Marval Movie

The use of 3D is a tool that should be used to place the movie watcher within the movie not used to take the movie and slap the viewer in the face with it. Life of Pi has some of the most well use of the 3D that I've ever-seen in the time that I've been seeing 3D movies, with the camera dipping from the surface of the water, to under it, to then rising to the surface again. It delivers a magical experience of movie watching entertainment.

The movie starts with a man who is speaking with an Indian man named Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) an Indian immigrant now living in Canada. The man is a writer who so far has written one rather good book but has had to give up on his most resent book because of lack of inspiration or chemistry or it just doesn't gel, the duduk kasus every writer must face. But he is here because he was told that Pi has an amazing story that will give him something to write about as well as make him believe in God.

Pi then begins to tell his story of how he was a boy in India and grew up in a zoo and with one parent against religion and the other fully embracing it. Eventually when Pi turns fourteen he discovers Christianity and then develops a true love of God and decides to embrace all religion and to see the truth of God through all of them (whats wrong with that?).

When India becomes unstable Pi's father decides to move to America and take all the animals with them to sell off and start a new life. During the boats journey there is a huge thunder storm and Pi goes on deck to see it but the storm is so great that it sinks the whole ship and somehow all the animals get released. Pi manages to get onto a lifeboat, only that he is not alone Richard Parker is there with him. Richard Parker is a Bengal Tiger.

The Life of Pi is based on the novel by the same name and I have not read it but my father has. He told me he didn't see how you could tell the story in book form, but he said it worked and when he heard there would be a movie he didn't see how that would work either. Life of Pi works, I cant say how well the translation is or how faithful it is but simply looking at it as a movie about a boy stuck on a lifeboat with a tiger it is magnificently pulled off by Scriptwriter David Magee.

Ang Lee Directs and delivers some of his best work since Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, balancing visuals with story and characters with situation. The 3D is some of the best I've seen in a live action movie, this is everything 3D should be putting the viewer within the movie having object placed around the viewer and not shoved in their faces. One of the main problems with 3D is that the glasses makes the image about twenty percent darker making to image less vivid to look at, Life of Pi compensates for this the same way that Toy Story 3 did, it makes the colors even more vivid and bright so that even with the glasses it still is a luxurious picture of beauty.

For the animals there is a lot of CGI, I know that to get animals to act is more than a challenge and they also don't want to harm any of the animals but they seem to bee using it a little too much for my liking. They use an entire CGI elephant just for it walking, surely it would have been easier just to film a real Elephant? Well to my surprise the CGI is very effective in convincing me that there were really animals there, not a hundred percent (never one hundred percent) but convincing enough not to take me out of the situation. And they do use real animals, but only for a few shots at the most, but it's appreciated.

The Life of Pi was a movie I was late to watching and I decided to see it for the hell of it. My big mistake was brushing it off so late, if I would have seen it when it came out in 2012 then it would have surely made it onto my Top Ten Best of the Year List. My loss and mistake, I'm not going to rewrite my list but at least I caught up with the film at last.

While Pi is stuck out in the Ocean both he and the audience are treated to some absolutely gorgeous images. Even before the Ocean the scenery and shooting of India is also so beautiful but we get treated to some of the most beautiful, colorful moments that I've seen in a movie in years.

Clearly the main subject of the Life of Pi is faith and religion. Faith can get you through some hard times and it clearly has done great things for many people, although without naming specifics Religion has also been used for wrong, it is my personal belief that religion is relevant to the person you are, you either accept religion or not. I believe everyone needs faith of some sort whether that be there is one divine consciousness controlling everything, the human spirit can endure anything or there's a giant spaghetti monster out there you need something to work to, to drive you forward.

Life of Pi is a film that by the end may or may not have you believe in God but will give a feeling of true owe and spirituality that I recommend to just about everyone I can think of.

Rating: 4 stars out of 4