Category: Editorial

All right Launchies, hunker down because we’ve got a long one for you all to read! Here’s our staff analysis of the Ender’s Game trailer released last week. Don’t forget that you have a chance to see the trailer in theaters with Elysium!

Question: What scene is this? Is it from the Great Invasion or one of Ender’s battles from Eros?

Crystal: While they’ve been “spoiling” people in the trailers by showing two bright blue laser shots going at a planet, I’m not entirely convinced this is Ender’s destruction of the bugger homeworld. This definitely looks like the climax, when Ender sends his ships to dive down to the planet to focus their Dr. Devices on the planet itself. The ship looks like it’s burning up as in plummets down and it’s got the long shape of the ships Ender commands. Plus, there are SO many buggers that I feel like this can’t be the Great Invasion. Especially since the sky looks brown, not blue like the Earth scenes.

Dee: The way the lit ship is moving through the swarm, I’d think this is one of the later battles that Ender directs from Eros. The shape of the ship is also more in line with that than with the more contemporary look of the ships that Earth used during the Great Invasion. This could be during the final battle, in which Ender directs Earth’s ships in such a way that they “worm their way” through the swarm to get at the planet.

Anthony: I believed this to be the initial battle where they invaded Earth and Mazer fought them off. This is his moment I thought since it is at the beginning of the trailer.

Liz: Wow, trying to analyze all of these battle sequences is tough!  So many of them could be from any point in the book – we’re not shown quite enough details to make a firm judgement call.  For this one, I initially assumed that it was from the First Invasion (or Second Invasion, or the Only Invasion) just because that’s what the voiceover is talking about. However, after looking a little closer, I think I agree with Crystal and Dee that it’s from either the final battle or one of Ender’s last battles with the Formics.  Not only does the ship look different, but it’s plunging through a mass of Formic ships and appears to be taking fire as it goes (implying they’re not all on the same side).

Crystal: Since the ships are pointed in different directions, I think this is after the mothership explodes in the Great Invasion and the Formic ships are in freefall as they plummet down. And look! You can see farmlands on Earth below!

Dee: I love how organic these look – they could be made of the same substance that the carapaces of shrimps are made of. The middle one already has a skeleton look to it.

Anthony: Ships falling after Mazer destroyed the mothership. Very cool scene.

Liz: Yup.  Those suckers are going down.

Crystal: You guys can shoot me, because I saw this lake scene and immediately thought they dropped Ender off in Forks, Washington. Hahaha! That being said, I want one of those cars, even though it looks a little… stunted on the top. Great for short people like me! Ender will probably klonk his head on the top getting in, poor kid. i  love that they kept Ender’s raft!

Dee: Beautiful. I’m not so sure about the car – it looks a little … pudgy? Ender is wearing white – the same pyjama-like clothes, I presume, that we saw him wearing on Eros in the first trailer. I love the raft – it’s a lot fancier than what I imagined while reading the book.

Anthony: I think the car is actually a let down. Future looking, but future from the 1950’s. Oh well. I like the raft too. Glad they kept this scene as it is important to the story, but I think it is a point where people will drift and want to get back to the action. It will be referred to as that boring lake scene.

Liz: Forks – awesome, Crystal.  I was actually intrigued by their choice of scenery here.  In the book, Ender is from North Carolina (harkening to OSC’s own native land).  I think when I envisioned the lake scene,  there weren’t any mountains.  It was an open space, not so…Lord of the Rings-ish.  Cause when I saw it, I thought New Zealand.  😉   Also, I agree with Anthony about the car.  It definitely has that retro sci-fi look to it.

Crystal: I’m torn. I don’t know if this is the mind game, Eros, or the bugger homeworld after the war. That’s obviously a crashed Formic mothership and debris of other small ships. I’m guessing that’s Ender out there in the distance. I haven’t made up my mind yet on whether they move the final scene to Eros or if they do like a “1 year later” kind of thing with Petra instead of the young boy. I used to think it was definitely Eros, but now I’m not so sure.

Dee: I stick to my original assumption about this scene. This is Eros. SPOILERS: The crashed mothership contains the pupa of a queen, and instead of finding it years and years later on Shakespeare, he finds it here, on Eros, when his pain and the determination of making it right are still fresh. If I’m right, he will then go off with Petra (not Val) to find a new home for the formic race.

