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.

1. 47 Seconds of logos

This is something that they add for most videos, and doesn't really make sense to me.  If they expect Hollywood to put out videos anonymously, they are in for a huge shock.

2. Philosophical reading

"When I understand my enemy well enough to defeat him, then in that moment, I also love him."  This sums up the whole point of Ender's Game.  I don't know whether the sin is that they have to read, or that it is philosophy, but it's a great message-- that we can love even our enemies by understanding them.

3. Enderation

Now they didn't like that Ender is narrating the backstory to the movie.  The book just starts out with Ender in school and you learn as you go.  That method can work, but generally when I watch a movie, I like to know what's going on.

4. It was forever known as the "Randy Quaid Maneuver"

We see Mazer Rackham flies up into a ship, destroying it.  Randy Quaid is the name of the actor who played Russell Casse who blew up one of the ships at the end of Independence Day.  His missile jams, so he flies up into the ship on a suicide mission.  His missile detonates inside the ship, which blows the whole thing up, which saves Area 51.  I'll talk more about this in Sin #86.

Although there are some differences, from a purely visual standpoint, they are extremely similar.  However from a critical point of view, is it something bad or wrong?  I don't think so.  Perhaps they wanted to evoke the imagery of Russell's suicide mission to make the audience think Mazer Rackham was dead.

Of course, it was 50 years ago, so you might think he was dead anyway, but a major plotpoint of the story is that the government doesn't always tell the truth, and this highlights that.

(As an aside, in the book, this took place 90 years before the beginning of Ender's Game.  There were actually two Formic invasions, and Mazer's victory was near the orbit of Saturn.  The book explains that Mazer is still alive because he was at near-light speed for many years.)

If we instead look at this comment from a humorous point of view-- the joke doesn't really work since Ender's Game is set in the future, and why would a manuever that Mazer did suddenly be named after someone that did it much earlier?  And why the actor's name instead of the character?  A better joke would have been, "Ah, the Russell Casse Maneuver!"

5. His one ship crashed into that ship and the battle was over?  If it's not that, it's water or germs.  We really underestimate aliens that have conquered space travel, don't we?

Having enemies with weaknesses is pretty normal for fiction in general.  It's as old as Greek mythology-- Achilles and his heel.  Interestingly, for many antagonists their weakness is the very thing that they believed made them strong.  Sauron and his ring.  Voldemort and his horcruxes.

We don't hear about what the alien's opinions were in War of the Worlds.  But perhaps they were so advanced, they had no concept of disease?  Being advanced does not mean you are invulnerable.

Water is presumably a reference to Signs.  However, next time you watch the movie, look to see if you see any space ships.  They are only implied to be aliens.  If you instead believe that they are demons and they are defeated by holy water, then the movie takes on a whole deeper meaning.

Aliens defeating the earth has been done in Titan AE, despite their weakness.  And maybe you would like this movie to be about that, but then it would be a completely different movie.

In both the book and the movie, we don't actually learn that destroying that one ship ended the entire battle.  They maybe could have hidden that better, but I imagine that's hard to do in a movie.

6. Awesome.  Because if you're not, we're talking about a REALLY short movie.

"And I am one of those recruits" seems a natural way to end narration and bring us into the movie.  I imagine having a REALLY short movie would have been the real sin.

7. Having a "the one"

The military follows a hierarchical structure and they are looking for someone to be the commander for their fleet.  Major Anderson immediately criticizes Colonel Graff for this line, saying "that's what you said about his brother."  Unlike, say, Harry Potter, anybody in this movie could end up being "the one."  Later in the movie, Petra says they were going to have Dink take over.  In the books, Petra took on a lot of the work, as Ender relied on her a lot.  In Ender's Shadow, Bean was Ender's backup.    I personally do not believe tropes are bad, but I disagree that this is really that trope.  Colonel Graff and Major Anderson are the ones who choose "the one."  They are just looking for someone who can be successful in the Third Invasion.

8. We were told just a minute ago that this program recruits the "smartest" children, so what did they see in this typical cliché movie bully?  If The Plastics show up in this thing, I'm out.

The Plastics is a reference to the bullies in Mean Girls.  The book does not imply that this school is any different from any other elementary school.  I actually didn't catch it when I was watching the movie the first time that it was a military school.  Given that none of the other students we see have monitors, I would venture a guess that Ender was hoping to be selected for Battle School.  These other student either failed at their chance or are hoping for a different military position.

Either way, this appears to be a generic earth-based military school for the International Fleet.  Ender's earlier statement was "The International Fleet decided that the world's smartest children are the planet's best hope."  Perhaps these smart children who are the world's best hope... aren't in generic IF schools, but up at Battle School?

9. What is the endgame, er... Ender's Game of telling him it won't hurt when it clearly will?  I know they want to see how he'll respond to getting kicked out of the program, but lying to him about the pain of this procedure?

This is the part where the book begins.  Ender remarks that adults only say that when it will hurt.  A big part of the plot of this story is that the adults lie and hide information from children.  This cements that theme from the very beginning.

10. We find out in a minute that the two bosses are watching this all go down and not stopping it, even though someone definitely could have been killed.

And someone was definitely killed. In the book anyway, but they hide it from Ender, and he only finds out at the very end.  From his point of view, Stilson could still be alive.  But yes, letting it happen was the point.  For two reasons:  They want to see how Ender reacts without the monitor, and they also want Ender to solve his problems, they never want him to think an adult is going to come in and rescue him.  That would totally destroy what they are looking for in a child commander.

11. But... presumably you bully dicks all still have monitors, which means someone's watching YOU, right?  I thought you had to be smart to get into this school.

No, they don't have to have monitors.  And since they assume no one is looking, we, the audience, should assume that they do not have monitors.  You have to be smart to get into Battle School, but not into this generic military school.

12. Ender will get in trouble for this, but he shouldn't.  He should get a medal.

Ender doesn't get in trouble for this.  In fact, he is congratulated and accepted into Battle School.

Ender's mother is incredulous.  "And he passed?  He put a child in the hospital!"  The book goes a step further, adding to the end of  of that line, "What would you have done if Andrew had killed him, given him a medal?"

Also, with this and many other sins, they like to swear, then bleep out the swears.  Personally, if I choose to edit something out, I just rewrite it so as to not include the swear.  They also only bleep out the F-bomb and the S-word, not any other curse words.  I don't care for swear words, so I decided to just edit them all out.

13. I've read the book so I know that "third" has derogatory connotations, probably to the point that polite society calls it the T-word.  But this movie never explains it.

