I saw Some Like it Hot a long time ago, and I remember it being very funny. But that's all I remember. Oh yeah, and Marilyn Monroe was super hot, as always.
Ender's Game
I knew that this was based on a great sci-fi series of books that I've never read, and I know that adapting epic science fiction onto the big screen usually sucks, so I was able to enjoy the film for what it was and enjoy the story it told without getting all hung up on how it was told.
In the movie, we get one scene of Ender in school, but obviously he's been in school all his life and dealing with bullies, or at least this one bully, for a while. So when he "ended" it (ha, I just figured out his name), even though it seemed very sudden and over-the-top in the movie, I accepted that this was a pivotal scene.
In the movie, he's in Battle School for like a week, but again it only seems like that and clearly we're seeing a very condensed version of that part of the story. It became apparent around this point that there's a lot of story to tell, so we have to move quickly.
Then he's in Command School for like two days, and Harrison Ford has been saying the whole time how amazing and special this guy is, but once again, we'll just have to take his word for it because we've seen three examples of it and he's like 15 now.
But the way he "ends" things, the use of unconventional tactics, the weird "non-formation formation" with Dragon Army, even the mind game and his sister, all foreshadow things that later pay off. In fact, the whole movie is little more than setup and setup and payoff and payoff. You could argue that most movies are, but you'd probably be wrong. Most movies take some time to develop the characters and plot at least a little bit. Here, they tried to condense a pretty large story into a feature film and it just didn't work. And it was basically because there was too much to do. They should have just gone ahead and made it a 2.5 or 3-hour epic sci-fi story. Given it some breathing room, flesh out the characters and the story better.
I enjoyed the movie anyway. I liked the story it told, despite telling it so poorly. I could tell that the adaptation didn't do the book(s) justice, and I've never read the books, but comments on IMDb almost universally agree. Most people who've never read the books were at least okay with the movie and some really enjoyed it. Most people who'd read the book didn't like the movie. There are exceptions on both sides, of course.
Topic: The Movie Thread v. Return of the Jedi (Read 137875 times)
