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REVIEW: Ender’s Game Blu-Ray/DVD Combo

Tomorrow, Ender’s Game will be released on Blu-ray and DVD combo pack, giving Launchies the chance to watch Ender’s Game in the comfort of their own homes. Sure, we won’t get to watch Ender dominate on futuristic televisions, but at least we’ll get to watch it whenever we want.

A couple of weeks ago, Lionsgate was nice enough to send me a copy of the Blu-ray to review and so I got to watch the Blu-ray exclusive featurettes Ender’s World: The Making of Ender’s Game and Inside the Mind Game along with six deleted scenes from the movie. Since deleted scenes are what most people are looking for, I’ll get right to it.

Say Goodbye

The original goodbye scene in the movie was ridiculously short, with just a tearful hug from Valentine and some voiceover and watching this extended scene with goodbyes from Mr. and Mrs. Wiggin, Peter, and Valentine made it feel like the final scene sums up how people felt about the movie in general: it was way too cut down.

You can watch each scene with commentary from Gavin Hood and he expresses regret on losing the scene with Peter, something I agree with, but it would have been more important if they’d made Valentine and Peter a constant presence in the film. Valentine gives a rather nerdy goodbye with a quote from Shakespeare, but this fits with what I always saw Valentine as: a really cool nerd.

The part I felt should have stayed in was Anderson objecting to Mrs. Wiggin giving Ender a token to take with him. I feel like that would have contributed to Ender’s isolation and outweighed any “break in pace” that Gavin mentions was the concern here.

A New Recruit

This is one of the few completely deleted scenes in which Ender has just entered the mess hall and sees Bonzo and Fly Molo obsessing over the current battle between Rat and Asp, which will determine whether or not Salamander remains on top. After being yelled at by Bonzo, he’s ordered to go sit in the corner with O’Reilly (who he later replaces) who turns out to be Mick. He takes Ender’s dessert and gives him his roll, basically like in the book, which was a nice touch. Gavin talks about how he was particularly sad to lose this scene and that his original cut was 15 minutes longer. Another little homage to the book, we later see Ender trying to fall asleep by counting doubles, a trick he’d picked up from Valentine.

It’s For His Own Good

This scene is an extended one of a conversation between Graff and Anderson and Gavin mentions that it was cut simply because it would have tipped the audience off on what was really going on. As we know from the final movie, the studio chose to preserve the twist of the book, contrary to what the trailers were implying during promotion.

Leadership

Gavin mentions that this scene follows the mess hall scene, but while technically true, I think this actually comes right after Ender wakes up from his nightmare about Peter. He’s in the bathroom washing his face and Dink comes by to check on him while Graff still wears his pissed off, slightly sweaty from bed look after his fight with Anderson. Like in the book, Dink talks about how he was promoted twice, but he turned it down because power drives people crazy.

We Need Ender

Although this is the extended version of a scene in the movie with Graff and Valentine in the car, I’m not really sure I understand why it was cut. At one point, Valentine looks at Graff in shock and simply says, “I hate you.” His reply was nicely done and I agree with Gavin that it’s a pity it was cut.

They Should Know

This extended scene between Mazer and Graff is actually one that we saw in the trailers and promos and was eventually cut out to help preserve the twist. Be sure to read my editorial on why I thought that a spoiled twist would have made for a powerful movie too.

The saddest part about the deleted scenes was that you see a ton of odes to the novel, including Val’s “I love you forever!” I’m not sure all of them would have worked, but some seem like they would have fit into the film just fine.

Featurettes

Although you can buy the DVD, the Blu-Ray of Ender’s Game is a combo pack, meaning that you get three copies of the movie: Blu-ray, DVD, and Ultra-Violet. The two featurettes are available only on the Blu-ray and if you don’t yet have a BR player, on the assumption that you will probably eventually get one, you might as well just buy the BR combo.

The featurette on the Mind Game was sadly pretty underwhelming and raw. There was no special introduction or commentary, it was basically just splices of raw footage and behind-the-scenes stuff. That being said, you do get to see Gavin act as the Giant, which was pretty cool. It just didn’t impress me production wise.