Liz: I agree with Dee.  How I’ve pieced it together is this.  After the final battle, Ender  (in his solitude and despair) wanders out onto Eros amid the old wreckage and perhaps finds the pupa there.  He decides to take it and leave.  I’m going to continue my Lord of the Rings references here…So much in the same way that Frodo , at the end of “Fellowship,” decides to go it alone and take the ring to Mordor.  Sam (in our case, Petra) runs after him and swears herself to go with him and help him rebuild the Formic race – we have that one clip of her running out onto Eros with a backpack, and I can just hear her yelling, “Wait, Ender, I’m coming with you!”

Anthony: Well I don’t really care for replacing Val with Petra in this scene, but I can tell the movie is pushing Petra more into the main role than she was in the book so it makes sense. This would be another problem in the sequel then if there is one and it is based off of Speaker for the Dead.

Crystal: Looks like this is the start of the final battle, in which Ender first sees their numbers and despairs, sitting in silence until Bean breaks him out of it.

Dee: I agree – this is the beginning of the final battle. Notice the uneven structure around the ship’s nose (in the trailer you can see it move): those seem to be hundreds of little ships sticking to it like bees before they move off to form a swarm.

Liz: I buy that.

Crystal: LOVE this, it looks amazing! I think it’s a great shot for showing the sheer numbers humanity is against. Since it’s got a brown surface, I’m going to guess this is the bugger homeworld.

Dee: The formic home world. While I think it looks very scary in terms of creepy ships and overwhelming numbers, I had hoped that they would show a little more of how the formics live on a day-to-day basis. This is all about military mobilization, but in order to comprehend the tragedy of what Ender does in the final battle audiences might want to be able to identify with the formics.

Anthony: I don’t think that is the goal at this point. The book keeps the buggers scary and the enemy until after the final battle. That is where you learn that it was a miscommunication. Good looking to show the homeworld and their swarm like mentality.

Liz: Agreed and agreed.  That’s a lot of freakin’ ships.

 
 

Crystal: Our first look at Admiral Chamrajnagar! Love it! Though, it’s weird that it’s the exact same robotic sitting Launchies as in the Graff still.

Dee: I tried to look very closely at this particular still. This seems to be set in the launchie classroom before they delve into their studies. They get a few greetings/messages from important officers, impressing on them the importance of what they are about to learn. This is Ender’s launch group (in launchie yellow, and Ender is among them). Let me point out a couple of kids I think I identified in the picture.

Girls 1 and 2 and boy 1 are students we have seen before in the first still they released (the one in which Graff yells at Ender). What I find most interesting is that Bean seems to be in Ender’s launch. It makes sense if they compress the story into one year, but I expect a lot of fans to be unhappy with this.

Anthony: I agree with what this scene appears to be. That sucks that Bean is in Ender’s launch, pretty much totally ruins the chance for an Ender’s Shadow sequel.

Liz: Yep – A message from the Admiral, and then a message from the Commandant.  I also think it stinks that Bean is in Ender’s launch group.  But as we’ve seen, he’s also not the smallest member of Dragon Army.  I think they’ve really taken away from his character by casting that other girl who’s the same size as he is.

Crystal: Looks like Graff is watching a battle in the Battle Room. You can see the stars reflected. He looks like something unexpected or amazing is happening, but I don’t know what it could be.

Dee: Ender is surprising Graff with his skills here. This could be either the first or a particularly unfair battle, rigged by Graff to be impossible to win, except Ender always wins.

Anthony: Ditto. Ender winning where there was supposed to be no chance to win.

Liz: This is a fascinating design element to me.  I think when a lot of us pictured the Battle Room, it was the black box as described in the book.  Not only were there no windows to space, there were no windows at all.  The idea of a control room, of someplace that the teachers could watch the battle, never occurred to me.  I guess I just assumed there were cameras throughout that displayed on monitors somewhere.  I think this will make for some cool visuals as we see the teachers’ reactions in real-time, with the events reflected in the background.