Yes, I agree that movies should be able to stand on their own.  They explain what a third is-- that they needed to have permission to have a third child.  They do not explain that it has become a derogatory word, no.  Nor do I think it is really relevant to the plot.  But if movies should stand on their own, then you could argue that in this adaptation "third" isn't derogatory here.

I find it interesting that he says he has read the book.  Most of his complaints are explained in the book, but based on what he writes, all he seems to remember is third being a derogatory word, and then the twist at the end.

Those who have actually read the book will find more meaningful things to talk about.  Myself included, in all of these I have (and will) talk about how the book is different.

14. I mean... if she REALLY wanted to stop what was happening... couldn't she have just broken one or more of those panes of glass in the door?!

From what I understand, glass is actually really hard to break in real life, and easily breakable glass is just a movie trope.

I think this works better in the movie than how they did it in the book.  In the book, she wasn't frantic, but talked him down.  Panic is a more relatable emotion, so they put a door between them, and put windows in the door so you could see her face.

15. Also... this movie's been going for 7 minutes, and it's made up of 80% ass-beatings so far.

Spoiler alert, but the rest of this movie isn't going to change.  A big part of the plot of the story is dealing with bullies.  That's not a sin, that's the plot.

16. You mean they couldn't call first?

They could have, sure.  But they didn't.  Is that a sin?  I usually have to invite people over.

17. Okay, she should finish this by saying, with admiration, "And you, son, nearly kicked a guy to death."

Major Anderson's line they quote is, "Our final step is always to see what happens when the monitor's removed."  But you watch the whole scene, and that's exactly what they are talking about.  So adding a line of context to a conversation that already has the context seems unnecessary.

And actually, Major Anderson didn't really approve, but look at Colonel Graff, he admires Ender for putting Stilson in the hospital.  In the book, we later learn that Stilson died.  This information was hidden from Ender, so it's entirely possible he dies in the movie, too.

If he was going for a joke answer by going to an extreme, then he should have gone to an extreme that didn't reflect the reality of their conversation.  Like, "She should finish this by saying, with concern, 'but why did you fail to burn the body and destroy the evidence?" or something like that.

18. So... you must have been REALLY certain that the bullies would confront him afterward in order to get that information, huh?  You've got, what... a few hours to make that determination before he goes home and you can't monitor him anymore?

Because they've been monitoring him, they see what he sees, hears what he hears.  Since they are adults, it's not hard to predict what children are going to do.  They were bullying him pretty bad even before the monitor was gone.

And even if nothing happens, it's not like they're going to stop watching him.  They can watch him tomorrow or the next day, assuming they are school days.  And actually, in the book, they were actually wanting to see what happens with Peter.  Their external monitoring apparently isn't restricted to just the school.  But it definitely isn't limited to the few hours remaining before he goes home.

19. Also, It's almost like Harrison Ford took his Branch Rickey character from 42 and just continued it here.  He wants the guy who has the guts NOT to fight back!

I hadn't seen 42, so I went and watched the scene to understand the reference.  The problem is that here, Colonel Graff here wants the guy who has the guts to UTTERLY DESTROY his enemy, so... it's kind of the opposite character?

20. Why is he the last person onboard this ship?  It's not like they recruited him while all these others were waiting, right?

Yeah, it's clearly not like that.  He came with Colonel Graff, so it's definitely his fault.  Indeed, it might have been on purpose to further separate Ender from the others.  This doesn't happen in the book, instead everyone arrives and boards the ship at the same time, and Ender's "otherness" is described by how he is thinking about gravity while the other students are talking and laughing with each other.

21. Ha ha ha. This is the most egregious example thus far of the "you're late" problem in Hollywood screenplays.  There is no authority relationship between these two and literally no consequence for the tardiness.  Just mindless chatter to fill time.

Ender's Game has a lot of story to cover, they don't need to "fill time."  So why add this scene in?  Probably to show how Ender got off on the wrong foot with the other students, and how Ender is a decent human being trying to make the most of a bad situation?

And just because there is no "authority relationship" doesn't mean you can't be upset.  People get angry at others on an airplane for being late despite the lack of authority relationship or any meaningful consequences.

22. Your name is BEAN and you had the audacity to mock another person's name?!?! You suck.

Yeah, okay, this one I can agree with.  Not only does it not make sense, but it doesn't even fit Bean's character.  In the book, Bean doesn't show up until Ender is commander, and the movie needed to compress everything, so they introduce Bean here.  They want to show how little others think of Ender at the beginning, so they put it in.

Thinking about it, here's how I would do it-- play the scene out exactly the same, but have Bernard sitting nearby turn and deliver that line, "Ender?  What kind of a name is that?"  Then have the scene play out the same-- the Ender shrugs off the laughs of all the other students and again asks Bean for his name.

23. This society has solar-panel-launched rockets and genetic prediction abilities, so... other than zero gravity, why would the battle school need to actually take place in space?  Why can't you train these even simulate zero gravity with your future technology?

Judging by all the fire coming out of the base of the rocket, I doubt that it is a solar-powered rocket.  But yeah, they do have futuristic technology, so probably a fair question.  Even in Battle School, they use rotation to simulate gravity.  The only anti-gravity technology we see is in the Battle Room:  the "stars" are stationary and fixed in mid-air, commanders have a "hook" to move students around, and there is gravity in the hallway just outside the battle room, despite being connected to it.

Perhaps the future technology is too limited to fully simulate zero-g, and therefore battle school would need to be in space.  There are also other potential benefits. The International Fleet seems keen on separating students from their countries.  Space is also hard to escape and go back home.  Maybe they want people immersed in the environment they will be working in?

24. Antigravity vomit.  Antigravivomit?

Yes, if you vomit in space, it will float.  Maybe it is a sin with more description-- in the book, students were told not to eat anything prior to launch.  When they get into space, one student heaves, and Ender realizes why they weren't allowed to eat.  But I suppose in the movie, it would be difficult to tell what was happening without the vomit.

25. This is what the military refers to as "painting the target."

Yes.  And that's a big part of the plot of the movie-- isolating Ender.

26. WHAT?! Why does your Neo Commander need to be isolated?  You are literally guessing but passing it off as fact, considering you've never done what you're trying to do.

They answer why he has to be isolated in the quote you gave:  "He must never believe anyone will help him."  Are they literally guessing?  Have they never done what they are trying to do?  Battle School has been running for decades.  Colonel Graff is an old man.  Mazer Rackham towards the end of the movie tells Ender that he isn't the first.

27. While I understand that they're reacting this way because Harrison Ford singled him out, don't all these kids know the pain of being bullied because of their intellect?  Weren't they challenged much like he was?  Don't they know everything is a test at this point?

