Lisa and I saw Ender’s Game this afternoon, and unfortunately didn’t find it particularly worthy. This book is pretty much hallowed ground among both Lisa and I, but Lisa clearly vlaues it even more. She reads it fairly often, and had re-read it again last week just to prepare.
For me, well, the word I used while walking out of the theater was “disjointed.” It’s okay, I guess. I mean, you can follow the story and get the gist of the messages behind the original piece. But, if ever a story existed for the 12-hour mini-series construct, perhaps this is it. The story gets told, but the heart and soul of it seems spread terribly thin–for instance, the mind-game that gets so much exploration in the book is kind of hand-waved at until the very end. I have to admit that I had a moment where I struggled with the juxtaposition between the fundamental relationship between Ender and his enemy, and the now well documented social views of OSC.
I’m sure that didn’t help my enjoyment.
Lisa, though … man. I can’t remember leaving a theater with her ever being so mad. She did not like the changes. She did not like the brief story arcs. She did not like that the story shied away from having Ender actually kill two other kids (choosing, instead, to have Ender just beat them up). And it goes on from there.
So, I give it a “meh.” and Lisa gives it a “hated it.” So I’m going to give Ender’s Game a final grade of meh-.
Should you go?
Sure. Why not? But, as Lisa posted on he FB page, it might serve you better to just skip it and read the book instead.