Enders Game: The Franchise that Never Was

Ender’s Game is a film that had so much promise to kickstart a new franchise but ended up being a disappointment for many fans and general audiences. It’s based on an award winning novel, stars award winning actors, and had a huge marketing push to go with it. But despite everything it failed at the box office losing over 60 million dollars.

In this video essay I take a look at the history of film, analyze why it failed, and offer some of my personal thoughts on it.

Chapters:

Intro: 0:00
Behind the Film: 1:45
Why it Failed Commercially: 6:24
Why it Failed as a Movie: 9:37
Conclusion: 14:22

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[Whippet]

My biggest issue with the movie was time. There was no indication of how much time the movie covered. Was it weeks, months, or what? The way it was edited made it feel like everything took place over a week.

[fyrstormer]

"It was marketed as Harry Potter crossed with Star Wars, when it's actually Full Metal Jacket crossed with Starship Troopers."

Good point.

[GothPaoki]

Ender spent half his life in that station and is all passed in a hurry. He got from being dismissed to climbing the ranks relentlessly surpassing senior officers and becoming the top commander following exhausting routines, creating strategies and counter strategies to defeat the enemy species, fighting multiple battles sometimes during the same day to the point when he finally ends the conflict he's but a shell.

When he finishes them it doesn't hit the same cause all the progress he made is being condensed and ignored. The reasons we got that outcome with ender committing gen are simply not there therefore the ending though accurate doesn't hit the same.

The movie is quite accurate but it's compressed too much to fully convey Enders progress and mental decline from his journey.

[vbittencourt]

Imagine watching Wolverine Origins and thinking "yeah, thats the guy I want to direct my movie" LOL

[Hykje]

Another example of "Let's buy the rights to a popular book and make a movie that's completely different."

[LeonBes]

I knew Ender's Game was getting YA-fied when they aged him up for the movie. Ender is an actual child when the story starts and experiences many of his most psychologically experiences as a young kid, it definitely doesn't hit the same in the movie with an already teenage Ender. I also won't forgive the movie for turning Petra into a YA love interest, I absolutely HATED what they did to her character.

[James_McDonald]

The Dark Tower is another failed big screen adaptation that I think you should talk about, becuase there was potentials for this Stephen King based franchise to be turn into the screen, but unfortunatly Sony decided to screw it instead.

[alpacino]

Fun fact: Sony wanted Asa to be the next Spiderman after watching him in this movie (he basically plays Peter Parker in space) but he lost the role to Tom Holland because tom can actually do backflips and is more athletic

[Epsilon.]

I remember watching this movie in theaters with my parents as a young teenager. This was the first movie I watched where the twist at the end absolutely shocked me.

I hadn’t developed my movie knowledge to call it which is more obvious now that I see the signs on rewatches, but this movie forever changed how I watched movies because I was always looking for big surprises afterwards.

[kodiak_qp]

What hurt me the most is they left out so many good moments from the book. You never really got attached to anyone. Kinda felt rushed. Like they only showed key moments but little back story.

[grantmillard]

I really enjoyed the book. The movie turned Ender into a Mary Sue character who always did things better than anyone else through some innate ability rather than developing his skills, relationships and techniques. Ender didn't learn anything through the span of this film. It was disappointing.

[anyaaa]

Do the mummy remake next ! Every time I go back to the whole Dark Universe plan, i chuckle haha.

[dominickyeo]

I was disappointed it didn't cover Peter taking over the world with Twitter

[davemccage]

The one adaptation of a book that should have aged up it’s characters. Nobody wants to watch a movie about grade schoolers playing video games and laser tag.

[lucasgehres]

I remember thinking this movie looked way too generic

[HillBravo]

I've read the book many times and it still remains my favorite story for over 25 years. I nearly walked out of the theater out of frustration.

[dondelapongo]

They said Dune was unfilmable but Villeneuve did it, because his talent had full creative control. It's a great book and it could be a good mini series, in my opinion the big obstacle is Card's awful image, maybe when he dies we'll get another chance.

[Chrisgarciam]

I wonder if "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" would qualify for a video like this one. Either way it would be great to see an analysis of it from you someday. New subscriber, I love your content!

[entityredstoneonyt]

i really didnt like how they made a 28 day deadline. The point is the plot takes 5 years, and we get to see the main characters distorted and mentally draining childhood growth in 2 levels, different to both the growth of children normally and even different to the growth of normal battle school children. And Ender goes from 6 - 11. He spends all the time he'd be in elementary school and a bit of middle school revolving his life around something others can easily manipulate, and gets a very distorted worldveiw. You dont capture that in 28 days of a 13 year old.

[lavernebennet]

"recommended reading for the US military" INSANE selling point