put on ice. It's really a shame because as far as science fiction flicks go this really is one of the better ones. The VFX were done by Digital Domain who also co-financed the film and they look absolutely stunning. This film will a good 4K showcase Blu-ray when they finalize the format at the end of 2014. The film follows the book quite closely but because of the time constraints of the film medium a lot of events had to be compressed and some subplots where eliminated. 113 mins really is too short, an extra 40 mins or so would have let more room to expand on Ender's training etc. Altogether I think most fans of the book will be happy with the end result but it it just lacks the depth the book had to offer. So hopefully they make a 3 hour extended version (depending on how much material they shot) on BD to give the story more time to breathe.

I went into this movie with no preconceptions at all.The only thing i'd heard about this film was the title.I'm so glad i didn't read up on it first because i think this would have spoilt it for me.For the best part of the film its shot in space which credit where credits due is filmed fantastically what with the like of Gravity not long coming out and stealing all the limelight for its display of life in space and hands down it certainly deserves its merits.With that aside Enders Game is a marvel in itself.Great direction and production in this leaves you happy that you took the time out to watch this.A good cast of young actors who lead the movie very well and you can easily bond with these characters they portray.Iv'e given this movie only a 7 because with all its positive ingredients and an interesting plot line it still lacks something that i can't put my finger on.With that aside its still a must see for any science fiction fan.

"Ender's Game," directed by Gavin Hood, is a visually impressive science fiction film based on Orson Scott Card's beloved novel. While the movie boasts strong performances and stunning special effects, it ultimately falls short of capturing the depth and complexity of the source material, resulting in a somewhat superficial and rushed experience.

The film follows the story of Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield), a young prodigy recruited by the military to train as a commander in the fight against an alien race known as the Formics. The premise is intriguing, and the movie excels in its depiction of futuristic space battles and military training. The special effects are top-notch, particularly the zero-gravity combat training sequences and the epic final battle. These scenes are visually captivating and do justice to the imaginative world Card created.

Asa Butterfield delivers a solid performance as Ender, effectively portraying his character's intelligence, determination, and vulnerability. Harrison Ford, as Colonel Graff, and Viola Davis, as Major Anderson, provide strong support, adding gravitas to the film. Ben Kingsley, despite limited screen time, makes a memorable impression as Mazer Rackham. However, the standout performance comes from Hailee Steinfeld as Petra Arkanian, who brings warmth and depth to her character, making her one of the most relatable figures in the story.

Despite these strengths, "Ender's Game" struggles with its pacing and narrative depth. The film rushes through key plot points, sacrificing character development and emotional resonance in the process. The training sequences, which should be the heart of the story, feel abbreviated and lack the necessary build-up to make Ender's rapid rise to command believable. The relationships between characters, particularly the camaraderie among the young recruits, are underdeveloped, missing the richness of the novel.

The film's attempt to condense the complex themes of the book into a two-hour runtime results in a disjointed and superficial narrative. The moral and ethical dilemmas that Ender faces are not explored in sufficient depth, diminishing the impact of the story's conclusion. The twist at the end, while visually spectacular, lacks the emotional weight it should carry because the audience hasn't had enough time to fully connect with Ender's journey.

In addition, the film's portrayal of the Formics and their motivations is somewhat lacking. The novel delves into the complexities of this alien race, presenting them as more than just a faceless enemy. The movie, however, reduces them to a simplistic antagonist, missing an opportunity to add layers to the story and provoke deeper thought about the nature of conflict and understanding.

Apparently Enders Game was considered a flop and only just broke even. Hard to understand, because it's a truly excellent movie. The plot is very good, the cast outstanding, the production top quality and even though it's science fiction, it's very believable. And something else; it was very poignant. Overall far better than the Maze Runner and Divergent series. Oh, and Harrison Ford was perfect for the part.

I won't make this a long review. Ender's game was a highly enjoyable movie to watch. The surroundings, the spaceships, the planets, all is absolutely stunning and great to see. The casting and acting are well done.

The movie feels very rushed and chopped though. You're going through a great story with light speed, and none of us could shake the feeling that this movie could've done with at least half an hour more. The speed in which this story is told doesn't leave enough room to establish the characters, and certainly not to see their progress through the story.

I will eagerly await the 3,5 hour during directors cut in a year or 2, hopefully.

As a fan of the book, I really wasn't sure I wanted to see this movie. Great books hardly ever adapt into good films. But my friend wanted to see it, so I agreed to tag along on opening night.

I have to say, as a movie, it is genuinely enjoyable. The visuals are starkly entrancing without being distracting. The casting is pitch-perfect - Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield, in particular, do a great job. The ending is particularly well done (don't worry - it wasn't really spoiled by the trailer).

