It was absolutely riveting. The psychological pain I felt reading the book was present in the movie. It is compressed to make it fit with cinematic conventions but none of my fears about them blowing it with bad child actors or over done special effects nonsense were realized. The battle room was very much what I had in mind's eye while reading it. It looked 0g to me. 5 stars

Awesome! We need to go see it.

I bought tickets for the 1:40 showing. And the Cowboys play at 1. Think I'm excited? I have read the book 3 times over the years. So glad to hear you liked it, Griff. The trailers assuaged most of my fear of it sucking.... but I trust your opinion more, so YAY!

I can't wait!

Wow, skipping a Boys game, that's commitment!

Yeah. . and they might actually win this one. The vikings have a shite defense. Look for murray to go off. I'll watch it on game rewind.

I wanted to go to the imax playing, but it's $17 x 4 of us. ... still. ..I considered it. Amanda talked me out of it. She's very practical. ...$10 each is bad enough.

The movie can never really do the book justice, but it wasn't too bad. It kinda felt like I was seeing the short-hand version of the story (what were those cheat books called?). There just isn't enough time in a movie...but maybe, someone else could have still better conveyed the pathos that the book elicited. The stress that his brother caused him was completely glossed over. And it was that stress that made him who he was.

I'm just glad I read the book.

I think it was good. I agree, it seemed compressed. The time in Battle School went by way faster than in the book, and they left Valentines and Peter's demonsthenes/ locke parts out completely. Maybe this should have been 2 movies. Overall, though. ...4 stars of five.

I don't think the Demonsthenes-Locke part would have worked because of the difference between how the internet has developed and how Card very presciently described it. I would have preferred another hour of movie but I'm not sure a studio would do that. Peter did need a lot more exploration and the Battle Room short cuts could have been avoided. I wanted that fight during the launch as well. Still, I think they did a lot and were faithful to Card's vision.

It didn't suck!

But man, $45 for a family of four to see a matinee is a good way to keep families home.

I wonder when the studio breaks even on this one?

I've heard that theaters only break even on film rental - all their profit comes from concession sales.