They are smart, but they're still kids.  Ender didn't know the Fantasy Game was a test.  Being a bully is more about a desire for power.  It's about showing that you are stronger and others are weaker.  It's even about how the environment they were raised in.  Smart people can be bullies too.

And you should probably learn Colonel Graff's name before you embarrass yourself at sin #71.

28. So they left him this last bunk by the door, but somehow saying his name into the voiceprint thing at this bunk unlocks it ... and all the stuff inside the locker is going to fit him perfectly?

This is explained in the book, but you are supposed to figure it out from context in the movie.  Touching the locker and speaking your name registers the locker as yours, and then the computer encodes it to be your locker.

It's interesting that the Launchies had a conception that he back of the room was better, but they later learned the Battle School tradition of putting the leaders up front.  Although no one knew it at the time, Ender was already a leader.

29. Weren't all these assholes already in some sort of military academy before they made it here?  This isn't boot camp.  They know better.

Well, Ender was.  Bean said earlier he grew up on the streets.  And is this not boot camp?  Later in the movie, Colonel Graff says, "Of course he's feeling pressure, Anderson!  This is a boot camp for kids that are gonna have to face a real enemy!"  And then, do they know better?  I'm not so sure.  Ender trusted Colonel Graff earlier, and was surprised to find that he wasn't his friend.  Who is to say these other kids know better than Ender?

In the book, the tone of this scene is completely different.  This isn't boot camp.  It's battle school, and it's military and people call authority figures "sir" but that's about it.  Dap is friendly, he tells jokes, it's like he's a completely different character in the movie, but I think it works well.

30. [genders remain separate] North Carolina

I think you'll find most people are fine keeping boys and girls separate.  And these are children here.  But I suppose this is a joke because of the then-current events.

I think this line might have been in response to the book, where everyone was together all the time, and students were naked every other chapter, so it's like they're saying, "we're not having any of that."  For which we can all be grateful.

31. And it comes with great power--oh, wait, I messed it up, didn't I?

Colonel Graff:  "A great responsibility rests on each of you."

Yes, you messed up the quote from a completely different move, which doesn't really work here.  But poorly told jokes are a sin, apparently.

32. Kids in Battle School are subjected to the beginning of Ender's Game.

Now that we've seen it twice, we as the movie audience can understand that this is a piece of propaganda.  So when it comes up again, we empathize with him being disappointed at seeing what appears to be the same thing again.

33. Also... is this video of the guy who blew himself up edited like a Hollywood movie?  Did they find feeds from everywhere like the people who made Chronicle did?

They probably didn't "find" video everywhere, but rather they apparently record everything.  As in, they record everything intentionally, and then, yeah, edited up like a Hollywood movie.

34. 10 minutes is barely enough time to even wake up.  I know this is some kind of military or whatever, but the entire movie they keep waking people up 10 minutes before important stuff.

Yep, it's the military.  How dare they consistently do militaristic things!  In the book, they often put Ender at an unfair disadvantage by giving his opponents more time to prepare.  But that's war for you.

35. Why build 90% of a face shield?  If you're going to go to 90%, why stop there?  Do you need to let in air?  If you're going to leave part of it open--presumably for air--why not just shield the eyes and call it a day?

It's a design decision.  Yes, humans need air to breathe.  Why shield the eyes and not the rest of the face?  I'd argue the 90% is intentional to provide protection from zero-g collisions.

36. I just realized this movie is a lot like Starship Troopers, or that Starship Troopers is a lot like this book, or something.  I'm not sure if there's a sin here, but I'll add one just to be sure.

There's not a sin here.  It's okay to have two stories about a space military fighting against a bug-like alien.  And even if it was not okay, the story for Ender's game was published first.

37. [I can't move at all now!] Sounds dope!

Yeah, realistic freeze tag does sound awesome!  Not a sin!  Then again, in the book, when you were frozen, even the helmet would clamp down on you, so you couldn't speak, either.

38. Yeah, let's insult your recruits before you ever give them any idea what was going on.

Yeah, that's the military for you.  In the book, it was Ender and Alai who figured out how to freeze people, then they went and got their friends Shen and Bernard and together they froze all the other students, who complained that it wasn't fair.  Dap pointed out that they had their suits as long as anyone else.

39. And this game will somehow prepare you to pilot massive space warships against other massive warships.  Just go with it.  And yes, I know they're looking at leadership and tactics, but still... tons of easier ways to observe that kind of stuff.

Not really.  This is directly applicable to the training they do at command school.  Getting used to attacking in 3-dimensional, zero-g space.  Which in turn is directly applicable to the war.

40. So it's like the Snitch in Quidditch and it makes everything else you do essentially worthless.  Great game!

Yeah, they should have explained it this way instead:   "You will train to compete as a team against other teams.  A hit to a limb will freeze that limb, but a hit to the torso will immobilize you completely.  If either side gets one cadet through their enemy's gate unharmed, that army will win.  Teams and players will be ranked based on wins and hits:  one point for a hit to a limb, six for a torso hit.  Am I clear?"

In the book, they didn't explain any point system, but they did say how players were ranked on their hit ratios.  But actually since they took out how there was a player ranking system, there really was no need to give a point system at all.

I suppose they wanted to paint an image that a game typically involves sides freezing each other, and once one side is disabled, then they go through the gate, never before.  In the books, they needed five to win-- four to place their helmets at the door, one to pass through to win.  Winning in the books meant freezing or disabling everyone on the other team.  Passing through the gate was seen as something as a formality, not as a golden snitch.  When Ender pulls his stunt to pass through the gate before freezing everyone, the opposing commander is confused at first as to why the lights turned on.  Then he realizes that carrying out the victory ritual is victory.

41. Emailrration.

As I said at the very beginning, the story of Ender's Game takes place mainly in Ender's head.  One of the difficulties with adapting it to film is: how to we find out what he's thinking?  Writing an e-mail to home with a voice-over seems a perfect plan.

Nobody wants to just read the e-mail, and we would lose a lot of the story if we didn't have Ender's thoughts in front of us.

42. Ender would be amazing at CinemaSins, and it's kind of crazy that this incomplete story got this much traction over the years without a great many people questioning it.

In the book, Ender looked at lots of videos that were published throughout the years in trying to understand the Formics better.  All the public was told is that Mazer Rackham was a genius strategist.  There's nothing really about that story that seems questionable.

