Life of Pi

Having been highly recommended to me by everyone who had seen it, I felt I probably should watch Life of Pi. I was rather hoping to read the book before I watched the movie, but it wasn't to be. The movie is an absolutely spectacular show of visual effects though, and tells the story of Pi Patel who is shipwrecked and spends an incredible amount of time afloat at sea with a tiger, a zebra, a hyena and an orang-utan for company.

There are various twists and turns with the plot throughout the film (unsurprisingly), but there is no doubt (in my mind at least) that the film is centred around the special effects. I didn't realise until after I’d seen it exactly how much of the film was special effects, but when I did discover (and it’s pretty much everything) I was amazed. For example, the tiger is entirely CGI, which is absolutely incredible when you consider how detailed it is throughout the movie. The other animals are CGI as well I think, and the combination of CGI and the actor who plays Pi creates an absolute special effects masterpiece.

The plot itself is a bit lacking though in my opinion. It might be the case that the audience is so distracted by the magnificence of what they are seeing on the screen, but for me, the plot was quite average. I’d imagine that the book would be incredible, so I bought it this morning and cannot wait to start reading it. I’d imagine that in the book, the ending would be a lot more thought-provoking, and I thought the film could have made a lot more of this. Personally, I love the kind of film that leaves the ending totally ambiguous, and for this reason Inception and Shutter Island are two of my favourites (although Leonardo di Caprio may have something to do with that). Instead, it is up to the audience to decide how the story ends and whether they accept the incredible tale of survival and beauty or the horrific tale of a struggle against nature. But the film points you in one direction, and this is a bit of a disappointment for me.

For me, Suraj Sharma, who plays Pi Patel for the majority of the movie, is wonderful in the role. I think for the majority of the film he is acting opposite a green screen, and as a result he does an amazing job of convincing the audience of the realism of his situation. His ability to convey emotion is wonderful, and I found myself experiencing the loss of his family, the fear of the tiger, and the grief at the death of the other animals. Life of Pi is his first listed motion picture, and I think that he will be popping up in quite a few other films from now on.

Most of the plaudits for Life of Pi will rightly go to the Special Effects team. So many people worked on this film in the special and visual effects department that mentioning them all would take ridiculously long. But I think that more credit needs to go to the producers, the director and the author of the screenplay. I think I heard at the BAFTAs that Life of Pi was a decade in the making, which is an incredible level of devotion to a film that is only really seen by the masterpiece films such as Avatar. The producers have done a wonderful job to create such a fantastic film, and while normally I despise seeing films in 3D, to not see Life of Pi in 3D would be a crime. As it goes I think it was filmed exclusively for 3D release, but nevertheless it adds to the experience of the film. Ang Lee directs Life of Pi, and this has to be one of his best works. It is no surprise that he is nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards this year given the direction of this film. However, a better reflection of the film is that it has received 11 nominations overall.

I don’t think it will win Best Picture, and I think Ang Lee will be pipped to Best Director by Spielberg, but for Best Adapted Screenplay, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effect I consider it the favourite. Only Lincoln has received more nominations this year, and so Life of Pi is almost certainly going to win one. But don’t quote me on that.

Life of Pi is a cinematic spectacle. The visual effects will leave you astounded, and you will thoroughly enjoy it, but I think the end is a bit anticlimactic. Certainly there should be no triumphant scene of survival etc, but I didn't like the forced ambiguity of the end. However, others might, and this is just my own opinion. I would definitely suggest that you see Life of Pi, purely because of the visual effects.