Ender's Game

[David Jimerson]

While not having read the books... despite buying it before the film actually hit theaters... I did perceive the progression of minor 'irritation' to 'awoken at 3:01, and battle to already in formation groups'... as 'making things difficult if not impossible' and trying to get Ender to 'wash out'.

He wasn't trying to get Ender to "wash out," though. What he was trying to do was actually mentioned, though so briefly, and so en passant, that it's no surprise you didn't connect the dots. He was trying to isolate Ender, make him feel utterly alone and totally self-reliant, prove to him that the universe was going to cheat him and hard, and hone his instinct to win at all costs. He didn't want Ender to wash out. He wanted Ender to reach his potential.

 

[David Jimerson]

Funny - hearing that and now knowing that, I agree. Partly because I've had that with other movies where it irks me how they cut some of my favorite stuff, and partly because I enjoyed the movie so much that I would have gladly sat through another hour. And at the same time, without knowing this background, I still thought the movie was great and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Anyways, just a thought. No point. I'll leave it open

Like I said, what was THERE followed the book fairly well. You might have loved it MORE had they put more meat on the bones.

 

[filmguy123]

Like I said, what was THERE followed the book fairly well. You might have loved it MORE had they put more meat on the bones.

Definitely! I wish they would releasedan extended cut of THAT... instead we just get extended cuts of The Hobbit... which should have a special "trimmed edition" for Blu Ray instead. But I digress..

 

[ugafan]

i wish i could have been one of the scientists in that movie.

me: sir, don't you think we should have more than one molecular disruption device? i mean we literally have thousands of other spacecraft that do practically nothing, but with one shot from this device we can destroy their entire planet and instantly win the war.

harrison ford: look egghead, i don't have enough xbox controllers or children to operate more than one of those weapons.

me: children?! what about all the soldiers?

harrison ford: i've strategically placed them on the transport ships within targeting range of the aliens. i've given each of them a camera so they can video tape what's going on.

me: okay, i quit.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

i wish i could have been one of the scientists in that movie.

me: sir, don't you think we should have more than one molecular disruption device? i mean we literally have thousands of other spacecraft that do practically nothing, but with one shot from this device we can destroy their entire planet and instantly win the war.

There were only 2 atomic bombs that were 'battle ready'. In one case, "Little Boy", the process had not been tested prior to the drop... in the other case, "Fat Man", while it had tested 'once' at Trinity, there was a question whether it would behave the same, since Trinity was not really a 'bomb', that is dropped from a plane, detonated at a predetermined altitude... At Trinity the 'bomb' parts were mounted on a 100 foot tower...

As for the actual drop of Fat Man, after finding that the primary target of Kokura was in cloud cover, and smoke covered from near by conventional bomb runs on another target, and the possibility of a japanese counter attack rising...
---
Sweeney then proceeded to the alternative target, Nagasaki. It too was obscured by cloud, and Ashworth ordered Sweeney to make a radar approach. At the last minute, the bombardier,[41] Captain Kermit K. Beahan,[40] found a hole in the clouds.
---

As I recall neither of these planes had an escort of any 'fighter' planes. (a quick search of the internet does not yield any info...) There were several planes in the bomb group, one carrying the bomb, two for 'analysis' of the bomb explosion. As it was the Nagasaki run only had Bockscar carrying the bomb, and The Great Artiste for analysis, the 3rd plane failed to rendezvous.

I don't know if Orson Scott Card had 'any of this' in his mind when arranging the battle with the 'new wonder weapon'...

 

[Gillvane]

It was so fast and rushed that the story had little impact. The other way to go, besides glossing over everything, or making it a 3 part series like Jackson has done with a relatively short story The Hobbit, would be to pair it down so you had time to cover the elements you kept adequately. That wouldn't have made fans of the books happy, but it would have made a more solid movie.

 

[Barry_Green]

i wish i could have been one of the scientists in that movie.

me: sir, don't you think we should have more than one molecular disruption device? i mean we literally have thousands of other spacecraft that do practically nothing, but with one shot from this device we can destroy their entire planet and instantly win the war.

harrison ford: look egghead, i don't have enough xbox controllers or children to operate more than one of those weapons.

me: children?! what about all the soldiers?

harrison ford: i've strategically placed them on the transport ships within targeting range of the aliens. i've given each of them a camera so they can video tape what's going on.

me: okay, i quit.

See, but again, this is just wrong. There were plenty of Little Doctors in the original story. The only problem was, when you used one, the enemy figured out what it did and wouldn't group their ships close enough to allow the little doctor to be used effectively again.

Which is why the final battle against the planet was staged the way it was, with an absolutely impenetrable (or so they thought) ring of ships, so that the little doctor would never get close enough to the planet. And the horror put in the character of being a xenocide, he'd never want to use it as such. And the utter desperation at seeing how profoundly the odds were stacked against him (because, at that point, we're still to believe that this is a "simulation", and that Mazer Rackham is just cheating), to the point of where Ender's spirit breaks, he says "to hell with each and every one of you", and he does the unthinkable. Not because he thought it was the best strategy, but because he's had enough and he wants it all to end and he figures if he does something so horrific, they HAVE to leave him be.

But, of course, none of that comes through in the movie. Instead, it's "we have this device, we'll use it against the planet. Yay, we win."

Totally sucked all the power out of the story.

 

[David Jimerson]

See, but again, this is just wrong. There were plenty of Little Doctors in the original story. The only problem was, when you used one, the enemy figured out what it did and wouldn't group their ships close enough to allow the little doctor to be used effectively again.

Which is why the final battle against the planet was staged the way it was, with an absolutely impenetrable (or so they thought) ring of ships, so that the little doctor would never get close enough to the planet. And the horror put in the character of being a xenocide, he'd never want to use it as such. And the utter desperation at seeing how profoundly the odds were stacked against him (because, at that point, we're still to believe that this is a "simulation", and that Mazer Rackham is just cheating), to the point of where Ender's spirit breaks, he says "to hell with each and every one of you", and he does the unthinkable. Not because he thought it was the best strategy, but because he's had enough and he wants it all to end and he figures if he does something so horrific, they HAVE to leave him be.

But, of course, none of that comes through in the movie. Instead, it's "we have this device, we'll use it against the planet. Yay, we win."

Totally sucked all the power out of the story.

Well, one of the changes they made, for unknown reasons, also kind of took away from the desperation Graff felt. The "formics" or "Buggers" had invaded Earth TWICE, not just the one time, and everyone talked about the looming "Third Invasion." (Which, of course, ended up being the Earth attack on the formic homeworld, not another invasion of Earth.) Gave more a sense of "kill or be killed" than it simply being a retaliation for the first attack, especially as they seemed to be saying in the movie that the formics realized their mistake from the first attack. Two invasions would have put the lie to that.

It was a minor change that affected the story less than I might have thought, but it was a change.

 

[ugafan]

i've only seen the movie, haven't read the book. maybe some important details were left out, but..

how did no one discover the queen during a game of flag football or ultimate frisbee? say david overthrows the frisbee and it lands in the cave and barry has to go get it. after a few minutes the guy with the tattoos all over his face is like, "geez, what's taking barry so long? let me go check on this." so tattoo face goes in after him, sees the queen and then is like "holy crap, it's the queen! RUNNNN!!!!"