Friday, October 11, 2013

ENDER'S GAME


The cover I remember...

You made them hate me.
So? What will you do about it?...There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you.  And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you.  I told them you were the best.  Now you damn well better be. - Ender and Colonel Graff. (book version)

Having loyalty to a sci-fi franchise is sort of like owning a house. It's a place of refuge, but one that takes work. Sometimes you have new additions that don't match the previous construction (Star Trek), sometimes it's incomplete (Sliders, SGU), but, in your head, you always try to make it work. Why? Because you love being there. When I watch an episode of The Next Generation for example, my stress just melts away. What can I say, I grew up with this world. There is another home to my mind that is almost perfect, outside of some leaky faucets and such. This house, however, casts a Giant shadow as problems with the architect have been brought to light. Indeed, some may learn of the architect's issues and suddenly not like their house as much. And so, they leave what they thought was a good place: the world of Ender Wiggin. To me, this has always been a home that represents tolerance and understanding. There is no judgement or agenda within its walls, even if its shadow represents something different.  It's a shame that we still chose to hate, divide and condemn one another. Hatred is a shadow, the darkest one. If we are to truly progress, we must learn to understand and love one another, to draw strength from our differences. For as this house teaches, to understand someone completely is to love them.  I am admittedly a hopeless geek who is a sucker for good stories and mythologies, so believe me when I say that I choose to stay in this house, not because of who the architect is, but because of who I am. Don't stand against me because of this choice, stand against the shadows. After all, I've owned this place for a while. I want a reward for my investment. A big shiny movie will do nicely...




You might get pushed around.  In fact, you will get pushed around. -Dap. (book version)

In eighth grade or so (fuzzy memory) I picked up a book in the school library. ENDER'S GAME it read. I didn't know what this book was about, but it had a space station on the cover, so I was sold. Little did I know that by opening this book I would begin an amazing journey with a character that I could understand and root for, a kid named Ender. His character is set up as a smart, quiet outcast who gets bullied at school. For him it's because he's a "third". Though I was only a "second" myself, I was immediately drawn in to Ender's struggles, thoughts and emotions. He continues to get put through the wringer by other students and by his teachers and commanders. And though he is tested beyond his limits, he always managed to "win". And win brilliantly. Man, I wanted to be this kid. Or, if anything, I wanted to be friends with him, to jump into the pages and tell Ender how awesome he is (I believe there's an artifact in Warehouse 13 that can help with that). Of course, the book has so much more to say about the moral quandaries of war and politics, but back then all I focused on was Ender's struggle at battle school. His isolation. The cruelty of other kids. Finally, a book that GETS children. I quickly bought all the sequels available at the time and read through them all. They weren't as interesting to me because they dealt with his adult life and back then, I liked the stories about young people. Finally, Ender's Shadow was released and I was once again transported into the world of the battle school. Every free moment I got I'd sit and read it, including at my job at the movie theater. The weeknights were slow...

I've been following rumors of a movie for a long time. I remember when Wolfgang Peterson was a potential director and Haley Joel Osment and Jake Lloyd (Yippee..) were front runners for Ender. Finally after years of fancy script treatments and studios that didn't get it (read all about it here), Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment slapped a $110 million budget onto this one (with the help of Digital Domain and others) and made Ender the literal poster boy for their next great franchise. It's a story that deserves to told. It deserves to be seen. It deserves to make a billion worldwide. It's simply that good. But as I previously mentioned, due to Card's anti-gay-marriage views, Ender once again faces extreme scrutiny by the masses. And as usual: it isn't his fault. So the question remains: should the sins of the father forever doom the Children of the Mind? This isn't the first time I've been faced with an architect that had difficult or different views from mine, being a Christian sci-fi geek and all. Gene Rodenberry instructed his writers for Star Trek that everybody is an atheist in the future and "better for it." As Admiral Chamrajnagar would say: "I can see you find my mysticism distasteful." Joss Whedon's views are polar opposite to mine. But do I watch Trek and Firefly? All the time. Card is different, but it's also important to point out that he won't profit from this film's success. As The Wrap pointed out recently, he got paid years ago with no backend in his contract. So no matter what side you're on, you can see this movie without worry. But really, the only way out of this mess is to be amazing. If this movie is amazing, then that'll make forgetting all this craziness a little easier. And so, I thought to myself as I entered the theater, it damn well better be...