The 45 minute Ender’s World featurette, however, was very satisfying to watch and is worth the extra cost for the BR. The featurette is split into 8 chapters and features interviews from not just the big stars, but our favorite characters from the book such as Aramis Knight (Bean), Khylin Rhambo (Dink), Brandon Soo Hoo (Fly Molo), and Suraj Partha (Alai).

Hidden in the featurette are some little snippets of deleted scenes that aren’t highlighted in the deleted scenes section such as a brief flash of Bean presenting the deadline to Ender and Bean in tears at the end saying, “He lied!” There’s really cool Space Camp footage, as well as training footage that Launchies will get a real kick out of. The creature design was very detailed, with their creature designer even going so far as to determine how Formics digested things.

Set designer Ben Proctor gives you a look at his iPad app that shows the final set as he videos the set live, something that almost seemed like it couldn’t be real. That’s how cool it was.

I haven’t yet had a chance to watch the movie with commentary from Gavin Hood, Roberto Orci, and Gigi Pritzker, but hope to soon. As I mentioned earlier, if you’re still deciding between DVD and BR combos, keep in mind there’s only a $5 difference between the two sets on Amazon. Having the added benefit of a BR and two exclusive featurettes is definitely worth $5 in my book. I will be launching a Blu-ray giveaway later today, so be sure to stay tuned for that!

February 10, 2014
Ender’s Game Movie Review (by EnderWiggin.net Staffer Dee)
Hey guys,

in case you didn’t know: I saw Ender’s Game last night! Finally! And since it’s still a few days until November 1st and some of you may still ponder the question whether or not to go see it …. kidding, of course you’re gonna see it, but you may wanna know what to expect, so here is my spoiler-free review! (And with spoiler-free I mean that I’m not gonna tell you any details about the movie. The plot and everything that’s known through trailers and clips already is fair game.)

BTW, if you don’t want to read it all, there is a bottom line at the end!

1. Book v. Movie

Let’s start off with the most pressing questions: How does the movie compare to the book?

I thought it did pretty well in that respect. This is a movie made with book fans in mind, but it’s not a 1:1 translation. It couldn’t be, and this movie makes this very clear, because while it is packed with references to the book, it still leaves you wanting more. There are so many little scenes, so many memorable quotes that they could not fit into this 2 hour movie. Gavin Hood really tried – he even rushed stuff a bit to fit more stuff in – but there are still so many scenes missing that I am now convinced that this book has to be made into a 20-episode-series to do it justice.

But for what it is it does remarkably well. Many things are streamlined, some are simplified, others re-interpreted, still others completely changed to make for a coherent movie that still tells Ender’s story. As I pointed out elsewhere, we will probably not all agree on what that story is. This movie is not trying to incorporate all possible interpretations – it can’t. It is ONE interpretation of the book, Gavin Hood’s, and instead of trying to satisfy everyone he is trying to stay true to what he believes is the essence of Ender’s Game. That is the narrative line he his following systematically, even if it means that he has to leave some most beloved scenes and quotes out.

Characterwise, the focus lies mostly on Ender and, to a lesser degree, Graff. Minor character stories are often even more reduced to make more room for the major characters who tell the major story: Ender’s story – his morality and immorality, his strength and his vulnerability, and ultimately his guilt.

2. Directing and Composition

So how does Gavin Hood do as a screenwriter and director?

As I said, this is a movie for fans, and Gavin Hood tried to put as much of the story in as he could. This is mostly well done, but I have to admit that if I have any beef with this movie, this is where it lies. Because, let’s face it, this movie is rushed and a little too episodic to really achieve smoothness. There were two moments where I thought: “what? how did we get here? shouldn’t X have happened before this?” Ender’s Game could have used at least half an hour more time to establish certain plot points, because the way it is now it sometimes feels like you just blacked out and missed a bit. This gets better towards the end, and while Hood has by no means enough time to completely tell the entire Eros story, he does put in enough of the strenuousness and urgency to make the ending what it is supposed to be.

As a director, he doesn’t take any risks. It’s solidly directed and shot pretty traditionally. Gavin Hood’s great strength lies not in innovative angles or compelling camera movements but in how he directs his actors. Their interactions are uniformally smooth, engaged, and believable, and that is not just the actors’ achivement, but also that of a director who manages to convey to his actors exactly the mood they are supposed to be in, and exactly the things they feel towards the other. This is one of the great strengths of the movie.