Crystal: People have been saying Ender looks grumpy all the time, but I think he just looks intense. And that’s really how we’re supposed to see Ender as he rarely has a happy moment in Battle School. 🙁

Dee: It’s Damian from The Omen. No, seriously, Ender doesn’t look particularly happy throughout the trailers, but then I don’t remember that he ever laughed or even really smiled in the book. Another thing that I immediately noticed about this still is how young he looks here. Babyface.

Anthony: A couple of times he smiles with Alai I think in the book. Glad he looks young. That are all so much older than the book anyway.

Liz: Yeah, there are one or two scenes that I have seen in the trailers where I think,  “Okay, good, he actually looks younger in that one.”  My biggest concern with this entire adaptation has been the aging up of the characters.  So when we get some good shots of that young-looking face, I feel a little bit better about it.  But then I remember that he’s the same height as Ben Kingsley.

Crystal: Mazer is saying that Ender is not ready, so it sounds like they’re going to have him on Eros for a while before transitioning him to the real battles, just like in the book. I love this interaction between Graff and Mazer!

Dee: I am really surprised that they made Mazer Ender’s primary ally here. He is the one who wants to protect the kid when Graff feels that he should be worked harder/advanced without being ready. I didn’t get that vibe from him in the book, but then, maybe I just forgot.

Anthony: As the previous hero I always thought that Mazer was the one who felt for Ender and what he is about to go through. The pressure. He already lived it so he is the only one that can relate and Ender can relate to him about the pressure of being the hero.

Liz: I am very interested to see what dynamics they develop between these three characters.

Crystal: I’ll be the first to admit Graff’s flat voiceover in the first trailer was a little disappointing. However, I really loved this really short scene in which Graff just looks tired and sad. One thing that really bugs me though, is that his line “You’re never ready. You go when you’re ready enough.” is botched in the new trailer. His voice comes out nice and clear in the trailer preview, but in the actual trailer it’s actually hard to hear him say the word “go”.

Dee: I love Harrison Ford’s subtle acting here. He looks resigned to the point of amusement, but at the same time really sad. And his soft delivery of the line was a very pleasant surprise. Graff does care about Ender. He does not feel like he has a choice, but it breaks his heart.

Anthony: About time Han looked like he had some emotion.

Liz: Okay, I’m going to say this here, and maybe I’ll write something up about it later as an op-ed piece.  All I can see when I watch these scenes are the crazy IF uniforms!   What in the world is going on?  I’m okay with the jumpsuit design, the colors, etc.  But the whole thing just looks very…cartoonish.  Those nametags are big enough to be read from fifty yards away, and I still haven’t figured out why they have braille on a military nameplate.  The sort of “wings” over the left breast are also confusing to me, since everyone seems to have them, so I’m not sure if they are space wings or what.  I haven’t figured out how they’re doing the military ranks, since everyone also seems to have the same two parallel bars on their collar, and nothing else on their uniforms that seems to indicate rank.  I want to talk to Christine myself!!!  I have questions!!!

Crystal: This battle looked seriously cool, but it confuses me too. I guess they’ll have more than one planet in their battles with the Formics?

Dee: This scene looks  awesome. I had been wondering how they’d visualize Ender’s brilliance as a strategist since Card is not really very specific about the actual tactics Ender employs. This seems like a cool example.

Anthony: I don’t remember this anywhere from the book with firing up through ice or whatever but it looked cool.

Liz: It is so weird to me that we are actually seeing these battles take place.  I mean, obviously, from a filmmaking perspective, it would be incredibly boring if we just watched little blips on a screen…which is exactly how I always imagined it. So I’m curious how they are going to show battle footage while Ender is directing the war from afar…The Ansible is clearly much more powerful than I thought…

Crystal: Petra’s break-down has always really really bothered me because earlier in the book Graff says girls aren’t “built” for Battle School, which is why there are so few of them. And then Card has Petra be the one to break down. That’s always been a huge sore spot for me. I think with Hailee Steinfeld and the modern trend of super strong female characters, we won’t see Petra break down. I think they’ll either eliminate that or move it to another character. I really don’t think it matters who it is, but it would be rather sexist on screen if they left it as Petra.

