A wonderful visual feast with an excellent, somewhat thought-provoking story

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2013)

Review originally posted on InspirationRation.com - Life of Pi is an intriguing movie. One of wondrous and unbelievable stories, with equally wondrous and unbelievable visuals.
Life of Pi introduces us to Pi Patel, a Christian-Hindi-Muslim Indian man with an amazing story to tell. Pi was the son of a zoo keeper and when his family decides to move to Canada, he finds himself on a freighter ship with a whole host of wild animals. During a horrible storm the freighter sinks, and Pi ends up adrift in a lifeboat in the company of a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger. This is a story of survival, of finding strength, of discovering oneself, and of having faith.
Obviously such a fantastical and magical story must be told with similarly fantastical visuals. Life of Pi certainly succeeds in that regard, with truly breathtaking images throughout the movie. The dreamlike sequences in the lifeboat are beautifully rendered, as are the remaining scenes that play out in both India and Canada. Although it is sometimes visible that most of what is on the screen is computer generated (especially the animals and the water (and its reflections)) this in no way distracts from the film. Due to the fantastical atmosphere of the story the somewhat 'fake' or 'too perfect' CGI fits right in.
The movie is shown in Real3D. I'm am not a fan of 3D. My brain does not enjoy the technique. I usually end up with a headache, and extremely strained eyes. But aside from this, I feel like the added blurriness of the images and the dimmer light of the screen is an unfair tradeoff for such a gimmicky addition to the medium.
I have to hand it to Life of Pi though, it is one of the least crappy incorporations of 3D that I have seen. Again here the 3D is used to add to the sense of wonder and magic that transpires within the movie. With the exception of one 'flying fish'-scene, there is no blatant over-use of the 3D gimmick.
I was surprised by the deeper messages within Life of Pi, something that was not at all conveyed in the trailers for the movie. Without spoiling anything, I like how themes such as personal strength, and especially religion were given plenty of screen-time. Mostly in the first quarter of the film, religion plays a large role in the story. I really liked what was said, but the message seems somewhat forgotten throughout the last part of the script. I can imagine how this is better meshed in the book, on which the movie is based.
Something what somewhat put me off of the movie at first, judging only by the trailers, was the blatant unrealistic nature of the story. A boy and a bunch of wild animals, some of which carnivorous, surviving together in a tiny dingy? Ridiculous! Some friends and family-members convinced me to go see the movie despite of these doubts, and I am so happy they did. First of all, the whole script wasn't as unrealistic as the trailer made it out to be. There are some developments that add to the sense that; "Perhaps this could've happened." But moreover, in the end the question of whether the story is unrealistic or not is wonderfully ambiguously called upon within the movie through a final twist. I won't spoil it for you, but just urge you to not let the unrealism deter you from seeing this movie. To conclude, Life of Pi is a wonderful visual feast with an excellent, somewhat thought-provoking story. This combination creates such a great movie, that even the addition of 3D can't ruin a good product. - Review originally posted on InspirationRation.com