Ender's Game Movie

Ender's Game has gotta be my favorite book, and I've read it more times than any other book, with the exception of the Book of Mormon.  So when I heard the movie was coming out, I was of course excited.  At the same time, I realized that most of the appeal I had for Ender's Game is the psychology of it-- most of the book takes place inside Ender's head, so I knew it would be very difficult to adapt into a movie.

When it came out, I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought they did a very good job.  While I miss certain parts, I understand why they did what they did, and there were just a couple things they could have done better.

Looking at it again to write this, I realize it's even better than I thought.  The themes are there throughout the movie.  The acting is fantastic, which is something hard to come by when you have child actors.  And even some of the changes they made from the book are good and actually work.

Some time ago, I watched on YouTube a CinemaSins video for Everything Wrong with Ender's Game.  What they do is go through movies and poke fun at the mistakes.  Usually good for a laugh.  But when I saw this one, I was like... "did they really not explain this in the movie?  ...Was it just in the book, and that's why I was not confused?"

I just ignored it, and went on with my life.  But then here recently I saw a video criticizing CinemaSins for being terrible.  That their jokes are terrible and repetitive, but not only that, but for most the time, they are just wrong.  And I get that they are trying to be funny, but if you are wrong, then the joke just doesn't work anymore.

So the remainder of this post, I'm going to address the "sins" they give for Ender's Game, and say my opinion as to why most of them are wrong.

Time Travel Movies

Time travel is my favorite plot device.  I remember watching Doctor Who as a kid, and Back to the Future is my favorite movie.  I’m always imagining what it would be like to travel through time.  Anyway, I thought I would make a list of all the movies that I have seen that involve time travel, even if pretty minor.  So here we go!

The Translation of the Book of Mormon

When one considers the language of the Book of Mormon, perhaps one thing that sticks out is that it uses all the thees and thous that aren't really used in our language anymore.  Some have suggested that the church provide a new translation with modernized language.  An April 1993 Ensign article says that the church is opposed to it, and gives as some of the reason:

When a sacred text is translated into another language or rewritten into more familiar language, there are substantial risks that this process may introduce doctrinal errors or obscure evidence of its ancient origin.

These are good and valid reasons.  It's certainly possible that one day the church will think these risks worth it, but not today.  One interesting thing to consider-- there have been changes to the Book of Mormon already.  I first learned it before or during my mission, and have recently been learning more about that process.  Joseph Smith made many edits to the Book of Mormon when it came time for later printings.  That's fine since he was authorized, but what if these changes obscured evidence of its ancient origin?  And what about copying mistakes?

Starting in 1988, Royal Skousen started a project to recover this earliest text.  This was a long and exhaustive effort analyzing all the manuscripts and printed editions of the Book of Mormon, and finally in 2009 he printed The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text.

His analysis is ongoing and he is still printing findings.  So what sort of evidence has he discovered?  In this blog post, I would like to summarize what he and others have found that sheds light on how the Book of Mormon was translated, and some surprising findings.

My Perspective on The Problem of Evil

The problem of evil is question that arises in philosophy/theology that basically says, “If God loves us and is all-powerful, why is there evil in the world?” This is the same thinking that leads people to ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

A couple weeks ago, I taught the lesson in Elder’s Quorum from Elder Anderson’s talk, “Wounded.” I think Latter-day Saints in general have a pretty good idea why bad things happen, so I did not focus on that and instead was more about how we react to pain and suffering-- by looking to Jesus Christ. But this is something I’ve thought of over the last several years, and I was thinking about this again this week, and so wanted to put it into writing.