In Battle School, the other students are mostly focused on winning in the Battle Room.  Ender wanted to know the Formics better, and what strategy Mazer used to defeat them.  He was told when he went to Command School, and that makes sense as that's where Ender would need to know that information.  Before then, the military wished to keep that the Formics had a queen a secret, since they could not be certain he destroyed their queen.

43. Wait a minute... didn't Ender make a buddy when they were in the antigravity chamber a minute ago?  Is this a thing? Nerds who shun other nerds?

Yes, nerds shun other nerds all the time.  And yes, Ender made friends with Bean, but Bean is friends with Bernard, and Bernard is kind of the self-appointed leader.

They changed things around from the book.  I like that they introduced the battle room earlier, since that's the big exciting feature of the Ender's Game story.  In the book, on the shuttle, Bernard was hitting Ender, and Ender grabbed his arm, but in zero-g that meant Bernard got swung around and he broke his arm.  That's why he didn't like Ender, and another part of why Ender was isolated.

The scene with the message on their desks happened first, then the battle room.  The book has Ender make friends with Alai (Bean shows up later) and it describes the battle room as the changing event that shifted power from Bernard to Alai being the leader of the group.

44. This seems like something that they would have been told, like, the first day.  What benefit is there NOT to tell them?  I feel like this scene was put in so that Harrison Ford could get his mandatory "I'm surly" scene in and fulfill his contract.

In my last comment, I was actually thinking about how great this scene was. This was original to the movie, it's not in the book.  This was the book's version showing the shifting power as Ender maturely responds to Graff and stands up to Dap.

They don't tell them, but that's a theme of the story—adults do not tell everything, and they keep secrets.  In the book, they never tell them, they just figure it out from their lack of replies.  This scene brings that fact forward and Graff has to admit it.

45. Pushup-shadowing... Pushadowing?

This is the fourth sin that is just the guy combining two words.  2/4 don't really fit and he questions himself.  Personally, I love how Dap comes to recognize Ender as worthy of respect.  This scene has a deep contrast with the one where he salutes Ender.

46. I'm confused as to how these other smart kids got into the program if they couldn't solve this "simple" problem. If getting through the first leg of the training is so difficult to get into Battle School, how do only 3 people pass this test?

The students are in Orbital Mechanics class.  The teacher says of their simple problem that "it's basic rocket science" and is of course a movie joke for us in the audience to get.  Turns out that orbital mechanics is difficult even for really smart children.

47. I mean, seriously... this is the type of thing that threatens an entire movie's credibility when jerks like this can get into an elite school that the movie has tried so hard to tell us is impossible to get into.

Nearly impossible.  They are looking for intelligence and leadership skill.  We are told they avoid extremes in aggressive or passive personalities.  Ender murdered a kid, do you really think they'd keep someone out for being something of a jerk?

48. I love how this classroom apparently has a class-wide anonymized chat application running on all these computers.

In the book, it's not anonymous, but Ender figures out how to change the signature to show a different name.  It probably would have taken too long to explain it in the movie, so the kept it anonymous.  However there is the teacher's reaction, "If you can't take it, Bernard, don't dish it out" is perfect.  She clearly knows he sent the first message so the same message the book had is voiced in a single sentence.

49. It's working! They're plan to make Ender into a leader by berating him, punishing him, and blocking his emails to home is WORKING! Yay! Everyone likes Ender now! And the shunning's still cool!

Yeah, it is working.  Ender solved his problems himself, he did not go to a teacher for help, he worked with Alai in the Battle Room, defended him in class, and stood up to Dap in front of everyone.

50. Jesus, don't they have headphones at Battle School?

Apparently not, no.  Is it really surprising that a school that thinks "privacy" means "privately think whatever you wish" is going to have headphones?  Besides, I think I would find silence in a movie scene where the actor is playing a video game pretty boring.

51. Holy Christ, that's horrifying!  Why would a game developer--in a game where your actions are supposedly to choose one of two cups--even program in a combination of buttons to allow this?  Was there no option to just eat the cheese?!

When the game began, the computer voice said, "Cerebral control enabled."  So the game is apparently not controlled by a combination of buttons, but by Ender's mind.

Even in the movie, the mind game is clearly an incredible piece of programming.  I'll go into other details in sin #67, but the Mind Game is able to reprogram itself and meet its objective for student and computer to create stories together.  Major Anderson describes this later in the movie.

52. I'm sorry, but you can't play baseball like this.  Any kind of well-struck ball will hit the ceiling immediately.  And later we find out the Battle Room is open 24/7.  Why not play this game in the awesome antigravity chamber, since nobody who runs this ship cares what you do with your free time?

I agree with this one.  Who would want to play baseball in the corridors, and where did they even get the baseball and bat from anyway?  This scene is not in the book, and I personally don't think it adds anything.  Perhaps it was meant to show how they are a united team, or something?  In the book, this is more the sort of thing I'd expect from Rat army.  (Which is also where we meet Dink.)  Since they cut out Rat, maybe they wanted to still have a scene with people goofing off, and this was what they came up with?

53. Also, Bonzo must have thrown quite the fastball for Dink to be THIS late on it and hit straight to Ender, who's constantly making dramatic entrances in this movie.

I don't know much about baseball, but I'm assuming he's talking about how Dink hit the ball down the hallway Ender was walking up, to the side instead of straight in front of him.  Of course his complaint isn't actually about Bonzo's fastball, but about the dramatic entrance.  I'm not sure I'd call Ender's other entrances this movie "dramatic" but okay.

54. Trade?  The way this training center inadvertently creates some kind of sports league is baffling.  He's in charge of a squad, even though he's still just a cadet.  But he can, as a cadet, immediately trade away another cadet the bosses personally assigned to his squad?  Is this like, a sign-and-trade kind of deal here?  Is he worried about the salary cap?

Bonzo is a commander, so yeah he does have authority.  And what you call a "sports league" is intentional.  Everything in this school is a test.  As he explains in surrounding lines, Bonzo lost one of his seasoned players and he received Ender, who has never been in a battle before.  Bonzo is hoping to get promoted so he can go to command school, of course he's concerned, he's worried about winning the next battle.  Colonel Graff promoted Ender, but it's not like he had to be in Salamander.  I'm not sure Graff really would have cared which army took him.

55. HOW did Ender's custom team uniform make it here before he did?  He played the game, they decided to promote him, and he walked straight here.  The uniform department in this place deserves a raise for how on top of it they are!

When Colonel Graff promoted him, the message was delivered by someone else.  So presumably they would have also had to tell the people with the uniforms.  Why not tell the uniform people first?  Yeah, I know, not very plausible.  But all they do is slap the name tag on, and you're good to go.