Dee: Commander Arkanian during one of the battles on Eros. Notice the writing on her screen – it says MD 580.65. I love the look of these screens, but I wonder how the kids are not completely confused by seeing both the actual battle all around them (including through their screens) and the information on their transparent screens.

Anthony: They are geniuses after all. They are trained to look through the screen at the battle and then at the screen when they need to interact with it. The same way you can stand in front of a fence and look through it far away, then focus on the fence itself right in front of you.

Liz: All of this build-up of Petra’s character makes me interested to know: will they still have her break down in those final days?  That part always pissed me off in the book.  Of course, it would be the only female who had to collapse from the stress.  But I wonder if they are going to keep that element in the movie.

Anthony: They better keep that in the movie. Her breaking down is so important. it shows that they aren’t robots and how hard it all is. Also it is Bean that catches it and alerts Ender. It shows something Ender missed and that he isn’t perfect, and how important Bean is. There is a lot of meaning in that happening.

Dee: Yeah, but I hope they have someone else break down, because to have it be Petra is sexist (yes, in the book too). That scene where Graff explains to Ender that women are weaker and softer by nature always drives me nuts, and then Petra is the one who breaks down first, proving Graff right. They are not robots, yes, and someone needs to break down, but I do hope they won’t make the only female in the group the weakest link.

Crystal: Where did that swarm come from?! I mean it looked like there weren’t any bugger ships and then suddenly they’re swarming everywhere! This battle looks really cool and I think it shows us people that have waited for years that the wait will have been worth it.

Dee: The fabulous  ice battle. This image raises the question of whether the formics updated their ships as well. Because this one looks a lot different from those that invaded Earth. In addition, is this the little doctor at work?

Anthony: First time using the little DR. Have to set up what it will do later but on the planet.

Liz: You know, I suppose this could be a very long final battle sequence.  Perhaps they take out several surrounding planets before going for the homeworld.

Dee: Another interesting intonation choice. The way Anderson pronounces this – it’s not so much “wow, I’m surprised” than it is “wtf did he just do? That’s creepy.”

Anthony: Another (Anderson) being amazed at what Ender can do!

Liz: I have a very specific theory on where this scene takes place.  I don’t think that Anderson is commenting on anything that Ender has done in the Battle Room, but rather on what he has done in the Mind Game.  She is the school’s psychologist, after all.  I think that Ender has just gouged the Giant’s eye, or something else that is particularly violent or unusual.  He’s implemented his “strike first and strike hard” philosophy and it concerns her.

Anthony: Excellent point Liz. I agree.

Crystal: Great theory, Liz! I should also note that Graff is smiling in the background though, so it could also be a battle that he’s just won and he’s proud of Ender for the win.

“We should tell him the truth.”

“Why?”

Crystal: Make sure you all read my latest editorial on why I think the audience knowing what’s going on will make a more powerful movie! I really love this scene, but the nitpicker in me is really confused by the uniform color. Why is Graff in a sky blue here while Mazer stands there in a navy blue?!

Dee:  … well, I could ask “why not”, but since I read the book, I have the answer to that. Also, I’m intrigued by the different attitudes Graff seems to display concerning Ender (also in the later scene where he is angry). He can’t seem to decide whether to allow himself to care or not to care.

Liz: All of this has me wondering how much “truth” we as the audience are going to know…

Crystal: My guess is this is Ender standing in the corridor alone while Salamander battles without him. It’s that scene where Bonzo makes him wait four minutes.

Dee: Badass Ender is badass.

Liz: I believe that this is Ender’s initial defiance of Bonzo.  He is in Salamander Army, and is walking alone through the corridors to the Battle Room.  This makes me think that he has been left behind, or ordered to stay away, but decides to suit up and go anyways. I do believe he’s about to make that jump out into zero G and save the day.

Crystal: We talked to Khylin and Aramis about this and Khylin says one of them is him and the other is Petra. As for the armies, one looks for sure to be red to me, but I don’t know if it’s Rat or Leopard. Either way, I’m glad the scene is there!

Dee: Dragon versus ?+? – there are two armies up against dragon. One has red helmets – Rat or Leopard? The other is green or blue – Salamander maybe? (UPDATE: According to Khylin Rhambo on EnderCast #26, the two dragons are Petra as the shooter and Dink as the shield.)

