Reviewer Reviews... Life of Pi-A Film Review

Life of Pi

Ang Lee, along with Tarsem and James Cameron, are often directors that suffer from a style over substance view of film-making  with Tarsem's visual masterpieces The Cell and The Fall, Cameron's Avatar or even Lee's frustrating Hulk. However, all have had wonderful films, and with Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Lust, Caution under his belt, Lee is most probably the most talented out of these directors, and while it could be argued that Life Of Pi is his weakest film (a flimsy narrative, excessive symbolism) It sure looks absolutely stunning.
    Following the wise words of Roger Ebert, who, like me, cannot stand 3-D and who raved about the 3-D, I saw it on the biggest, dumbest screen I could; Vue Westfield. And Ebert was right. I don't think I have ever seen better use of 3-D in a theatrical release. It is not distracting, not headachey and just looks wonderful. I am proud I paid the £1 extra.
    And that brings us to the main thread of the film: the visuals. They are stunning. Again, I don't think I have seen more stunning visuals since The Tree Of Life or The Fall. As the second and third act are all set on a boat in the middle of the ocean, Lee takes full advantage of the visual potential as possible. A scene on a deserted island is a definate hilight, and while the animals are not always convincing, they do look disturbingly genuine almost always, especially hundreds of meerkats in a very memorable scene.
    And this brings us to the main problem with this film. Just the visuals alone would get it a 10 out of 10, but there are problems. The film starts off in sunny India, where young Pi embarks on a spiritual journey and wishes to be "Hindu, Muslim and Christian". He seems to be one of those kids that no one is, no one has been, or will be. Either way, he grows up in a zoo, but then has to move his family and animals to Canada, where they are shipwrecked, and he has to use a small lifeboat with a tiger as a home. And while this is not a very convincing premise, it is still exciting in the way that Up or Inception is exciting: ridiculous, but captivating enough to be forgiven for the silly premise.
    So that's Life Of Pi, and while this isn't the best film of the year, the visuals are good enough to put it on the top 10 list of 2012, and the fact that it is captivating like Inception means that it is well worth seeing. But only see it in the cinema for full effect. Please.

9/10

MT