MovieChat Forums > Ender's Game (2013) Discussion > Suprisingly good movie - Once you get to...

Suprisingly good movie - Once you get to end

posted 9 years ago by SuperNewbee
15 replies | jump to latest

I don't really like child actors for some reason so I was not expecting much from this movie. They usually seem a bit annoying to me, but I continued watching anyways and ended up loving the epic ending.

I even felt some real sadness for the insect like alien survivor after the awesome final battle. I have to give the director credits for being able to make me feel empathy for a bug.

It is on Netflix right now so I have re-watched the epic battle a few times.

I did not know about the books, so I am curious now if the aliens retaliate or not.

[–] Blueghost 9 years ago

Once I got to the end I felt relieved that the movie was over.

It's children's scifi, which itself isn't bad, but Ender himself is the emasculated nerd who gets to beat up on a bully in one scene. Then shows how morally superior he is by promising to spare the insectoids civilization by getting to the bottom of the war.

And that's the thing. The reasons for the conflict are never explained, which is why this is such a brain dead movie.

It's like Earth and the bugs are fighting for the sake of fighting....and using F23 and F22s no less against a technologically superior foe.

I can write a better script, and make a better movie.

[–] Line-of-Flight 9 years ago

It is explained, actually.

[–] Blueghost 9 years ago

It isn't, actually.

Wars are fought over resources and money.

Here "the bugs" just show up and start exchanging blows with the humans.

[–] venanttout 9 years ago

You didn't pay attention do you ?

Don't blame other for your short span attention.

The film is inferior to the book, but it explains all the reasons (material, psycholoical and philosophical for the conflict.

[–] Blueghost 9 years ago

No, I saw the full movie from frame one to the end credits.

All the film had to say was "they wanted more ... X" whatever X was.

Fist you tell me it's explained, then you tell me it's in the book. We're talking about the film here.

[–] vladoots 9 years ago

In the movie, it's clearly stated that the bugs wanted both ”water” and ”a colony”.

If you watched it frame by frame you might have missed the sound entirely.

[–] Blueghost 8 years ago

Well, I must have missed that. All the more reason to blow them away.

[–] Bucko-2 9 years ago

Ender asks Ben Kingsley why and he said "water".
This bothered me a little because it's a classic sci-fi plot device. If only the aliens ever looked at the moons of Saturn or the Oort cloud, they could find all the water they wanted without ever bothering us.

[–] brucedgo 8 years ago

If only the aliens ever looked at the moons of Saturn or the Oort cloud, they could find all the water they wanted without ever bothering us.

I couldn't help but think of that, too. It was a pretty lame excuse.

[–] j_mcmillan33 8 years ago

Then write and make a better one. *beep* moron, grow the hell up. You're pathetically embarrassing

[–] AutoexecBatman 8 years ago

There is no need for anyone to write a better one because Orson Scott Card already did. The better one is a novel called 'Ender's Game' and its sequels which provide much better and more rational explanations than what were provided in this movie.

[–] karlbark-15988 8 years ago

This reply is, of course: Wonderfully succinct, witty and to the point - as the film itself.
(Enough said I believe)

[–] wlp325 9 years ago

I did not know about the books, so I am curious now if the aliens retaliate or not.

They do not retaliate in any of the subsequent books in the Ender's Game series...

Rest in peace, Roger Ebert. You were the best.

[–] thegoodthebad 8 years ago

I heard what the film was about and I had a little chuckle and I was going to leave it at that but then I ended up watching it with my younger siblings and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was an interesting plot if lacking in depth (don't feel like we got to know the characters that much and I found it hard to care abut them) but they had a lot to get through in a short amount of time. The ending was spectacular.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

[–] floppylobster-86-283328 8 years ago

It was kind of painful to get through, but when it finally did get to its point in the last half hour, I wondered why it couldn't have done a better job with everything that came before it. It was, in the end, an interesting concept and had some interesting themes and ideas. They were just presented terribly and the entire movie felt like it was holding back. Which it turns out it was.

A pity they did not plant some more of the ideas for the audience and weave the theme in more skillfully to give us something more to think about during the boring lead up to when it finally made its point. I feel like a better director could have made this into something interesting.