Ender’s Game: Film and Book Comparison

Ender’s Game. The exploration of the ‘game’ of war as played by incredibly smart and talented children. Yes, children.

My father and roommate were both interested in this film when we heard it was coming out. My father really enjoyed the books as a young man (and still does to this day) and my roommate was excited about it. I had never read the books, never even heard or really considered Orson Scott Card’s works in any shape. But I do love a good sci-fi story and I love stories that have real heart to them. And I have a passion for film adaptations of books.

So my first step was to read the book. Let me just say, Orson Scott Card is an incredible writer. All at the same time, he had me loving and hating Ender, disgusted and thrilled at the games, intrigued and frustrated by the politics. This book is so complex and yet at the same time, it is so simple. And now, after watching the movie, I feel it caught that simple idea.

Now I literally went from book to movie. I finished the book during a break at work in the morning, and came home and watched the movie in the afternoon. So pardon me, because both are kinda fresh in my mind, but yet neither strikes me as being better or being terribly different. There are differences. Please note that spoilers will follow to fully illustrate my points.

The first major difference is Ender’s age. In the book, Ender goes from a 6 yr old boy to a 10 yr old defeater of the buggers (term the book used). In the movie, it seems that Ender is set up from day 1 as a boy of about 12, I would guess. He’s not as young as in the books, which actually has several film related practical reasons. 1. You only have to cast one person in the role of Ender if you make him almost into puberty. 2. It makes more sense to condense down the timespan. For the film, I think the age of Ender worked, especially since everyone else was also around his age. But that is a big change, so change 1.

Next is the time span. The events of the story spread across 4 years in the book. In the movie, I kinda got the impression that only about 1 year tops passed. I could be wrong, seeing as they did skip past most of the dull, tedious stuff in the school and such in the film. But that was my impression. On one hand, this is a big deal. One doesn’t get the full feel for Ender and his friends or get to see all different kinds of relationships that they built in the book. However, it does keep this from being a six film series (not that they shouldn’t consider one day making a mini series or tv show from this). And it keeps things moving in a way that doesn’t leave us totally hating Ender before the end. I’m not saying that you can’t have a good film and hate the lead, but it usually doesn’t work that way. And for this film, the filmmakers needed you to fully emphasize with Ender when the screen came up at the end and he realizes that he has fully wiped out the Formics and has been fighting a real war with these games. And realizes how much he has been lied too. So I think for the film, it worked.

Also, we don’t get any of the political stuff played out by Valentine and Peter on earth while Ender is training in space. Which would make a whole film on it’s own (that is why this would make an amazing mini series), yet would 1, take away from Ender’s story and 2, make the film REALLY long. I am sorry we missed out on the political stuff, but for the story the filmmakers chose to tell in the movie, it would not have quite fit in like they needed it to.

But what I found most interesting is that in both the film and the movie, the idea that there is this boy who is being turned into this amazing weapon and losing his own humanity. He always fights to win. Yet in the fight to win, he starts to lose himself. Who he is, the control he has over his own choices and life. That concept, expressed differently in both mediums, is still there and is what gives the power and intrigue to Ender’s Game and can help to explain why it has lasted as long as it has.

 

Overall, I would give Ender’s Game the book a rating of 8 stars. And the movie, I would give a rating of 7 stars.

Costumes – Completed

Halloween has come and gone.  All the candy, the excitement, and the costumes 😛 .  If you recall (and even if you don’t), I was making some costumes for my younger siblings: Han Solo, Luke Farm boy, and a Mirkwood Elf.  After a good deal of work and pain, I actually got them completed, along with a set of Jedi robes for myself.  Since I last posted about costumes, I also completed a classic Leia gown.

So, pictures 🙂 .

Recreating the original artwork pose

My farmboy

Ain't he handsome??

You don't mess with the Han 😉

My Nabooian Jedi, stage 1

And the other kids had costumes too, but I didn’t make them.

The Indian maid. Mom made this costume.

Lady Luck in all her glory. She made her costume, with some help from Mom.

The dreaded Alley Cat

And someone will think I’m crazy, but there is this musical called “Romeo et Juliette: De Haine de A’lmour” which is about Romeo et Juliette and one of the dancers/background singers has this totally cool costume that I’m going to make some time 🙂 .

This is a costume from a musical that I can't wait to make.