Anthony: The battle room is huge! Petra/Dink??? Bean was supposed to be in that scene I thought? Too much Petra pushing in this movie. Uggh.

Liz: I will admit, this wide-angle shot is pretty cool.  So if this is the battle with the wall of stars,  perhaps it’s the final battle against Griffin and Tiger?

“What does it matter if there’s nothing left at all?!”

Crystal: This is a part of Graff I’ve always loved because despite his true feelings for Ender, he knows it must be done and this is what makes Graff so interesting. I’m guessing his character is how they even got Harrison Ford interested in the part, too!

Dee: Whoa, hard-ass. But I assume he is so angry because it actually matters to him. He thinks he should be able to approach Ender’s training pragmatically and without any emotional considerations, but he ends up caring after all, and it makes him angry at himself.

Anthony: Tough line but very good. What does it matter what happens to him if nothing is left.

Liz: I’m glad that we’re going to get to see this interplay amongst the adults.  One of my favorite elements of the book was the opening “bold texts,” as I called them – the dialogue as they discussed Ender’s fate.

Crystal: I wasn’t all that happy with this brief glimpse or the line, but I do like Abigail’s voice. It really helps to highlight their youth. Her line makes me think that they’ve really changed the urgency of the “next invasion” to be a real threat rather than one cooked up by the IF to keep the war machine running.

Dee: Meh – not yet sold on Valentine. I am not the greatest fan of her in the book to begin with, but I had hoped that Abigail Breslin would win me over. I still hope that in fact, but from the trailer alone … I have to say her plea sounds like a platitude, and it doesn’t move me at all.

Liz: She speaks!  I’m glad that they are giving her at least part of her role.  I hope that she is more than just a minor reference character, someone who shows up when she is supposed to, but someone we haven’t really connected with. It’s going to be hard to make us care about their relationship when we will see so little of it!

Crystal: I’m glad this scene is here at all, but I don’t really know why. The lake is definitely a lot bigger than I’d imagined it. I pictured something much smaller with a house nearby.

Dee: I love the lake scene. If the movie is as action-heavy as the trailer makes it look I’ll be glad for the respite – provided it retains its awesome dialog.  Not sure what Ender’s face is expressing here. Kind of a mix of caring and already being hardened? Can I say that I’m hoping for the wasp scene? Not only does it express that mix very well, it also is an awesome scene in terms of foreshadowing Ender’s actions against other insects later.

Anthony: What will be referred to after the movie as the boring lake scene. Important, but the masses will say it is the slow part of the movie and RunPee will say this is the time to hit the restroom if needed.

Liz: Haha, agreed, Anthony.

Crystal: I think this is the same battle as the one we just talked about, but I don’t actually see any soldiers around their gate, which is kind of confusing. I do love that you can now see Bean’s face. It was kind of weird that his helmet was black in the first one because the face plates are all clear. Aramis Knight told us he really did have to slam into that bar and that it really hurt, which accounts for that intense look on Bean’s face!

Dee: Bean and the rope. Love this scene in the book, but the star formation makes it look like this is the same battle as before. Did this happen in the final battle against Tiger and Griffin? Or are they combining several Dragon battles into one awesome super battle?

Anthony: Bean with the line on him that made them win that one battle.

Liz: Let me know if my eyes are failing, but that really IS Bean in there, right?  I was worried that they were going to take away this scene of his and give it to Ender.  So I’m really glad that Bean gets to test the rope!

“I’ll do everything I can to win this war.”

Crystal: I have to wonder what Ender is talking about to Alai when he says this or if it’s even from that exact scene. Either way, I hope we get clips of all of them later down the line. Character features, Summit?

Dee: Ender and Alai – my favorite broship. I was so sad when Ender felt he had lost Alai. If this is the scene we have seen before in that blurry Comic Con picture, this conversation happens in their launchie quarters and thus very early in the movie. Interesting. I didn’t get the feeling that launchie Ender was quite so determined in the book, but then they ARE compressing the whole story into one year. Also: Has he been crying?

