Literary history is filled with “unfilmable” books, stories that might be too incredible or deal with subject material too sensitive to market successfully. Film history is filled with movies that were once “unfilmable,” occasionally successful (Life of Pi and the television adaptation of A Game of Thrones), but usually less so (Watchmen and Cloud Atlas). Author Orson Scott Card has long said his classic Ender’s Game would never work on the big screen, citing Ender’s internalized drama too difficult to get across (I personally would have pointed the significant amount of violence surrounding a six-year-old, but that is just me). It took Gavin Hood’s screenplay to bring the controversial author on board.

Note: That will be the last mention of Card’s personal opinions in this piece. They have been covered in detail across the breadth of the Internets. I disagree with those beliefs, but don’t believe they have any bearing in my – or your – opinion of this flick.

Asa Butterfield plays the titular Ender, a young prodigy whom military leader Colonel Graff believes will be the savior of the human race.  Years before, Earth was nearly annihilated in an alien invasion, and the military is preparing a counterstrike. Ender is thrust through a training regimen that his older siblings, including sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin), washed out of. Most of his classmates, including Bean (Aramis Knight) and Alai (Moises Arias) resent him at first, but eventually learn to trust and follow him, though gal-pal Petra (Hailee Steinfeld) seems to be on Team Ender from the start. A pair of Academy Award winners in Viola Davis and Ben Kingsley round out the cast as military leaders in Ender’s education.

From a technical perspective, Ender’s Game is amazing. The sound design in the IMAX version in particular will blow audiences away – or at least feel like it will. The CGI work in both Ender’s game and the space battle sequences are top notch. This is the kind of movie you think back to the quality of SFX ten years ago (think Matrix Reloaded) and then dream about what movies will look like ten years from now.

Hood’s movie is probably the best Ender’s Game flick we could ever hope for. The screenplay was able to maintain most of the overall story, though Valentine’s personal story is nearly completely absent. Ender is (necessarily) aged up from the book and some – some – of the violence is muted. Sadly, much of Ender’s evolution into a leader in the second act is more than a little rushed (sadly, because it is my favorite part of the book). There’s more than enough material for one movie in Ender’s Game, but probably just a smidge too little for two movies.

Ender’s Game is a solid – but not spectacular – flick. Butterfield and Ford both show well, and the effects are phenomenal. Hood has redeemed himself a little after a poor showing with 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But while I liked the flick, it does not come close to packing the emotional punch that the book did. Since there is no (reasonable) way to have a six-year-old beat a classmate to death on screen, I am not sure that Card was wrong. But Hood’s flick is the closet we will ever get.

 [easyazon-image align=”none” asin=”0812550706″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515a6Y9ZW4L._SL160_.jpg” width=”97″]  [easyazon-image align=”none” asin=”0765362430″ locale=”us” height=”100″ src=”https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Px7rjY2oL._SL160_.jpg” width=”160″]  [easyazon-image align=”none” asin=”B00EYMI82M” locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511j7JZ6InL._SL160_.jpg” width=”160″]

Once again this year, Keith, Michael and I are braving the crowds at San Diego Comic-Con to learn the latest news, get the inside scoop and rub elbows with the stars of some of our favorite shows … and 125,000 of our other closest friends. This is my third year attending, and it is amazing how much the con has grown just in those three years (I can only imagine it from Michael’s perspective, who has been attending long before SDCC became the craziness that it is today).

Keith previewed what he was looking forward to most this year earlier this week. I’d planned on doing the same, but decided to skip my post when I realized that my list was nearly exactly the same as his.

Instead, I’m going to attempt to spend a couple of minutes each night going over the highlights of what I saw and learned during the course of each day. I’m not promising I’ll get it done every night – I can promise you with almost absolute certainty that Saturday Night’s schedule will definitely preclude me from chiming in – but I’ll do what I can.

• Technically from Wednesday night, but I learned that Wil Wheaton can brew a mighty fine tasting brew. The picture above is the three of us catching up. Wil’s Memories of the Future book came up, and I joined his wife Anne in hounding him for the follow-up.
• I attended the screenings of both Intelligence and Star-Crossed in Ballroom 20 (SDCC’s second largest room). I’ve previewed both before, but it was nice to watch with a large audience. Intelligence in particular was well received.
• One of SDCC’s most fervent Fandoms continues to be the Psych-o’s. The cast and crew embraces the culture of the convention about as well as any show factors into that a great deal. USA also announced the winner – “Nightmare on State Street” (formerly named “Dream Therapy”) – of the fan vote for the plot of an episode in the upcoming final season.
• EW’s Visionaries panel is always an interesting discussion, and this year’s panel with Alfonso Cuarón, Marc Webb and Edgar Wright was no exception.
• The Nerdist’s Chris Hardwick is easily the best panel moderator I’ve ever seen. He handled both Divergent and Ender’s Game, and was phenomenal.
• Speaking of Divergent, we got to see the first footage released for the film (principal photography just wrapped a couple of days ago). I’m a big fan of Veronica Roth’s series of books, and if the footage we saw was any indication, the movie series is going to be just as good.
• Veronica Roth, the author of the novels, announced that the third book — Allegiant, due out in October — will actually be told from both Tris and Four’s point-of-views.

• I’m not sure that the highlight of the Ender’s Game panel happened before they even took the stage. An attendee got in line during the Divergent Q&A, and began asking the cast and crew a question about Ender’s Game. Hardwick mocked him pretty badly, but made sure he got the chance to ask the question when the right time came around.
• I became a big fan of director Gavin Hood. He brought a joy and passion to the panel that can almost make me overlook X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
•  I’m lying about the highlight … it had to be Harrison Ford. He handled some of the off-the-wall questions amusingly – though obviously irritated. My favorite? “What would Han Solo and Indiana Jones say to each other if they met?” “Hi? How are you?”

I am looking forward to Day Two. I will be spending time with the casts of The 100, The Following, Falling Skies and The Blacklist. Later tomorrow night, though, is one of the things I’m most looking forward to for the entire week, the Veronica Mars movie fan event. I was a day one backer of the project, and cannot wait to see what Rob Thomas has in store for us.