56. Why does she even do this?  Like, yeah... maybe she's just trying to be nice to the newbie, or she like, LIKE likes him, but since Bonzo told him to do noting when they get into the chamber, what good is this practice?  Does SHE know Ender is going to be the Special that defeats Lord Business?

It's because Bonzo told him to do nothing that she wants to practice with him.  Petra is also an outcast, being one of the few girls in Battle School, so it makes sense that they become friends quickly.  It's not because she knows he's going to be a great commander, but because she is a decent human being.  They are in Battle School, and everyone needs training, so if not from Bonzo, then why not Petra?

And it was just one practice.  Even in the book, it's just the one, then he uses his free time to practice with his old launch group, and whoever else is willing to join him.

57. I realize you need antagonists in a movie, but this guy's an absurdly big bully.

 Wait until this bully tries to kill Ender.  Ender overcoming bullies is the plot, so you need a big bully.

58. What the, 10 minutes?!?!

 Yep.  War isn't known for letting you sleep in.

59. Look, I'll grant the fact that salamanders are predatory animals, but they don't exactly strike fear into me when I hear their name.  Are you telling me this hyper-violent society that fosters violent cadets is going to end up on "Salamander" for a mascot?

I don't think it's supposed to strike fear.  It's just an animal mascot.  In the movie, we only really saw Salamander, Leopard, and Dragon.  In a later scene, you can see other armies on the ranking board:  Salamander, Leopard, Rat, Dragon, Centipede, Griffin, Condor, and Asp.

In the books, we saw Rat, Phoenix, and Rabbit as important armies.  I don't know that they are supposed to strike fear into people when they hear their name.  I'm not sure that it is a "hyper-violent" society-- it's just military society, which happens to desire more violence than outside society.  Even if it was, I'm not sure a hyper-violent society requires everything in life to strike fear into others.

60. The movie will sin this for us, but what an extraordinarily stupid maneuver this is.  I mean, your solution is to make one BIG target, where the opposing team doesn't have to be all that accurate when they shoot.

I don't know what they mean by "the movie will sin this for us," but the strategy is that Dink and Fly protect Petra.  And it works.  The only reason it fails is because a frozen soldier physically crashed into them, breaking up their formation.

-1. I mean... this movie isn't beloved or anything, but it's stuff like this that make it passable.  I'd take action scenes this clever using actual thought and tactics, over 99% of the action scenes I see in movies today.

Yes, this was such a nice scene.  This is how I felt during the whole movie.

60. But also... one session with the girl and suddenly he's spinning spacesuit Jesus with the gunplay?

Yeah, since this was a movie they had to cut out a lot from the book.  The battle shown is actually compressing a couple different battles together, so you don't get to see how Ender progressed over time.

In the book, Ender initially followed orders, hanging back.  They lost against Condor even though Ender was never frozen.  The next two, Salamander won.  Then in their fourth battle when Salamander was about to lose to Leopard, Ender was the last survivor and shot enough enemy soldiers to prevent them from winning creating a draw.  Then, when he was in Rat army, after Rose learned Bonzo lied to him, that Ender was actually insubordinate, he sent him flying to the enemy gate immediately, intending a suicide mission (opposite, but as ineffective as Bonzo)  Ender fired down toward the gate through his legs as they were coming out.  Before he could get frozen, he threw his arms out, and the arm with his gun was able to freeze some more before he got frozen.  Rose didn't expect him to do so well, and now armies jumped out of the gate as soon as it was opened.

So anyway, it's not so much that Ender is all of a sudden fantastic, even in the movie you see him getting shot repeatedly there at the end.  It's unfortunate they cut out the progression, but it's understandable.  The point of this part of the story is that Ender is put into terrible situations, but he is able to make the most of it, and turn things around.  Part of that is because people underestimate him-- Bonzo because he is inexperienced, and the other team because he pretends to be frozen to get behind them.

The real sin here is that Ender isn't falling toward the gate feet-first.

61. ALSO also, this Salamander team was like 22-0. The only reason they're losing right now is to give Ender a reason to show off.  And the only reason the movie gave them an unbelievably perfect winning record is to somewhat justify the bully!

 Yeah, they didn't need to give them such a winning record.  In the movie, Bonzo said, "My army is undefeated in the last 21 battles."  In the book, he instead says, "We have won twelve of our last twenty games."  I think they wanted that dramatic moment in the movie when Dragon surpasses Salamander for the top spot.  In the book, Salamander was at around fourth.  Which is still really fantastic-- the movie does a poor job at telling just how many people are at this school.

That being said, it's still understandable why Salamander is loosing-- they are a man short.  It's reasonable to assume what is only explicit in the book that they lost one of their better people.

The book says that Leopard was led by a new commander, and so actually wasn't that good.  But they had some good tricks, and even though Salamander was winning, they felt like they were losing, which then caused them to lose.

62. Wait, he was watching the action that closely from THERE?! He can't see ANYTHING from there!! Why not use video monitors instead of glass windows really far away?!?!

I don't know, but it seems like Colonel Graff enjoys watching from his quarters, despite not being able to see anything.

63. Could she want him any more?

Petra and Ender are platonic friends.  They are children who don't have interest in each other that way.  So yes, she could, but I'm glad she doesn't.

64. Somehow allowed to happen by all the adults in this place who spy on everyone all the time with cameras.  I'm getting a little tired of how intentionally ignorant these adults are with the bullying that goes on at this academy.

They aren't intentionally ignorant.  They know what is happening, and they allow it to happen.  This is the point of the movie—Colonel Graff even said it earlier, "He must never believe anyone will help him."

65. She doesn't look anything like Abigail Breslin.

They are inside a video game, so it isn't supposed to look perfect.  But I think she looks like Valentine.  Go back to the beginning of the movie, and they seem pretty identical to me.  I also really wish this guy would use the character name instead of the actor's name.  Maybe he's saying the character doesn't look like the actor, which... who cares?

66. Video game substitutes for a dream sequence, where we're sure to see Voldemort at some point.  Yep, confirmed.

Except it's not a dream sequence.  They share the similarity that it represents the psychological state of the main character.  The difference is that the mind game represents a very real obstetrical for Ender to overcome.  The real sin is that they erased the game and cut from the movie the part where Ender actually does overcome the obstacle.

And yes, Voldemort and snakes are the same thing, even if it's a red cobra, har har.

67. The only reason the game is doing this, as we later learn, is because the stupid aliens are trying to use telepathy to communicate with him.  A video game doing this is impossible.  So the sin [for this is (spoken)] [is for the fact (text)] that she casually chalks it up to psychological pressure instead of a goddamn miracle of the software!