Liz: This is nice.  I’m glad we’re going to have at least a few sort of “bonding” moments between Ender and his jeesh.  Haven’t seen much of them so far, and I hope they’re not reduced to cardboard characters.  I really wanted them to develop those relationships.

Dee: Love! When I first saw these I was like “wow, too much too fast”, but then I remembered that this is Ender and this is his improbable victory against a materially far superior fleet. I would not be able to keep track of everything here, but Ender can. And they are not dumbing it down for us lowly viewers of average intelligence.

Anthony: My favorite parts of the trailer are these scenes with Ender controlling the simulation, or from the back, or all the commanding scenes. I think they feel so right for the story. I got most pumped over these scenes by far. Kudos to Asa for really pulling it off in these and he looks “in the zone” totally! I made one of these shots the cover for my Google+ and Facebook.

Liz: Again, not quite what I imagined when I was reading the book.  First of all, Ender is isolated from his jeesh.  He only knows they’re there through voice comms.  I imagined simple tactical displays, not unlike our modern technology, with maybe a little futuristic flair.  But here they’ve gone all “Minority Report” on us, but it does look pretty cool.  It will have a much different dynamic, but I think be far more filmable, having them all in the same room at the same time.

Crystal: We still haven’t released our set visit reports, but I will say we got to stand there. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like for Asa to act out. It’s definitely way more big-boom than the book and I like the change because we will get to see them all find out the twist together.

Crystal: I admit to being wrong the first time around, thinking it was Sir Ben’s British accent. I can hear the Kiwi accent in his voice now! Scene-wise, I’m really really glad they’re showing this kind of stuff. We get none of this in the book and it’s cool to see Gavin’s own imagined scenes in the teacher “box”.

Dee: Sorry, but all I see is the nose. That being said, Ben Kingsley is great as usual. Another flawless line delivery. Also, I’m happy that we have the teachers to comment on what Ender is doing, because as I said, I wouldn’t be able to tell from watching Ender do his thing.

Liz: I like that we are going to get to watch teacher interplay during the final battle sequence.  This comment from Mazer (in a decent Maori  dialect) casts doubt on what Ender is doing, while Graff seems to realize that he has created a monster who can’t be stopped once he’s made up his mind.

Crystal: I wonder if Asa had to go to finger and arm acting school for this? 😉

Dee: I’m not sure about Asa’s face here. On the one hand, on an adult it might look a bit overdone. On the other hand, he is a kid, and kids tend to pull faces when they are very focused and doing things that they are emotionally invested in. My judgement on whether this is too much or just right is still pending.

Anthony: Another awesome commanding scene!

Liz: Ender practicing his tai chi.  The battle’s like twelve hours long – can’t somebody get that boy a chair?    Again, I like what they’ve done with this design, to highlight Ender at the true “center” of everything, whose crew surrounds and supports him, as he conducts from on high.  Should be a visual explosion.

Anthony: Is it November yet?????

Crystal: I think this is from the final battle and the little things on the outside are either part of metal shield or smaller ships in formation. This tells me that the “spoiler” people complain about–the firing on the planet–is not what we think it is. There’s no way they can destroy a planet from that far away and if they could, this scene right here wouldn’t be necessary.

Dee: Just before this, Mazer says: “He is abandoning his entire fleet.” So what are we seeing here? The formic ships are all around, but the center swarm is at least partially made up of little silver things – maybe the same ones we see later around the bigger Earth carrier ships. So is this weapon’s fire inside a swarm of little Earth thingies? Is someone going Kamikaze?

Anthony: I think this scene is the DR device blowing up a bunch of ships too close together the way it is supposed to. I don’t however think it has anything to do with him abandoning his fleet though. i don’t recall him doing that. If he does as a tactic in some way then that might be it, but I think this is two separate things they stitched together for the trailer.

Liz: Yeah, not sure on this one.  Perhaps a ton of individual human fighters protecting the carrier that’s going to launch Dr. Device?

“He’s in command, there’s no stopping him now.”

Crystal: This line, the look on his face, love it! It sounds as if they’re regretting all the loss he’s causing and at this point Graff is probably wondering if he was wrong and Mazer was right. Maybe they should have told Ender the truth. But we all know that would have sadly hindered Ender greatly.

