Ender's Game (2013)
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Tarrant
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I'm not saying don't include more, but they do give details on why he was chosen. Should more have been given? Sure, but as it stands it was 2 hours long, not a lot of people are going to sit though a 3 hours sci fi movie, let alone anything longer.
Hell, Wolf Of Wall Street was fucking awesome but even that was pushing it at 3 hours. They can only do so much and I thought they did well with what time they had to work with.
Hell, Wolf Of Wall Street was fucking awesome but even that was pushing it at 3 hours. They can only do so much and I thought they did well with what time they had to work with.
chaos
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Right, they tell you a bunch of exposition rather than showing you hims being a greater commander than the others. The movie suffered because of that. Harrison Ford and the chick from The Help telling you "Ender is the one!" is not nearly as powerful as showing him consistently dominate. They give the impression that he participated in 2 mock battles and was then put in charge of the entirety of Earth's forces.
Kythik
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They should have included a good old 80's style montage. Instead I felt it was all due to him kicking the first boy while he was down. Some how they decided to focus on that and it was enough to show them he could do what they wanted.
The whole premise is off. Young people are better at precisely 2 things: processing speed and figuring things out on the fly. Commanding ability is gained from experience, not ones skill at playing tetris
Faith
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I think the "processing speed" was needed for the fight in the end? Certainly looked like it.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Hard to tell from the movie but it looked more like his big innovation was to go for the planet rather than the fleet. Guess nobody thought of that before?
Raes
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It wasn't conveyed as well in the movie as the books, and you have to suspend your disbelief a bit, but all they needed from Ender was the ability to use the Fleet in battle extremely well, and more importantly for him to think it was a game. So he would do anything to win, and not realize he was sacrificing actual humans with his crazy tactics. There's also the bit about being able to figure out where the Queen was by watching enemy ship movement, but it wasn't handled very well.
It's been a while since I watched the movie, but I think they also didn't touch on the fact that the ships that were used in the final battle against the alien homeworld were the first ones sent out, and were much less advanced than the rest of the fleet. Slower, crappier weapons, etc.
It's been a while since I watched the movie, but I think they also didn't touch on the fact that the ships that were used in the final battle against the alien homeworld were the first ones sent out, and were much less advanced than the rest of the fleet. Slower, crappier weapons, etc.
Kreugen
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They needed a genius mind flexible enough to combat the fact that buggers instantly adapted to tactics used against them. Which is why whathisface's victory was a one-time fluke.
Plus, someone who was aware that humanity's fate was in their hands probably would have cracked under the pressure.
What I was always confused about is why the Wiggun kids were all geniuses. Were they engineered?
Plus, someone who was aware that humanity's fate was in their hands probably would have cracked under the pressure.
What I was always confused about is why the Wiggun kids were all geniuses. Were they engineered?
Raes
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That wasn't the issue. The issue was that Ender had to be able to do whatever it took to win each battle. He thought nothing of sacrificing half his available ships (or all) to win a single engagement, because they were just game pieces to him. He had no idea there were hundreds of people (or more) manning those ships.
Tarrant
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It's suspected that the parents were part of a selective breeding program, hints are dropped throughout a few different books that this happened. They touch on it a bit when they mention in the movie that his parents were allowed to have a third after Peter turned out to a psychopath.
iannis
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From what I remember, and it's been a while since I read the book, it wasn't even so much hinted at. It was flat out explained that that's why Andrew Wiggin was even allowed to be born as a 3rd child. The children were engineered / bred for genius and while Peter was unsuitable for being too cynical, Val(?) was unsuitable for being too idealistic, Andrew was exactly the right sort of malleable. So he was the child genius, the centrist, the outsider, the everyman all in one. For the adolescent male audience that book was written for at least.
A real straight and unapologetic rip of Goldilocks. Card does that kind of thing.
His sequels get progressively more and more Mormon and moralistic. I've read a fair amount of his stuff and they're all morality plays. But at least he has the decency to frontload his series and some of his stories (The Worthing Saga comes to mind) are genuinely interesting on their own merits.
A real straight and unapologetic rip of Goldilocks. Card does that kind of thing.
His sequels get progressively more and more Mormon and moralistic. I've read a fair amount of his stuff and they're all morality plays. But at least he has the decency to frontload his series and some of his stories (The Worthing Saga comes to mind) are genuinely interesting on their own merits.
Kreugen
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I read the book two weeks ago. It never says he's engineered in any way, at least not in Ender's Game. Just that his parents had two kids that went into the program and didn't work out so they were allowed to have a third.
Logically, there had to be something going on for two ordinary people to produce 3 geniuses. It's just never mentioned. There's nothing about eugenics or genetic manipulation anywhere. There's nothing that says why his parents were able to produce the Kwisatz Haderach.
So I was just curious if it comes up in a later book since Ender is so impossibly intelligent and wise.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, the implant device also could have been more than just a monitor and more like something that enhanced development. Again, it's not mentioned, but it's logical.
Logically, there had to be something going on for two ordinary people to produce 3 geniuses. It's just never mentioned. There's nothing about eugenics or genetic manipulation anywhere. There's nothing that says why his parents were able to produce the Kwisatz Haderach.
So I was just curious if it comes up in a later book since Ender is so impossibly intelligent and wise.
EDIT: Now that I think about it, the implant device also could have been more than just a monitor and more like something that enhanced development. Again, it's not mentioned, but it's logical.
In the "Shadow" series that follows up the events of the Bugger War from Bean/Peter/Petra's perspective the Wiggin parents flat out tell Peter that the kids weren't genetically tampered with and that the parents themselves spent a lot of time pretending to be average so that they/their kids didn't have their lives completely consumed by Bureaucracy and the world governments. I guess they did a good job because both Peter and Ender thought they were completely moronic cattle.
Jorren
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Did not read the thread.
Just saw it and enjoyed it. So glad it did not turn into a 3 movie epic like the Hobbit. I've only read the first book and I think the second, but I am old and cannot remember.
My asshole room mate busted in mid movie, and said yeah he leads blah blah blah*. I asked her if she read the book. She replied "I read the Cliff's Notes". I threatened to kick her out of the house. (I would, but we have 2 months on the lease, so she will be gone anyway).
*She wanted to watch a Documentary. /irony
Just saw it and enjoyed it. So glad it did not turn into a 3 movie epic like the Hobbit. I've only read the first book and I think the second, but I am old and cannot remember.
My asshole room mate busted in mid movie, and said yeah he leads blah blah blah*. I asked her if she read the book. She replied "I read the Cliff's Notes". I threatened to kick her out of the house. (I would, but we have 2 months on the lease, so she will be gone anyway).
*She wanted to watch a Documentary. /irony