I'd take the third story

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2012)

Life of Pi is ultimately a flawed film because the writing fails to involve the viewer enough in the story.
It is a very enjoyable film but fails to be great. The reasons are related to the story and, since I prefer not to discuss specifics, I'll just say that the decisions made in presenting this story are awkward and lack the brilliance and daring required to make the viewer believe in and truly root for the central character (let alone believe in God). The over-reliance on visual style and beautiful photography means that, however hard everyone tries, the film grabs your attention but can't win your heart.
The technical skill on display is brilliant, don't get me wrong, this is a good moment at the movies, just that, in the end, it rests on the surface of things much like the raft Pi himself floats on.
There was possibly a beautiful love story or a brilliant fable somewhere to be polished enough until it shone through (Shyamalan would have brought it out for sure, shame he dropped out...) the skill would have been in finding the madness and the bravery in faith and giving the whole thing a profound meaning.
The tiger is very cool... but it's still not quite enough. You can almost hear the Hollywood execs' pencils scribbling equations like: 'Titanic' meets 'I Bought a Zoo' meets 'Slumdog Millionaire' oh yeah and throw in some 'The Usual Suspects' for a adapted screenplay Oscar bid, oh yeah, and it's from a critically acclaimed bestseller, yippee! Add it all together and throw in some 3D and fluorescent glowing nature scenes to remind everyone of Avatar! 20th Century Fox have created a prestigious blockbuster fry-up screw story or character, or actually making a good film, that's why I hate those business school grads and their Venn diagrams and powerpoints!(sorry for the rant)If only those jerks died out and got replaced by real people we'd have even more good films to watch, oh yeah, and we'd need less advertizing, lobbying, brainwashing, propaganda... A miracle, then. We'd better all start believing in God, quick!
Life of Pi, in conclusion, is not so great after all; that's why everybody is off to see The Hobbit!