Dee: Horror, admiration, incredulity. Graff’s line here is totally quotable. YES! – In fact, this trailer is full of quotables. “Shoot straight, stay calm, here we go” is another favorite.

Anthony: Is this where he says he is in command now? If so then it shows how right they were about him acting differently and the reason for him. He is different and sees things different and which is why they are so unnerved by what he is doing. They cannot see it like he does.

Liz: Oh, I so hope that Harrison Ford pulls this off.  I know there’s been a lot of talk about how sometimes it seems like he’s phoning it in.  Don’t let it be so!

Crystal: I think all the orange lights are from buggers trying to stop them, not from the Dr. Device. You notice they have orange lights in the Great Invasion footage, so this has to be Formic. We’re the blue!

Dee: MD, all in.  I had imagined the final destruction to be different. Not explosions, more like a shockwave in which everything just dissolves into dust. But this probably looks cooler on screen.

Anthony: Giving away the ending. 🙁  Then again it is only a spoiler to those that read the book. Others wont know they are being spoiled.

Liz: Yeah, sacrificing our ships to protect the MD Device.

Crystal: I thought this part of the trailer was particularly well done. The way the camera moves down and the ships come better into focus. I love it all! And since they’re still behind the asteroid field, I really don’t think his countdown is for the planet. 🙂

Dee: Conductor Ender striking a dramatic pose. “In Three – Two – One -NOW!” As far as I remember, Ender didn’t seem too enthusiastic on Eros – determined, yes, but not exactly passionate. But this countdown has a pretty high coolness-factor. I guess to work for movie audiences it wouldn’t have been enough to show a depressed little boy whispering orders.

Anthony: My current cover image for Facebook and Google+  🙂

Liz: Violins! Cellos!  Bring in the percussion…now!!!

Crystal: Someone give that poor kid in the back right a cup of coffee, he looks like he needs it badly. As for Mazer and Graff, love the looks on their faces. They’re a good combo of scared and hopeful, waiting on the edge of their seats!

Dee: Did you notice? Graff’s aide is in this shot, played by actor Han Soto, and his name tag reads … SOTO!  Why complicate things, eh?

Anthony: Showing the seriousness of the situation I guess?

Liz: I like these shots.  Again, curious how they’re going to pull of this ending.  If the audience knows, where’s the suspense?  In the fact that Ender doesn’t know.  But they have to be careful to not make Ender look stupid here…I mean, if the whole IF Command showed up for your final examination (and looked like this while you were taking your test) wouldn’t you be a little suspicious?

Crystal: I’m really confused. You can see the backs of ships on the other ships around them, but this one looks totally different and it looks like a front view and those are two guns. Unless this is a very close up look at one of the individual ships we see in the “shield” formation around the other ships?

Dee: The Earth fleet has an interesting look. Not pretty, but rather functional, and not too sleek for the not-so-far future. Plus, it makes a nice contrast to the more organic-looking formic fleet. What are those blankets in front of the bigger ships? Shields? Drones? One-man fighters protecting bigger carriers?

Liz: That’s a lot of ships…Each of the large battleships surrounded by individual fighters…I didn’t imagine us having such a formidable fleet…

Dee: Is this the MD device, or are we just assuming it is?

Anthony: In the book he kind of remotely pilots the DR device in for the ending. Here it looks like it is a laser blast of some kind. Another big change. Also the screaming of NOW is obviously added for cinema effect (and well done)  but who is he telling now to fire the final last? Bean? Probably Petra the way they are pushing her in this film. I would think that would be something he would do himself (but then why yell NOW?)

Liz: Maybe it’s a final coordinated effort sort of “Now!”  Maybe there are multiple pieces moving at once to make this happen, which culminates in the firing of the Device.

Crystal: With the asteroid field there I’m not convinced this is the Doctor Device firing. In the book Ender commands the ships to drop to the surface and concentrate their devices that way, but this looks like it’s from literally a million miles away. I think they’re just firing at the ship we talked about earlier.

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And that’s it for our trailer breakdown! Hopefully at least one of you reads everything we wrote! 😉

We’re now 80 days from the movie!