WHAT I LIKED:
The casting. Asa Butterfield nailed it. I mean he NAILED it. Nobody could have played Ender quite as well. He shows a vulnerability and intensity that is perfect. He also shows the balance of violence and compassion in Ender that is so vital to the role. As for the rest of the cast, Hailee Steinfeld provided some true grit as Petra. Even though they skimped on some of Ender's other friendships (which I'll get to later), I'm glad they allowed this one to shine a bit. Moises Arias was an intriguing choice for Bonzo. It's kind of funny how short Bonzo is compared to Ender, but it works. And because of his decent screen time, he's actually the most interesting character in the film outside of Ender. People complain about Ben Kingsley's accent in the film, but I didn't mind it at all. I thought he and Ford were both great choices. Kingsley's Mazer also has a line that alludes to the next book, Speaker for the Dead, which I don't think is in the EG book. It's clever.

A friend of mine says that when making a book into a film you either have to follow the book or, if you can't, don't be boring. I was impressed with how much of the book was put on screen exactly as it is. Much of the dialogue is left untouched and many scenes play out exactly the same. The battle room scenes are brilliantly and faithfully translated to screen. The two on one battle against Ender's Dragon Army is fantastic. I silently (unlike others in the theater) celebrated every time they got something right. Kudos to Gavin Hood and his production team for wanting this to be as close to the book as possible. Of course, changes needed to be made and things needed to be simplified, but I was prepared for this. Many of the changes work. One intriguing change was taking a scene at the battle school of Ender beating some kids at a video game and moving it to the very beginning. This way the film opens with Ender playing games, which actually is kinda neat. The conflict between him and Stilson is now motivated from how badly he beats him. After this somewhat surprising opening, the movie goes straight back to how the book opens, with Ender getting his monitor taken out. Other changes include the removal of Demosthenes and Locke and a reduced amount of time in the battle school. Most people complain about the number of years Ender spends at the school being reduced from six to one (the movie doesn't say how long exactly), but this is something that has always been with the book to screen adaptations over the years. I mean, what are they gonna do realistically, follow him for six years? Some things are too difficult to pull off, but to Hood's credit once again, he shot the film (mostly) chronologically, so you do see Butterfield age a little as the movie progresses.




WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
I felt like the movie was 30 minutes long. This is a good thing since it is NEVER boring, but it's also a bad thing because they could have spent so much more time in the battle school developing these characters. For a while I thought the pacing was pretty perfect. But as soon as Ender got to command his own toon, the movie jumps into hyperdrive until it finally slows down again near the end. Friendships are formed quickly, with little to no conflict. Bean's screen time is most disappointing, though he does get one the funniest lines in the movie. In the book, he and Ender start out at odds with each other and form a true bond over time. Here they meet right away and are always friends. Because this story moves so quickly and the time frame is compressed, you also miss Ender's exhaustion. You get everything else from him, his anger at Graff, his love for his sister Val, his fear of becoming like Peter, but you don't see how all this weighs him down over a period of years like you do the book. And I think for the movie, you needed to see just a little of this. You needed to feel Ender's fatigue from being put into constant simulations and battles. Instead of being too burned out to celebrate, he cheers with his toon after they win. Though I didn't mind this change as much. If you're not going to show his exhaustion, you might as well have him enjoy a victory with his friends.

This movie is like seeing one of your favorite TV shows turned into a major motion picture. You get all the essential parts that made the show special, but you don't get the extra character development and emotional beats that made these people come alive. This movie could have been an hour longer and it still would have felt too short. Perhaps Peter Jackson should have been handed the reigns instead. But in the end, what IS in here is gold. I just needed more gold.  I like gold.