It's not a miracle of the software-- as she explains "The game is a thought relationship between the child and the computer.  Together they create stories."  That is the purpose of the program, and it is designed to rewrite itself to do the job.  Psychological pressure is why the game decided to choose Peter's image.  She doesn't know how.

In the book, Colonel Graff talks to Major Imbu, who is apparently over computer systems at Battle School.  He delivers the line Anderson gives in the movie, and then explains that the Battle School computer is part of the IF network, and if the mind game determines that a picture is necessary, it can just go take it.  He also explains that the mind game is designed not to tell them why, and so it may not know itself.

Anyway, even without alien interference, although it is doing unexpected things, it's doing what it was designed to do, it's not a miracle.

68. We've only seen him in the battle room for official matches once.  We have, however, spent a lot of time in a stupid video game where a White Walker makes him drink poison and his brother is still a jerk.

The mind game is where the real story of Ender's Game takes place.  But yeah, I think they should have shown his progression, but I understand why the movie did what they did.

69. His commander, actually, has a habit of being a douche.

Ender replies "I find it hard to respect someone just because they outrank me" which I see as saying the same thing, but with military tact.  Just what you'd expect from someone ready to command and earn that respect.

70. I mean... did you ever give those uniforms to anyone who COULD win a battle?  Is it because you're superstitious about Dragon Army, or because you never put people in those uniforms who could succeed?  You know, the Red Sox and Cubs operated just like this for 86 and 108 years before they realized there was no curse, just teams that weren't capable of winning.

It's because the students were superstitious about Dragon Army.  And you are watching Colonel Graff give those uniforms to anyone who could win a battle.  I'm sure movies about the Red Sox and Cubs would make great movies, too.

71. F--- you, Harrison Ford's character whose name I refuse to learn! Those uniforms cannot possibly fit everyone on whatever team you're putting together. Stop trying to cover up the fact that this facility has the fastest and most capable seamstresses alive operating under a dark shroud of secrecy!!

In the book, they don't fit everyone.  Bean is small, even for his age, and he becomes a soldier younger than normal students, so he had a lot of trouble.

Being unable to learn Colonel Graff's name when it is right there on the screen in the scene you say this makes you look like an idiot.

72. Wow, isn't that amazing? These "misfits" they gave Ender just happen to be people he knew from his training squad. Like, his best friends, even.

Well, two best friends and one bully from his launch group.  And one friend and one of Bonzo's lackey's from Salamander.

But yeah, of these, in the book there was just Bean and Fly, and this is where he first meets them, and he really didn't know anyone.  I understand why they did this-- no one wants to be introduced to a ton of new characters halfway into a movie.

I think it's interesting that Bernard has something of a redemption arc in this movie.  In the book, as with all the other bullies in the movie, Bernard never amounts to anything.  The last you see of him in the book is that he becomes one of Bonzo's lackeys, and is one of the larger kids he brings with him when he confronts Ender in the shower.  In the movie, Bernard instead becomes one of Ender's reliable soldiers.  It makes a good message that even bullies can change.

73. Oh well. Whatever gets Hailee Steinfeld on my team is a good thing.  But, like... hope that ankle is okay, jeez... looked like that hurt.

Yeah, I think it would have been more interesting with Petra on Salamander fighting against Ender.  Of course, in the book, she was commander of Phoenix army at this point, so had nothing to do with this battle.  He actually did fight against her, but they don't go into much detail except that it was unusual to fight on consecutive days, but he won, and she was upset about it.

74. You know, if you give Ender a shade on this window, he doesn't have to get woken up by moonlight and sunlight every 45 minutes.

The International Space Station orbits earth every 93 minutes.  This looks a bit higher up, so probably longer, but still a good point.  One of the books says that it was built at the L5 Lagrange point in orbit around the earth, which is way out there, trailing in the same orbit as the moon.

75. What kind of logic is that? This is your very first game as Dragon Army, right? They don't know what to expect AT ALL, but surely they think you know SOME formations, since that's a part of the game, right?

The previous scene showed Colonel Graff watching a battle from his office as he talked with Major Anderson.  She was watching the army ranking board and Dragon moved up to 3rd place, surpassing Rat.  This is not their first battle.  We don't get to see their other battles, but we know they have had them.

76. Not according to the rules of the game.  It's a point-based game UNLESS someone breaches the other side's gate.  Otherwise, it's points based on leg shots and torso shots--I was paying attention--and his team has shot 12 of your soldiers and you've shot ONE of his.  Ender wins on points.

I already said that they should have done the points differently, or removed them.  It's not a point-based game, it's a go-through-gate game.  Points were irrelevant to the movie.  In the book, hit ratios mattered for individual ranking, and may have contributed to team rankings.  Ender does have to go this way if he expects to win.

The movie here is actually combining two different battles from the book.  One with Salamander, where they were given a head start, and they surrounded the gate.  The other with two armies at once, Griffin and Tiger.

77. With all these kids getting hit at once and becoming immobile, would they still be able to hold their positions in this formation?

Yes.  In fact, with them becoming frozen, they would be able to hold their formation even better.  In the book, Ender would often have people freeze themselves to hold the position that they wanted to be in.

78. Salamander won 22 matches in a row, and after this one match, Dragon goes to first place.  Why were they even in second place?  Did the movie cut all the times that they played before this?  I mean, yeah, we saw them briefly training a few minutes ago... I guess... but were they in actual competitions?

Yeah, they were in actual competitions, and we know because we saw them move up to the number three spot at that time to surpass Rat army.  It's just implied that they fought and won against all the others in order to get to that level.

But yeah, it should have shown them in the number three spot still, and surpass both Salamander and Leopard at once.

79. I'm not saying put cameras in the showers... I'm just saying... this facility has live-feed video surveillance of its cadets, but somehow lets every single bullying and beating occur with zero interference.

They probably do have cameras in the showers, they do in the book.  The teachers are aware of what is happening, and they intentionally are not interfering.  This is the point of the story.

80. Because kids and horses are so similar.

 And Major Anderson responds with, "You really don't see them as children, do you?"

81. [I've had a lot of fights, Val] And that's just in the last hour!

I think this is a joke about how we're an hour into the movie.  Ender's talking about all the fights he's been in this movie.  I don't see this as a sin, that's the plot of the movie, nothing wrong with a lot of fights.

82. [training starts in the morning] I'm confused as to what we've been doing so far.

They've been travelling to Command School.  Before that, Ender was relaxing on Earth.

