I realized, while watching the trailers for the upcoming Ender's Game movie, that I still haven't reviewed the book on this blog. I won't be doing a detailed review here, because it's been a while since I've read it and I want it to be more fresh in my mind when I do a full review, but I will comment on it a little in relation to the trailers.
I liked Ender's Game. The author, and some of the politics in the later sequels not so much, but Ender's Game itself was a great book. Very good, engaging Sci-Fi. Definitely a page turner when I first read it. So while my feelings about Orson Scott Card and his politics have soured a little bit since the first time I read this book I'm open to actually enjoying this movie!
As I said, it's been a while since I've read the book, but the trailers feel a little off to me. In the book we're seeing things through Ender's own mind with a few hints of what others are thinking and doing, it's definitely a book that relies on the POV to work. However, in the trailers everything seems to be so large-scale with spaceships and planets blowing up and showing off with graphics, etc. This doesn't feel like the book I read at all. The story I remember is much simpler, smaller-scale, and much more focused on Ender himself, starting with his struggles among his friends and family and his internal struggles and moving on to the conclusion. I don't feel the trailer accurately represents the feel and mood of the book in that sense.
I don't think it captures the message of the book either. Like so many recent movies/movie trailers it seems to be relying on explosions to give a sense of "epic scale." In a way, that gives off the message that explosions, violence, etc, are somehow epic or cool. If you've read the book you will realize that this is totally inconsistent with the message portrayed in the book.
While it seems to have failed to capture the essence of the story, the trailer also manages to give away far too much about the plot. For some movies this is fine/normal and I think people have grown used to a certain level of spoilers when dealing with the internet. The problem is that Ender's Game is a book that is very much made by the twist at the end. A twist which the trailers come very, very close to revealing. In fact, the second trailer seems to be trying to shove this up the audience's noses, which is... well, it's sad that they feel they need to do that.
Finally, I noticed/remembered, after watching the trailer a second time that Ender is an American character so Asa Butterfield (the British actor playing Ender) is going to have to do an American Accent for this movie. Must admit, it makes me a little sad that I won't be hearing his British accent... I enjoy British accents and I generally don't enjoy people trying to fake accents. Hopefully Asa Butterfield will pull the accent off smoothly because in every other way he seems to be doing an exceptional job. He's a great actor, as I've commented many a time in my Merlin reviews (he played young Mordred).
The trailers aren't the best, but I'm still hoping that the movie will turn out fine! What do you think of the trailers? Comment below!
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