About three weeks ago, I watched Ender’s Game in theaters after reading the book first. Basically, it’s about a smart and compassionate young boy named Ender Wiggin who is chosen to help fight an alien race called the Buggers, or Formics, who have attacked Earth, twice. In preparation for the next attack, Colonel Graff, Major Anderson, and the International Fleet (IF) are training only the best young minds to save the world. They need the right balance of violence and compassion, and they need to be smart and know many different battle strategies. Arriving at Battle School, Ender is easily known as the best, and eventually wins respect from his peers. Ender is soon promoted to Command School and is trained by Mazer Rackham, the original hero to Earth. He is trained to, unknowingly; lead his fellow soldiers into a war that ends up saving the human race.

In the movie, some people missing were Shen, his friend in the Lauchies with the wiggly butt; Rose the Nose, the inappropriate commander of the Rat Army; and Abra, the boy that Ender went exploring with on the bugger world in the end of the book. In the movie, they completely left out the concept of Locke and Demosthenes, meaning they left out all the parts of conversation between Valentine and Peter. I think they did that just to get to the point of Ender?s story. They left out the part when Ender broke Bernard?s arm at the Launch, and they made Bean his friend from the start. They left out going into the Rat Army, and they modified his Mind Game, leaving out how many times he died. Another thing they left out was Command School and how he went a little crazy locked in his room and playing the simulator. Like I said before, I think they did that to just get to the point of the story. Most of the things they left out were maybe just suspense and enhancement to make the story either more interesting or more drawn out. In the movie, they didn’t say pinprick and farthead as much as they did in the book, and limited the violence that was in the book, probably so they could make it PG-13.

In my opinion, the book was better. Even though most of it was very confusing and I was very lost, it was much more detailed, and for the most part, I understood the general story. The movie left out many important parts that enhanced the story, yet somehow made what was left of it easier to understand. In many cases, the book is always better than the movie because the book is awesome in itself, and the way the movie portrayed it ruins the imagery that the reader might have had. This is how I feel about the movie. I had a mental image from what the book told me, and the movie was a lot more different. Just in general, I think the book was better. But that?s just my opinion. What do you think?