I liked the movie. Watched it twice. Bought it on iTunes. Then I read the book. I still think the movie is okay, but I can't bring myself to watch it.

The book isn't exactly phenomenal, but the movie didn't nail it. Card was right when he said the audiobook was the peak adaptation and they would never make a great movie from it. The book was better than the movie, just for what the movie got wrong or missed.

Read the book if you like the idea behind the movie. The book has the same exact idea. If you didn't like the idea, the book probably won't win you over.

The two big changes I remember is, one, Ender was like 5 or 6 in the book, they had to age him up for the movie. Same with the other kids. They were actual children, not teenagers, not "17 is a whole ass child" children, they were actual school-age children, zero thoughts of hooking up or anything like that... little kids. For better or worse. Big babies. And that was the point, Card was suggesting that older kids or teenagers would not be suitable for the programme because, well, if you remember the ending, the book does the same thing. And two, there was a lot more focus on Ender's family back home and the life they lived and the system of government they lived under. I believe the ruling body(ies?) on Earth played a bigger role in the later books. But what was going on back home was a bigger deal in the book where the movie focused almost exclusively on the space camp/battle school or whatever it was called (it's been years).