Big Screen Breakdown: Ender's Game

The record will show that I'm not Orson Scott Card's biggest fan. I'm not talking about his politics (because I do not want to start that conversation on the internet), there's just something about his writing that I've always kinda hated. But given an opportunity to see Ender's Game in the theater on opening day with a bunch of friends, I figured I could set my prejudices aside for a night of fun and popcorn.

• Ender's Game was one of my favorite books when I was a kid, and I was surprised to find how much of the story I still remembered. I was pleased to see that the story made the transition to the screen intact... mostly.
• Roughly 3/4 of the book never actually makes the transition to the big screen. The actual "story" aspect of Ender's Game is intact, but there's precious little character development. Frankly, the movie suffers for it.
• Actually, there's not a whole lot of "game" in this Ender's Game movie. I wanted to see more of the war games - those were the best part of the book.
• At least they made standing around giving orders look pretty good.
• I really like Asa Butterfield, but I'd like to see him try to make something other than an angry face.
• Most of the cast is pretty good, given the material they have to work with. Hailee Steinfeld especially wows as Petra.
• Isn't Petra one of the tributes in The Hunger Games?
• Oh, there was a trailer for the next Hunger Games movie. It's looking pretty good.
• Oh, and then there was that trailer for the next Hobbit movie. Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies is the bad guy. SO excited!
• And then there's this other monster movie coming out, that's all about Gargoyles vs. Frankensteins. It looks amazingly awful.
• And then Keanu Reeves is playing a samurai, for some reason?
• Oh... um... Ender's Game... It sure was a movie that was based on a book that was a lot better than the movie that they made out of it.
• Verdict: ...Those trailers sure looked interesting.