Ender's Game Comparison
By: Brittany and Isabelle
PLOT
What was the same?
- The movie had all the characters that were in the book
- The technology was perfectly shown
- Most of the time, the movie was in chronological order of the book
What was different?
- Setting (battle school, command school)
- Scenes didn't match up (Bonzo dying and Ender knowing about it, didn't govern a colony with Valentine, Peter and Valentine didn't do any online writing)
- Everything was sped up and this lost some detail that was in the book (Ender became leader of army, kids supposed to be untrained and strangers to him)
- The movie showed that the Buggers were controlling the games better than the book did
Movie Command School
What we thought it looked like
On top: flat, dusty land
What we thought it looked like
Inside command school: it looked like underground tunnels in an ant hive
Evaluation
Overall, the plot matched fairly well with the book. We realize the movie can't have everything the book has, because then it would turn into a 10 hour movie. That's why the movie sped up the plot and changed some things. Such as, Bean being introduced earlier in the movie, and canceling the part in the book where Peter and Valentine write things on the internet. If they would have added Peter and Valentine's doings in the movie, it would add a lot of time, and non-book readers would be confused.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
WHAT WAS THE SAME?
- Valentine was sweet, Peter was cruel, and Ender was a bit of both
- Movie kept the fact that the leaders were manipulating the kids and were even the enemy
- Some characters were perfectly how we imagined (Bean, Bernard, Ender's parents)
What Was Different?
- A lot of characters were not at all how we imagined (Bonzo, Graff, the Buggers, Anderson, Ender, and Mazer Rackham)
- Because they sped the plot up, we couldn't see relationships develop (Ender and Alai, Peter and Ender)
- The movie created a semi-romantic relationship between Ender and Petra
Evaluation
Overall, we think the movie could have done better with the characters. This happens a lot in movies though, because everybody interprets characters in their own way. Also, the movie added some things that didn't relate to the book at all. Such as, Mazer Rackham's tattoos.
theme
What was the same?
- Always look to peace
- Friendship
- Trust
What was different?
- Ender wasn't as humble as he was in the book
- He wasn't always trying to be in control of himself
- Isolation (the teachers didn't isolate Ender as much as they did in the book)
Evaluation
Overall, we think the themes in the book were mostly transferred well throughout the movie. They had the most important themes and even added some of their own.