 

WHAT ELSE I DIDN'T LIKE:
Freaking movie critics. I've been keeping close tabs on the critical reviews of this one, seeing if people remain fair and balanced in their reviews. I focused a lot on the negative reviews, to which there were a surprising amount. Some people who didn't like the film claimed that it "celebrates weaponizing children.." The Flick Filosopher called it "an endorsement of preemptive violence as a way of life." She also mentions that the film is very pro-war and its message supports our invasion of Iraq. Boy do these people not get it. Just because things are shown on screen, doesn't mean the movie is endorsing those things. Come on people, look deeper. As I said before, this is a story that studies the moral quandaries involved in war. Pre-emptive strikes, the indoctrination of children, the ends justifying the means no matter what...these are things that are meant to be discussed, they aren't lauded by the book or by the movie. What I've learned mostly from the critics is that liking this movie is mainly dependent on whether or not you get Ender. These and other critics call Ender cold, snot-nosed and an a-hole. One critic complained about he and Petra not kissing (which...no). If Ender doesn't work, the movie and all its themes doesn't work. Since I know Ender, I don't see these negative attributes. But I really must challenge myself here: can I understand Ender without my knowledge of the book? It's almost impossible to remove myself entirely, but in my heart of hearts, I believe I still can. All the elements that make his character complex, conflicted, tormented and tragic are present here, but to be fair, it's all very brief and subtle. The movie flies through Ender's story so quickly at times, it's hard for the small moments and emotional beats to sink in right away. Clearly this is a film that gets better with multiple viewings, since you'll be able to see these things better the more you watch. I plan on seeing it many more times. These critics should give it another chance. Maybe their opinions will change. Maybe not. The Flick Filosopher, commenting on the responses to her review, said, "if I have to read the book in order to understand the movie, the movie has failed." I agree with this, but I don't think it applies to THIS movie. Things aren't exactly overstated, but everything you need in order to understand the inner struggles of Ender and the themes of the story are indeed present in the film.




There are times when the world is in flux and the right voice in the right place can move the world. -Peter Wiggin. (book only)

The enemy gate is down and, sadly, so is the box office numbers. Summit entertainment unfairly opened this movie a week out from Thor: The Dark World and a few weeks out from its own Hunger Games sequel. Now it looks like this slick production won't see a follow-up. Thing is, you can study these box office numbers and boil it down to those negative movie reviews, or the boycott, but I just think the trailers weren't enticing enough for the uninitiated. And the book is much older than the other recent book-to-movie franchises to have the same hype. If I watch those trailers and I haven't read the book, it honestly wouldn't do much for me either. It would look like a Hunger Games and/or Harry Potter rip-off. I wouldn't know that Card's novel came way before either of these. I wouldn't know why I should care about Ender and his game. John Carter can relate. It's just too bad we live in a world where Twilight gets a ton of movies, Grown Ups 2 makes over 100 million, but Ender's Game will be a failure. It deserves better.

This isn't quite the house I'm used to being in. Rather, this is like moving into a one-bedroom apartment, but with all my belongings from my house crammed into it. Hard to see and enjoy everything, but at least it's mostly still here. In other words, this didn't turn out to be the greatest film ever made like I was hoping, but boy could it have been worse. Under another director or studio's hands, the book would have been thrown out the window in favor of big thrills and action. And though they do make this a big, shiny spectacle at times, the big moments are almost all true to the book. Could this have been better? Sure, but only by doing more of what they were already doing so well. (Please let there be a four-hour director's cut!) In the end, I'm happy this movie was finally made. It was a good time to make it.  The visual effects are fantastic, the production is first rate, the actors are perfect. It's a powerful movie that came from people who actually care about the source material. If only they could have gone duplex with Ender's Shadow. Oh well.  Can I make a home out of this small apartment? Absolutely. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm waiting for the final walls to get put up across the street (Warehouse 13) and I need to lobby for a new kitchen remodel (season 5 campaign for Enterprise)...

...Wow, I'm weird.

-Starbase 133

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