The Ender’s Game movie is a fantastic example of book-to-movie adaptation failure, though not in the typical ignoring-the-source-material way. Ultimately, the filmmakers love for the source material becomes their greatest weakness. Since they can’t bring themselves to cut anything they are forced to condense everything. Thus, the entire film comes off like a visual-cliffsnotes, destroying any chance for the audience to feel anything for themselves since they are being force-fed character emotions and plot points.
Great movie adaptations know not only when to stay close to the source material, but also when to deviate from it.