83. Because he's the guy you and the viewing audience are familiar with. He's really the only guy we have, to do whatever job he does.

Dap isn't the only guy, but yeah it does seem out of place.  In the book, you never see Dap again after Ender joins Salamander.  The only time he is mentioned after that is when he filed a report to Colonel Graff's superiors expressing concern that Bonzo was going to try to murder Ender.

84. Ah, Gandhi!

Mazer Rackham is, of course, nothing like Gandhi.  Gandhi was all about peaceful resistance, while Mazer was all about destroying the enemy completely.

85. Oh come on, Ender, You're a smart kid. You know Mazer Rackham didn't drag you into the video room to show you the same video. This is the Director's Cut.

He's also a smart kid knowing that adults haven't been honest with him his whole life, and to not trust them.

86. And I wrote the script to Independence Day on the way down.

I talked about some of the differences and similarities back in Sin #4.  The only similarity is that a ship is destroyed.  In Independence day, they first uploaded the virus into the mother ship, which brought down the shields on all the city destroyers, and then people were able to fight them and destroy them.

In Ender's Game, destroying this one hanger ship killed the queen that was controlling the entire Formic fleet, causing them all to die.

I think the video they've been watching this whole movie should have shown the other hanger ships nearby so it would be more clear that there's no reason that destroying the one large ship meant victory.  In the book, Ender had to piece together a bunch of different videos to get at what we see in the propaganda video.

87. Luckily, I was nowhere near any of the thousands of ships that should have crashed into me like a bad Dave Mathews Band concert.

I guess the joke is Dave Matthews have a song called, "Crash Into Me."

88. So the aliens are hive-minded and that's why all of them died after Mazer killed the queen.  Seems like a species this advanced wouldn't have such a glaring weakness in their defenses, but that's how you make killin' aliens, when you should have no chance in hell, easy.

Imagine the reverse, one EMP pulse renders us all useless?  Wow, you wouldn't think that a species this advanced would have such a glaring weakness in their defenses, but that's how you make killing humans easy when you should have no chance.

The Formics were coming to set up a colony, and so needed to bring a queen.  They obviously did not anticipate to be attacked, and they were destroyed.

89. What?! When did she get trained to do that?! That seems like a healthy coincidence to me!

They did it while Ender was hanging out on Earth by the lake.  It's not a coincidence, they just said that!

90. Okay... since when do all these people know all there is to know about THIS simulation?  The last we saw Ender, he was conquering a futuristic version of laser tag, and learning basic military strategies. But now, at the drop of a hat, he and his buddies know all the capabilities of this thing? Maybe I missed the training montage

The last we saw of Ender was him resigning Battle School, going back to Earth, and hanging out by a lake.  Valentine convinces him to go back.  When he arrives in Command School, Bean says, "While you've been skinny-dipping, the Colonel's been flogging us to death on the simulator!"

Ender just issues commands, he doesn't really need to know how it works.  To him, it is just otherwise a very large computer monitor.

I think the way they did it in the movie was great.  In the book, he spends time learning the controls, then he is finally given a different computers, he finally learns his friends are there, and he issues commands from a different room.

91. I'm not sure that actually answers the question, though.

"Sleep deprivation is part of your training!" seems an appropriate answer to me.  He explains that the Formics aren't going to wait around and let them sleep, so getting them used to it in training is better than experiencing it the first time in a real battle.

92. Or... Is it?! Dun dun DUN!!

I like that they have these things in there for after you've seen the movie or know the twist it takes on new meaning.

93. Pocket Hailee Stinfeld.

Her name is Petra Arkanian.  And video calls are not a sin.

94. NOTHING he's done so far demonstrate this, but whatever, suddenly-rapidly-approaching-the-climax movie.

There is a principle in visual storytelling, "show, don't tell."  But how do you show that Ender has empathy for the Formics?

How about the last scene, where he was speculating that Formics could "think" to one another and what if we could "think" to them?  At this time, we only see one full battle, then half another.  He certainly shows his empathy after he wipes them out.  Which is precisely why they never tell him it's not just a game.

95. WHY would you wake up your most valued recruits in this way?! Why not just give them a time and let them set an alarm?  What is it with this movie and waking people up MOMENTS before important events?!

This obviously frustrates the guy, but this is war.  War doesn't run on your sleep schedule.  It doesn't run on a timer.

Ironically, in the book, this is the one battle where Ender was able to sleep in.  Some of his soldiers had collapsed from sleep deprivation.  Ender did, too, and after that was just battling and sleeping.

96. Well... that... happened.  I have no idea what it was, but it happened.

I see a bunch of flying ships.  I'm not sure what the guy is confused about.

97. Considering the reveal we're about to get, it's absolutely stunning that the people in charge don't tackle Ender during this maneuver.  This is gambling the entire fleet--something that they know, but Ender doesn't know.

That's why they have a child who doesn't know it's real in command of the fleet.  An adult would never think of it, and anyone who knew it was real would never consider doing it.  That's literally the point of the entire story!

98. Also... is there any indication as to why they needed kids to do this? And even if they believed kids were better suited because of their video game capabilites or whatever, why were there restrictions on having a third child? Seems like a society that goes all-in on children running the military would ask parents to have as many children as possible.

 Yes.  Colonel Graff explains why they needed kids to do it at the beginning of the movie.  He said, "Young people integrate complex data more easily than adults."

Mazer Rackham referenced the restrictions on children when he said, "Like us, they appear to have a population growth rate that's unsustainable."

99. Harrison Ford! Ben Kingsley! A screenshot from The Core!

I don't think it's unusual to show the faces of characters who are talking.

I haven't seen The Core, but I understand that it takes place in the core of the Earth, not in a space battle.

100. See, here's where the movie fails. If one has read the book, and knows how the story ends, then the entire movie is a lie, and one knows it, and it can't help but keep one from truly experiencing and enjoying the ride. It's the rare example where a book's twist is so great that the movie ends up being pretty much made solely for people who never read the book.

I disagree.  The twist is great, but that's not the point.  Sure, adults lying is one of the themes of the book, but knowing what they are lying about doesn't change the fact that they are lying.  The twists at the end of each Harry Potter book doesn't make those movies unwatchable.

And it's like... even though I've read the book, I keep reading it again, it's that good.  Actually, I was spoiled about the twist when I was a kid, even before I read it, and I enjoy it every time.

The reason those who have read the book didn't care for the movie was more about all the other battles and parts of the mind game that were cut out.  Ender really struggled in Battle School and Command School, and you only really get a taste of that.  Of course, I understand that it's a movie, so they had to cut a ton out, but it's that facing and overcoming trials that makes for a great story.