So yep.  And I’ve been slowly work on a Susan dress for a girl, and I really need to finish it.  Right now I’m stalling cutting out the lining and modesty top for it.  I need to just do it 😛 .

What Makes a Good Movie?

What makes a good movie? What ruins a movie?

I think that it only takes a weakness in one part to make a  movie not great, but if you flub up in one particular spot, it will trully suck.  For the purposes of my breakdown, I’m considering four sections of filmmaking: Sound, Visuals, Characters, and Story.

SOUND

Everyone will tell you as a filmmaker that sound is important.  And it is.  If you can’t hear the film or the music is off, then the experience will be ruined and people won’t like the film as much.  So this is an element that can take a film down from Great to just decent.  But it doesn’t break the film.

VISUALS

The visuals are what you see, the picture.  This section covers everything from cinematography to costumes to lighting.  This is a very, very important section because movies are just that, visual.  If your camera work sucks, it will be hard to have people like the movie.  If the lighting is bad, they won’t be able to see the characters or get what is going on. Costumes help define characters and give clues to the subtext.  So it is possible to completely ruin your film with bad visuals.

CHARACTERS

This is a spot I think you have to careful with.  Characters are the reason we are going through the story.  If we don’t like the characters, there is no reason for us to like the movie.  If the characters (espeically the star character) are completely unreachable, then the audience is going to have a hard time caring about what happens in your film.  Just what will happen.  So if your characters suck, there is a great chance you WILL be ruining your film :P.

STORY

Hehe. My favorite subject.  This is the place where I think you really CAN ruin the movie.  If the story is boring, guess what. Your film will be boring.  I’m kinda speaking the choir here, because we all know this.  But there is something else that we kinda forget.  If the WHOLE movie isn’t interesting, then it won’t be as good as it could be.  If even one section of the film (like the midpoint, climax, or between) is boring, then the film won’t be as great as it could be.

So, after writing this, I’ve decided there are several spots where you really can mess up your movie.  Visuals, Characters, Story, all these places you can really, really mess up your movie.  Maybe later I’ll talk about how to improve those areas and keep them from being too bad 🙂 .

Phoenix Christian Film Festival – Day 4

Today my dad and I had lunch with some people from church before heading to festival.  They recently shared their 50th wedding anniversary and were really happy to see us.

Then we went and saw “In A Blink of an Eye”.  It was an interesting take on the rapture story.  Very interesting, thriller take on it.

Right after that was “Lifted“.  I knew nothing about this film, but we decided to stay and watch and BOY am I glad we did!  This film was nothing sort of amazing!  The emotional ride it takes you is cathartic and enjoyable and completely entertaining.  Everything about it was wonderful, the kid who was the main character (and had this AMAZING voice), the adults, the sets, everything.  The film is just amazing and I’m very interested in holding a screening of it at home if I can 🙂 .

Then we just kinda wandered around films till the evening, when Stephine Carillio’s film “The Measure of a Man” was shown.  WOW!!!  Great film and great job, Stephine!!!!  I am so pleased with the film and it was a great film, even as a documentary.  I loved it and was very pleased.

Tomorrow is “Entrusted With Arrows” and “Breaking Man” and “A Christmas Snow”.  Should be a good day 🙂 .

WELCOME!

Welcome! I’m so excited to be able to share some of my writings with you!

Who am I? I’m Tabitha, writer-wanna-be and up-coming producer. I love to tell stories and have for many years. When I was seven, I would narrate what I was doing as I played outside, usually with some big dramatic story behind it. As I got older, a lot of my imaginings revolved around princess and royal weddings and kings and knights. I have always had a passion for historical work, from American Girl to Lord of the Rings to King Arthur, I love it all! One day I want to write and produce a feature film set in the Medieval era and one in the Western era. I have the stories, they just need to be fleshed out and made whole 🙂 .

I love meeting people, people from all places and who do all sorts of things.  I hope one day to get a database started with all the names of people I’ve worked with to encourage others to work with them and so that they can work with each other.

I am also a devote follower of my Lord, Jesus Christ. I accepted Jesus as my Lord when I was about 6 years old and spent the next 14 years learning about Him and learning what a walk with Him looked like. I’m still not sure what it really looks like, but a very foggy picture is beginning to form in my head.

Please come back! I will have lots to talk about on here and I hope that we can start some good conversations on here as well!