3. Visuals

The other is the visuals. We already knew they were stunning, and they don’t disappoint on the big screen. There is not a single scene that isn’t absolutely beautiful. The landscapes and space scenery are sublime, everything in space and even on the desks looks 3D without being 3D, and nevertheless completely convincingly real. You literally don’t see the CGI unless you are supposed to see it (like in the mind game). My friend, who is a fan of 1980s and 1990s SciFi movies said it reminded her a lot of the good old times before CGI. She said while it looked totally up to date, it also looked as if all of these things were actual sets, not animated backgrounds.

As for the mind game – I loved it. I understand that that is a matter of taste, but I thought it was pretty damn cool. I wanna play it.

4. Acting

The acting is this movie’s finest feature. Asa Butterfield is solid to excellent – he has very few iffy/unconvincing moments, very many convincing ones (if you don’t notice the acting, it’s good), and some absolutely brilliant ones. His Ender is lovable but prone to violence, more confident than I imagined him (but he is older, plus a drastic character change would not have been believable over this short period of time), but also vulnerable; he has darkness, and yet a fundamentally clear understanding of what is right and wrong. Butterfield portrays him with all those facets – what an actor at 14-15!

Harrison Ford is stellar – engaged, passionate, subtle and complex, even more complex really than Graff in the book. I’d nominate him for an award, but I doubt it will come to pass.

In comparision to these two, the other actors have rather little to do. And yet, everyone without exception excels at their role. And I’m not just saying that because they are all so nice. I was looking for flaws in the acting, and I found very little. I was surprised how even the very small roles (like Enders parens, who each have 2 lines) were totally and utterly believable and natural. Let me mention three major “minor” characters in particular:
- Val/Abigail Breslin: I totally believe that her Val is a genius who nearly made it to battle school.
- Bean/Aramis Knight: Absolutely natural, exceptionally subtle for a kid. He’s going places.
- Bonzo/Moises Arias: People (including me) were/are really afraid that because of his height he can’t be a convincing Bonzo. But while he needs a few scenes to find himself, he does become a convincing antagonist. That kid is seriously vicious!
5. Score/Soundtrack

Do I really have to mention the score/soundtrack? I love those big, orchestral, slightly bombastic pieces, and here they fit super well. I’m particularly in love with the theme that we hear in Ender’s War and other pieces. I call it Ender’s theme, and I’ve been humming it all day. Daaaaaaaaaaah, daaa deeee daaaa …

BOTTOM LINE : 4 out of 5

I loved this movie. I loved it because it focuses on those parts of the story that I happen to find most important. I loved it because the actors are simply wonderful, and that is usually the most important thing for me. And I loved it because it is the most beautiful movie I’ve seen in a long while (and that includes The Hobbit and Avatar). But I won’t deny that, objectively, there are quite a few things you could complain about, especially if you are the nitpicking kind. I tend not to be a purist. As long as the essence is there, I accept that details change in transition, and that a lot of the more complex elements need to fall by the wayside. The changes that Hood made – and when you think about it, most of them make sense – will probably anger book purist and lead a lot of people to give this movie less credit than it deserves. But if you accept that this is one version, one vision, one interpretation, then you should be fine. People absolutely should give this movie a chance, because despite its shortcomings it has done very many things very right.

Let me know what you think. I’ll gladly answer any and all questions and comments. I’m dying to talk about this movie!

Note: This review is based on the German dubbed version of Ender’s Game, as seen in a regular movie theater.
October 25, 2013
Review: Earth Afire: The First Formic War

Earth Afire, the sequel to last year’s Earth Unaware, is co-authored by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston and arrived in the mail from Tor last week. Even though I’m still on Shadow of the Hegemon, I cracked it open and started it right away, finishing just a few days later.

The book picks up right where Earth Unaware left off, with Victor Delgado trying in vain to spread the word of the alien ship rocketing towards Earth. We’re introduced to two new storylines with young little Bingwen in China and finally a storyline focusing on Mazer Rackham. All three of the original storylines (Lem, Wit, and the El Cavador) are present, though El Cavador has split into Victor and the El Cavador survivors. This fragments the novel into six storylines.