-5. BUT that being said... it's a great reveal. This should stand as one of the greatest reveals no matter the medium, so we will remove 5 sins.

It really is the greatest reveal of all time.

96. Yeah, but why? I know Ender is special, but there's no reason to think they knew about him--and they never tried it with other candidates because Viola Davis told us those images had never shown up in the game before. And if they were trying to communicate, whey did they do it with a mix of dreamy imagery to the point that he couldn't discern a real message? OK, OK, maybe it was a first try and they needed to iron out the kinks, and then the asshole humans deleted the game before Ender could go further. Seems like the telepathic communication should work without a confusing video game mixing up the message.

The program is capable of writing itself, so even without alien interference, there is going to be dreamy imagery where they can't discern what it really means.  The message was there, though, and it was a simple one:  A landmark marking where Ender needed to go, where he could find the hive queen chrysalis.

So they don't explain why the Formics connected with the mind game in the movie, and that's because they don't explain it in the book.  But they do explain it later on in the book series.  Here you go:

The queen is able to communicate with her drones at faster-than-light speed.  Scientists discover philotes, the fundamental building block of matter.  They are one-dimensional and are capable of transmitting information faster-than-light.  This is how the Formics communicate, and humans are able to use these to construct the ansible to also communicate faster-than-light.  This is all explained in Ender's Game.

In later books, we learn that there are also philotes between living beings, and each living being has an aiúa, an intelligent philote.  The hive queen explains that new queens reach outward with their philotes, not just toward their queen, like the drones.  She says they weren't looking for Ender particularly, they were looking for someone like them-- like we sometimes do, they assumed all life was like them and were hoping to contact whoever the hive queen for humans was, a central mind controlling a bunch of drones.  They didn't realize that for humans, everyone is basically their own hive queen.

But humans, and all living things do have these philotic connections between them, just not in the same sense as the Formics.  So they found Ender in the center of this strange, unfamiliar philotic web.  And unlike the other humans, but much like a hive queen, Ender's was reaching outward, his connections searching for the Formics.

The hive queen describes not as finding Ender, but as Ender finding them.  His imagining them was really calling them, and what he did unintentionally with his philotes the Formics do instinctively, and are able to recognize it.

They were hoping to communicate with, or even control Ender, but his mind was far too different, far too chaotic.  But he was focused on the mind game, and had a connection with it.  They were able to comprehend the pattern in the connection between Ender and the Fantasy Game, so they called out and placed an aiúa in the connection.  This is instinctive to Formics, and is how new hive queens are formed, though they had never attempted it in this way before.

This is what they called the "bridge" and it aided with the Formics understanding of Ender, and of humanity.  It was only then that they realized there was no hive queen, and that everyone was their own individual, and they decided to not send another colony ship.  But by then, it was already too late.  But they leave the message and the bridge relays it to Ender through the game.

Over time, in his travels, the hive queen becomes able to better communicate with Ender.  The bridge eventually grows into Jane, who introduces herself to Ender as his financial manager, neither aware of her origin.

97. A Formic queen stayed behind on this planet after all the other Formics retreated to another planet, and managed to live long enough to keep a future queen and the survival of the species intact.  And, luckily, discovered a child who could interpret the video game sequence as communication. Deus Ex Formica.

A Deus Ex Machina is something that appears suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently unsolvable problem.  Everything for this scene is set up before hand, it didn't arrive unexpectedly.  It's not contrived, it seems natural and fits in with the rest of the story.  And it doesn't really solve the problem.  Billions of Formics are still dead, all that's solved is the continuation of the species.

It would be like a movie about the Krypton and Kal-El was saved at the end before Krypton is destroyed, then calling it a Deus Ex Machina.  That's not at all what that means.

Colonel Graff said earlier in the movie, "we took it from the Formics 27 years after Rackham's victory."  Since the beginning of the movie said it that was 50 years ago, that puts this as 22 years ago.  Is 22 years really an unreasonable time for an alien to manage to survive?  Mazer Rackham managed to survive 50 years after his victory, is that not more surprising?

Even if Ender didn't interpret it as communication, I think it reasonable for him to look out the window and be reminded of the Fantasy Game and think, "huh, this is really strange, how about I investigate!"

In fact, that's how it happens in the book.  The timeline in the book is much longer-- it's 50 years after the battle, and there is no Formic queen remaining, protecting the cocoon.  It's a pupa, location can be protection enough.   In the book, the Formics built the location to look like the game, not the other way around.  A dead giant, playground, cliff, and castle tower.  It was the location that was meant as communication, as a "look over here" sign from a species that had no spoken or written communication.

---

Overall, I'd say the main flaw in the movie is that because it was a movie format, a lot got cut out, and one of the most important aspects was Ender's character growth.  He really struggled as a soldier, which could only have been shown with more battle and training scenes.  He also really struggled mentally, which could only have been shown with more scenes from the mind game.  I understand why they cut those parts out, but it's the overcoming those challenges that make the story what it is, so cutting it out makes you lose that part of the story.

The other themes are still there, the dishonest leadership, the need to overcome your own challenges without looking for an adult to save you, showing compassion for your enemies, those sort of things, so I like that.

On the nit-picky side of things, I've talked about how they should have portrayed the rules for the battle room, and the propoganda video.  The only thing I haven't talked about is the ending.  The book is very clear about slower-than-light space travel.  Command School is in the asteroid belt, on Eros.  After the Formics are destroyed, Ender and Valentine go on a colony ship to the nearest Formic world.  In the movie, they cut out Eros as being the Formic forward base and go straight to a Formic planet being a forward base.

But to do that, we'd have to ignore the countdown earlier in the movie that showed the IF fleet almost at the Formic home world.  Or we would have to ignore the slower-than-light speed thing.  I also find it disappointing that he leaves Valentine behind.  Her leaving Peter to go with Ender is one of the touching moments in the story.

Interestingly, the credits say Edrick Browne played "Eros Tech Officer Hendee" even though there is no Eros.  It's a movie, so they needed to speed up the timeline, so I understand why they did it.  Mentioning "Eros" in the credits to me is like them saying, "we know, sorry about that."  Probably not intentionally, but I can take it that way.

The desire for an Ender's Game movie has existed for a very long time.  I remember reading about 20 years ago that it would actually make a good anime.  I agree with that, a series of episodes would give the story the room to expand out the rest of the story.  An animated story would also help with the problem of needing child actors -- Ender is six at the beginning of the book.

Maybe one day, that fuller story will be told, and I'll look forward to it.  But until then, I am happy with what we have.