The problem is, it's really just a caricature of the book. The drama in Battle School moves too quickly, the characters of Peter and Valentine are almost completely absent, and even Ender's video game is sadly underdone. I'm not usually a fan of splitting books into multiple movies, but this is one where two films would have done it justice. Also, the kids are just too old - there's an ironic moment in the movie where two officers talk about how conscripting kids under 15 "used to be illegal", yet all the actors playing the kids look 15 or older!

Still, it's a fun ride, and if you hadn't read the book these flaws really wouldn't be apparent. Definitely see it in the theater if you can - the battle room scenes are best on a big screen.

When I watched the Ender's Game trailer for the 1st time browsing the IMDb and I though: Here's a Sci Fi movie that I will probably see. My life went on and a few months later I saw the trailer again mentioned in a space video game called Skyjacker (Skyjacker - Starship Constructor update 20 in August). I got curious enough and decided to read the book first and watch the movie in November. Then I discover that there wasn't only one book, but a bunch of them. The Ender's Game saga!

I'm a bit lazy when it comes to reading, so I decided to listen to the audio books instead :) I got lucky, since from the author's point of view this is the ideal medium for enjoying the story. The author also had some concerns about making a movie since:

1- In the book the narrator is inside the character head. Making a movie with 3rd person speaking the thought of another one all the time would not work very well for the viewer.

2- The kids must be very young about 6 to 12 years old and it's very hard to find outstanding actor at that age that can give the required dramatic performance.

3- There should not be a love story and Hollywood tends to take advantage of the teenager feelings to do that…

I was skeptical about the movie and unfortunately I was right. However they were able to do somethings right:

• Amazing special effects;

• Amazing final battle;

• Cut the Locke and Demosthenes characters from the movie, since it was impossible to develop them in a 2 hours movie, along side the main story;

• Give a plausible explanation about the bugger motive to attack Earth;

• Create some doubt about the bugger intentions.

What's wrong with the movie then?

• Almost everything happens too fast in the Battle School;

-- The training should take years, not days…

-- Ender's ascension to power is not credible. He fought too few battles to be promoted to commander…

• Bonzo supposed to be BIG!

• Bean supposed to be tiny…

They should have taken special attention to the cast. If the Bonzo character supposed to be funny, I assure you that none of the Ender's Game books fan laugh when saw him!

The movie should have been split into two parts, in order to develop the Ender Wiggin personality and make is ascension on the Battle School credible. Also since they had Bean from the beginning why not develop him too? With a 2 parts movie everybody would have won. The producer would sell 2 movies for the price of producing 1. After the 1st movie the book would sell as hell and people would still be interested to see the 2nd part of the movie.

Last, but not least, I must say that Human fleet looks good, although compared to the Skyjacker video game fleet it just feels short…

Taking all into account I gave this movie a generous 7, when it had the potential to be a 9 or 10, if the had done it right!

The novel this film adapted is seen a classic, considered by some to be the greatest science fiction novel of all time. The last time I read it, I was too young to really understand what was going on, so when the movie was announced, I thought it would be a good opportunity to look into the story again. Though the film is no classic, it's held up by solid writing and performances. While Hailee Steinfeld is a bit disappointing (never thought I'd say that), Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford remain eminently watchable, both bringing the appropriate amount of charisma to their respective roles. It's also well directed, and you can see director Gavin Hood invisibly manipulating the sometimes dozens of characters and objects on screen with a delicate deftness. While Card's story shines through, the transition from pages to the screen feels a bit haphazard. The plot is rushed along, hurrying through dialog in order to reach the occasionally drawn-out action sequences. It's by no means incoherent, but more focus on the characters (and perhaps a longer run time) could have gone a long way.

After all the controversy surrounding the author of Ender's Game and his iconoclastic views on so many subjects, I quite frankly didn't know what to expect from this film. It's far from the greatest science fiction endeavor I've ever seen. It really ought to be seen back to back with Starship Troopers on a number of levels.

In both cases the earth has been subject to an alien invasion of an insect civilization of sorts. Starship Troopers never has any doubts or qualms about the citizen's exercising their right to defend planet earth from the bug invasion. The insects aren't even given a generic name, they're simply referred to as 'bugs'. And the bugs only see earth as some kind of feeding ground.

These insects in Ender's Game are called Formi and they invaded and several million people were killed before the invasion was repelled. But they've been quiet over the last several decades, no one can say for certainty what they're intentions are. But earth isn't waiting, Harrison Ford is in charge of developing young and I do mean young new commanders with computer precision skills, honed to perfection on computer games.