Bingwen is seven years-old and a very bright student, living in a very rural rice growing village in Guongdong Province with his parents and Ye Ye Danwen (his grandfather). His only access to computers is limited to the village library and Bingwen, along with his best friend Hopper and cousin Meilin, are all anxiously awaiting the time when they can take tests to go to school and leave their village for a better life. This all changes once the alien ship arrives.

Mazer Rackham, who was previously MIA for most of the previous book, re-emerges with his New Zealand SAS team as they head to China to help train their soldiers to use a new type of aircraft called a HERC.

Having just been given this long assignment overseas, Mazer must make a choice on whether to attempt to start a life with Kim, an American doctor working in New Zealand on a device called the MedAssist, or to break ties with her now to allow her to live a happier life. This felt like rather depressing foreshadowing for choices Mazer would have to make later when he leaves on a ship in order to return to train Ender.

The story with Lem Jukes continues as Lem races home towards Luna to try to help Earth destroy the alien ship. He struggles internally with his relationship with his father and while it’s clear Lem is sharp-witted, it’s still unclear to me whether Lem is simply blinded by his rocky relationship with his father or if everything he perceives is truly how things stand. Because his desire for control of Juke Limited seems like such an important endeavor, it’s also a bit muddled as to how sincere his motivations are when it comes to the Formics. Perhaps this is simply how he must be as he deals with two major events in the present all while looking to the future.

The El Cavador storyline continues through Rena Delgado, who has recently lost her husband on the explosion of the El Cavador and has said goodbye to her only son Victor as she sent him off on a long and dangerous mission to Earth. She struggles to keep the women of the ship together in the aftermath of the failed attack on the Formic ship.

With six storylines, the book does struggle a bit with pacing, ending with interesting cliffhanger chapters that don’t pick back up for many pages. The six do converge into three again after the Formics land in China and begin razing surrounding civilization to the ground.

That being said, Bingwen was a delightful addition to the storyline, and one gets the sense that this young child will be one of or possibly the sole reason why Battle School is eventually formed.

I am still very confused by Card and Johnston’s choice of focus on Wit O’Toole instead of Mazer’s team in the first novel Earth Unaware. I thought it would be made more apparent why they chose to do this but Wit’s MOP storyline doesn’t appear until around halfway through the book and even then it didn’t seem to merit the attention they were given. You just get dropped straight into Mazer’s storyline without notice, leaving you unfamiliar with and therefore not really caring much about his intimate NZSAS team. In my opinion, these characters would have benefited a lot more from background storytelling while the MOPs journey into China could have appeared without the pages dedicated to them in book 1.

VAGUE SPOILERS AHEAD

Overall, Earth Afire was just as good as Earth Unaware, with added action when the Formics land in China and the fight for our planet begins. My main fault with the book lies in the cliffhanger ending, something that as a reader drives me completely up the wall.

It should be noted that I feel there is a very big difference between an open ending and a cliffhanger ending. With Ender’s Game, we’re given a grand finale and then a sense of closure, yet another door is opened. Harry Potter was very clearly a series of books, but Jo Rowling carefully compartmentalized her novels making sure the reader knew more was to come.

Earth Afire simply cuts you off just as what you perceive to be the climax is about to begin. It would be like Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince ending just as Harry and Dumbledore set off across the lake full of Inferi. It’s like The Empire Strikes Back fading to black as Luke walks into the dark room to face Vader.

As a reader, I find this very jarring and frustrating. For that reason I’m almost inclined to recommend that people who haven’t yet picked up this trilogy wait until Earth Awakens is released next year. The books have not disappointed in character and content, but the point at which this book ends leaves a whole lot to be desired.

Earth Afire will be released on June 4, 2013. Watch the book trailer here.

This book was sent to me by Tor Books. I was not paid to write this review. The opinions expressed above are my own.

May 28, 2013
Review: Earth Unaware: The First Formic War

Orson Scott Card’s latest Ender novel Earth Unaware: The First Formic War, co-authored by Aaron Johnston, was released last week on July 17 and my review copy came in the mail just a couple of days later.

