Brilliant as a Bengal Tiger! . . . just lacked the bite.

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2013)

For me 'Life of Pi' was all about anticipation. I had read Yann Martel's novel and loved it! I had listened to all the critical acclaim, watched all the awards shows and today I sat down for the first time and was ready to see for myself just how amazing the movie was.
Visually, the movie is absolutely stunning. Ang Lee and his effects team can't be praised enough for the incredible work they have done on this movie. There are some truly unbelievable sequences my favourites being the scenes with the flying fish, the meerkats, and the whale. The fact that they were able to create a CGI tiger that is so realistic, beautiful and terrifying is enough on its own to hand that Best Director Oscar to Ang Lee. He shows how he had the ability to handle the project. He brings a seemingly impossible concept to the big screen, and emphasises that he is definitely one of the leaders and innovators in his field.
Although the overall experience of the film is awe-inspiring, I'm not sure why but something didn't quite 'pop' for me. I'm a huge fan of the story, and I don't think Lee's interpretation even strayed very far from Martel's text, but the movie didn't fully have that 'knockout punch' effect on me.
The story is fantastic, Martel clearly possesses an incredible imagination, and Lee a highly commendable talent for transferring the premise to cinema. The movie follows Pi as he retells his astounding story of survival on a lifeboat with a tiger, a zebra, a hyena and an orangutan. He loses everything and the movie is a wonderful tale of friendship, faith and the will to live. Also handled well is the story's ambiguous ending but I won't spoil that here for you.
The movie is also well-cast with newcomer Suraj Sharma not being intimidated by the sheer weight of his role, and showing that although relatively inexperienced, he is capable of carrying a blockbuster epic all on his own shoulders. Rafe Spall also does well as the writer recording Pi's tale.
'Life of Pi' is not a bad, or even an average movie by any stretch of the imagination. I would recommend it to anyone, but for some reason the movie just didn't click for me. Perhaps all the anticipation surrounding it had built up my expectations a little too high, or maybe it was because I didn't view the film in the cinema and thus missed out on the proper experience but for me the movie just lacked that key ingredient.
Nevertheless, it is an exceptional cinematic feat that is worth a watch purely for the effects, and I'm looking forward to what other projects Ang Lee has lined up for the future.