The one he favors is young Asa Butterfield who seems to have more of the right stuff than anyone else. In the end as you would imagine he does, but what he does raises certain issues that Starship Troopers would never imagine.

It's ironic that the biggest strength of Ender's Game is the way that computer gaming skills have been refined and are so desirable. The Armed Forces in its recruiting for several years has made a selling point of gaming skills. All the weapons from the most sophisticated missiles down to tanks and even some hand held weapons have a computer guidance system of sorts. No more just point, aim, and shoot. Ender's Game has multiplied that exponentially. In fact in this futuristic society, one with the requisite skills can be drafted.

In the end a mixed message is sent to the audience robbing some of the effectiveness of Ender's Game. It still has a lot to recommend it and the contrast to Starship Troopers is quite intense.

Recently I got myself the audio book for Ender's Game and really enjoyed it. I wanted to see how it was translated to the big screen. Unfortunately it wasn't done well.

A lot of characters were miscast - especially Ender. In the book Ender was younger than the rest. He was thrown into the school at the age of 6 where the usual starting age was 8. So just because of this alone there would've been size differences. Bonzo was considered a threat to Ender even in a 1on1 fight because he was bigger and stronger. In general this was also a theme within the book - the weak overcoming terrible odds.

The next problem is that the story has been cut way to much. 90 minutes is not enough time to properly translate the book. They would've needed at least a 2 hour movie extending the first half of the movie.

Ender as a character in the movie is not likable and there is no reason why he would've gotten the support of the other kids. In addition the other characters are extremely underdeveloped. By the end of the movie you don't really know anything about the supporting characters. And the worst is that you probably won't care about Ender neither.

Also where the first half of the movie presents basically 2/3 of the book in a very condensed and modified version the second half of the movie makes drastic changes to the finale of the book regarding location and execution. It simply kills the story as a whole.

The visual effects look good. However a movie can't stand on visuals alone.

It seems as though all the great sci-fi takes forever to become films. It took over seventy years to give John Carter his big-screen debut. I had a copy of L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth that claimed that it would become a motion picture soon, but that never happened until almost twenty years later (and many would probably argue that it should not have been made). Ender's Game is another one of the best sci-fi novels I've read, and a film for it has been in development for something like ten years. So, in 2013, I couldn't have been more excited.

Ender's Game is kinda like The Hunger Games set in outer space, only more aggressive, more fantastic, and more original. EG has its fair share of special-effects-laden spectacle, with massive swarms of spaceships and incredible planetscapes filling up the screen. Fortunately, it's not all just action for the sake of action, it is all a direct consequence of the story. When the space battles aren't breaking out, the film still moves very fast with loads of character-driven conflicts.

The film still maintains most of its focus on telling the story, and it does hit up all the necessary plot points that were in the original novel. Some major subplots get cut out, the training/battle scenes are truncated, and various other liberties are taken, but for a two-hour movie, the filmmakers did their best to cover the entire plot, right up to its bizarre ending. A lot of scenes are exactly as I pictured them from reading the book (even the fantasy CGI mindgame scenes, which I always fancied should be animated Pixar style, and it turns out they were!), and the dark aggression of the book is mostly translated well into the film. Best of all, the book's biggest twists still bear some decent weight in the movie's narrative.

Unfortunately, some things are lost in translation. Just as it is with The Hunger Games, the specific nuances of the characters, their relationships, their emotions, and their overall pathos is better conveyed in the narrative of the book than it is on film. Ender's relationships with his friends (and even his enemies) are left at the surface level, and never really reaches the same depths as the novel. Some things remain unexplained or glossed over. Deeper themes are never fully explored. Although one can't expect every single thing in the book to make it into the film, EG falls just a little short in immersing the audience in the characters. It may be easy to root for Ender when he stands up to his bullies and commands a whole fleet, but the film won't leave that much of a lasting impression.

As a film, it looks pretty slick and stylish, with solid photography and editing. Acting can be rather mixed: I think all of the child actors did their jobs really well. Harrison Ford gets the most grief for his role, for he pretty much phones it in, but I still didn't think he was as terrible as other reviewers make him out to be. Ben Kingsley plays it kinda creepily in his role, and Viola Davis is pretty much herself. Writing in this film is okay, but has a rather bad penchant for exposition. This production has some good-looking sets, props, costumes, and special effects. The music score is not bad either.

As usual, the book is better than the movie, but I think the movie still does a good job as an adaptation. I expect that average audiences unfamiliar with the book will think this movie is okay, but might miss out on certain nuances. Book fans might gripe that the film doesn't do justice to certain things. In any case, I think the movie is worth a rent to all dedicated sci-fi fans.

4/5 (Entertainment: Very Good | Story: Good | Film: Pretty Good)