A hardcover book of 364 pages (excluding the Afterword), Earth Unaware is an official Ender’s Game prequel that brings us the story of humanity’s very first encounter with the Formics. Earth Unaware has interesting and well fleshed out characters, a steady pace, and great foreshadowing for Ender’s Game. The book is split into three separate storylines and two of them eventually intertwine to provide you with a thrilling and terrifying ride through the Kuniper Belt.

First there’s the El Cavador storyline, told mostly from the perspective of Victor Delgado, a brilliant 17 year-old free miner mechanic on his Venezuelan family’s mining ship, the El Cavador. You start off meeting Victor at a time of painful loss, as his closest cousin and best friend Alejandra, nicknamed Janda, is “zogged” or married off to another clan early to an Italian clan the Delgados have been trading with for the past week because they sense that the two cousins are falling in love. (this chapter can be read as a sample on Tor.com) For her sake, Victor chooses not to say goodbye and instead immerses himself into his work.

That’s soon interrupted when Janda’s younger sister Edimar, an apprentice in the ship’s crow’s nest called The Eye, spots something in the distance that by her calculations is decelerating. The conclusion they both come to is that it’s an alien starship headed for Earth. They notify the ship’s captain immediately and with only the departed Italian ships and one corporate mining ship within communication distance, they send off messages in the hopes that they reach them.

The second storyline follows that of the Makarhu, a corporate space mining ship led by Lem Jukes, son of Ukko Jukes, who is the wealthiest man in the galaxy and president of Earth’s largest corporate mining company Juke Limited. Lem is on a mission for Juke Limited’s R&D division to test the outrageously expensive prototype “glaser” or gravity laser to hopefully provide them with a revolutionary way to mine minerals out of asteroids. The Makarhu is the corporate ship nearest to the El Cavador.

Impatient and eager to return home with good news, Lem is plagued by delays and an overcautious lead scientist and after their first test on a “pebble” or small asteroid, he makes the call to head to a much larger asteroid nearby. The problem is that it’s being mined by the Delgado clan. Not to be discouraged, Lem suggests the unethical practice of “bumping” the El Cavador from the rock and taking it for themselves. This begins a terrible conflict between the two ships, with what’s presumably a Formic ship quickly approaching.

Back on Earth, we follow Captain Wit O’Toole, head of the elite peacekeeping force known as the Mobile Operations Police or MOPs for short. Recruiting from the most elite military forces on the planet, Wit’s visit to the New Zealand SAS base is where we get our first glimpse of young Mazer Rackham. The downside is that while Wit’s story is interesting and entertaining, he parts ways with Mazer early on in the book and his story fails to tie into the meat of the story in a relevant manner and in the end Wit only serves as backstory for what’s obviously another book to come.

Victor makes for a fascinating young adult character with admirable qualities and a deeply rooted loyalty to his family and a “home” he’s never even seen in Earth, since he is space-born. Lem could have been a typical rich kid character, but thankfully, he’s a reluctant non-hero with ethics and the yoke of his father muzzling his full potential. This makes him a much more complicated and therefore interesting man.

You see shades of Ender’s Game throughout, but most notably with the glaser, which is obviously the prototype for what eventually becomes the Little Doctor. Wit O’Toole’s elite force leads one to believe that he’ll eventually help form the International Fleet, since his MOPs are a global force that do not answer to individual governments and strive to keep harm from coming to civilians. The climax of the novel brings you thrills similar to the Battle Room and you can’t help but think that this influenced how they trained the students in the school.

I’d been struggling through Children of the Mind when Earth Unaware landed on my desk and I finished the book in a quick three days, being a bit slow to start since I’d already read most of the first chapter online. Once I got a bit deeper in, however, the story and characters pulled me in until I couldn’t put it down. It’s a very strong novel for what I presume will be a set of prequel books. My only wish was that Captain Wit had tied in better with the main storyline.

If you’ve been waiting to buy the book until you read reviews, consider this review one that urges you to pick up the book immediately. While decidedly different from Ender’s Game, Earth Unaware is a quality novel and overall a highly entertaining read.

Earth Unaware was provided to me by Tor Books. I was not paid to write this review. All opinions expressed above are my own.

July 24, 2012