Ender's Game | Teen Ink

Ender's Game

November 22, 2013
By Lahela Rosario BRONZE, KEAAU, Hawaii
Lahela Rosario BRONZE, KEAAU, Hawaii
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Ender’s Game, Written by Orson Scott Card, talks about a 6-year old boy who get recruited to into battle where he will train to fight against the buggers. Ender Wiggin was the main character for the book. In the movie, Asa Butterfield starring Ender played him exactly as the book had described him. He had that emotional connection. He didn’t cry as much as the book explains he did. He only cried a few times. The director probably needed to cut his crying scenes before it turns into a 6-7 hour movie with him crying most of the time. Peter Wiggin is a strong and very out going person. He gets what he wants by forcing them to do it before he hurt them. That’s how he usually got things from Ender. Jimmy "Jax" Pinchak played Peter Wiggin, and although his looks didn’t seem to match what I thought Peter would look like, his attitude surely matched. He conveyed that strong, and tough attitude Peter Wiggin had in the book. Valentine Wiggin, the sister of both Ender and Peter is a compassionate girl stuck in between an older brother who loves to hurt people, and a younger brother who wouldn’t want to hurt anyone by choice. In the movie, played by Abigail Breslin, she played Valentine perfectly. She protected Ender a lot, which is what she does in the book. When Ender leaves his home and goes on the ship to go to battle school, he met a few more people. Colonel Hyrum Graff was the main person that brought Ender to battle school. Colonel Graff is a wise, yet tough man. He knows a lot about the battle school, and knows what is better for everyone, even though they think it’s not good. Harrison Ford, who played Colonel Graff played him perfectly. He looked and acted as the book described him. On the ship he also met Bean. In the book, Bean was supposed to come in towards the ending of the book, not the beginning. Bean is a small boy with a lot in him. He can act tough, but still be soft inside. He is also a good sport. Bean likes to work together to get the job done. Aramis Knight plays Bean. Aramis Kinght’s looks were not what I was expecting. I thought Bean have fair skin, and look younger. Benard was another person he met on the ship. Benard is another one of Ender’s enemies in beginning. He didn’t like the fact that Ender was known as the boy who was going to save the world. Toward the end though, Benard joins Ender in defeating the Buggers. Petra was one of the few girls in battle school. She’s tough on the outside yet she still can be a sweet girl. In the movie, Ender and Petra had a different emotional connection. It looked like they both had a crush on each other when in the book, they didn’t. Hailee Steinfeld played Perta in the movie. She played Petra exactly how I wanted her to act; strong, tough, yet caring. The only thing that I thought was different was how girly she was in the movie compared to the book. Petra had a more tomb-boy edge to her. Also, I imagined her with shorter hair. Bonzo Madrid, the leader of Salamander Army, was another character. He was very interesting character compared to his character in a book. In the movie he was very short; almost half a foot shorter than Ender. After I saw him that short, I couldn’t take him seriously when he got angry. Moisés Arias was the actor for Bonzo. He played the role perfectly; he looked like a scared and determined type of person. The only thing that was different was his height. Lastly, There is Major Anderson. Major Anderson was nothing that I expected! Not even close. The whole time I read Ender’s Game, I thought she was a man! I couldn’t believe it was a woman. Viola Davis played Major Anderson. Her acting was pretty on spot of what I thought Major Anderson would say, I just never thought of her as a woman.

Ender’s Game started off with Ender attending school, where he gets beaten up by a couple of kids in his school for being a third. This was a time parents were only allowed to have two children, so only if the first two children had good personalities, they were allowed to have a third child. They thought Ender would be a good person for battle school because Peter was too violent, and Valentine was too passionate. They thought a person with a mix of Peter and Valentine would be a good person to defeat the next bugger invasion. Then the setting changes when a voice came on the announcement speakers for Ender to report to the nursing room so that they could take his monitor out. A monitor is a device in the back of his neck that allows people from the battle school to look at what he does and what he sees. It told Ender he was free. School ended and Ender went home. Ender’s house was a simple street house. It wasn’t something I expected from what I read in the book. I was thinking of a simple house, but in the middle of no-where. I was thinking of a lot of trees surrounding the house.
When in Battle school, it was exactly how I pictured it. The rooms in the bunk beds are exactly how it was explained.

There were lines in the book that were in the movie too. For example, when Bean and Ender were in the practice room. Ender said, “Remember Ender. The Enemy’s gate is down!” I remember Bean saying that because it was a point in the book where Bean loosened up to Ender and they were friend. Another line from the book that was from the movie was when Ender was transferred to the salamander army, and he meets Petra. I remember Petra saying, “I may be a girl, but I have ore balls than most of the guys in this room.” I remember her saying that because it was really funny, and it really explains to me a lot of Petra.

There were a lot of parts missing from the movie compared to the book. The director probably did that because it would cut out some time in the movie. Some parts that were missing were a lot of the practice battles. They only showed around 2-3 practice battles when in the book there was a lot more battles. The practice battles were not that necessary but they were still missing. One part they left out and thought was important was after Peter almost choked Ender to death and Ender ran into his room for the rest of the day, Peter came into his room after thinking that Ender was asleep and he apologized to him. I thought that was important because if you were watching the movie and ddn’t read the book, you would think Peter is all bad with no heart. If you read the book, you would know that Peter does have a heart and that he had a moment that proved it. Another part that I thought was important was when Ender was sitting in the ship going to battle school, and benard kept whacking him with the seat belt. At that moment Ender got so made he grabbed the belt and pulled Benard forward, breaking his arm. I think that was important because in the movie, Benard only said mean things, it didn’t show that he would actually hurt him so I thought it would have been important to showed that. Those were a few things missing that I thought they should’ve had.

A part that was in the movie that wasn't in the book was when he met Bean. In the book, he did meet Bean but at a different time. In the book, Ender met Bean when Ender became a commander. In the movie, Ender met bean way before that. They met on the ship going up to battle school. The director probably did this because he needed to cut out time so he probably took the part where Ender and Bean met and put it in the beginning so that he has more time in the end to put something else. An actor that I thought played differently was Major Anderson. There were two reasons why I thought she acted differently. One was that in the book, I thought she was a man the whole time! SO in my head I was thinking of this man sitting there watching Ender and feeling sorry for him, and for all he had to go through. Another part was that since Major Anderson was a woman, she was softer than I thought. Even thought in the book when Major Anderson felt sorry, since I thought it was a man, I didn’t expect it to be that soft feeling emotions. I think if they made Major Anderson a man, it would’ve been better because it wouldn’t be so soft, and it would be more of made more sense to me.

You know that feeling when you feel like some things that you need to do doesn’t seem right but you do it anyway because you think it will be better. That is what the whole story behind Ender’s Game is. It’s about this young boy who didn’t feel like doing any of the things he did was right, but he felt like doing them would be better for him and many others so he did it anyway. Ender never wanted to hurt anyone, or be a killer. When he went up into battle school, he didn’t want to hurt anyone, physically or emotionally. HE did it anyway because he knew that it would be better for not only him, for many others. That is the main message behind it. Even though what is needed doesn't always seem right, it is good to do what is needed.s



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