Visually nice, but not as interesting as it thinks it is

Rating: 6/10 (19 April 2013)

Life of Pi is nice as a visual experience, but falls a little flat as a movie.
The main character Pi tells stories from the early parts of his life to build his character, but his character does not really make sense as a person. We are supposed to believe that most of the obvious unrealistic characteristics of his personality can be put down to Pi being incredibly quirky, but even still it is hard to consider him as being a believable character. His character exists purely to be the vehicle of amusing stories and situations, but when trying to consider what such a person would be like, it becomes clear that his existence is only there because it is necessary for the story. This problem might have been avoided, but I was once again underwhelmed by Ang Lee's directing. That this film won Ang Lee the Academy Award is a tragedy to me (in my opinion Spielberg, Affleck, Tarantino, and also Bigelow all deserved the award that year more than Lee did).
As well, though the visuals were nice, often they could clearly be seen to be fake. This was not as big a problem in Avatar (which also had more impressive visuals), where the situations are of a science- fiction variety and are not supposed to be real events, but Life of Pi presents these events as actually having occurred, and the flaws in the CGI break up any immersion in the story.
Finally, the ending fails in my mind in its purpose as a story that would make me believe in god. Unlike in the movie where it leaves things unclear as to which of the stories is better, in my view, while Pi's original account is nicer to believe, it is clear that his second account of the story is the one to be believed. I believe that man should live by the wise words of Henry David Thoreau "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth". Believing in something you know to be untrue because it is nicer is a crime against the intellectual gifts you have been given. Connecting belief in god to belief in Pi's story portrays religion as being an obstacle to the truth, an obstacle to man's progress into the world of the future.
Overall, the movie is nice to look at, but hollow and full of holes when examined beyond its pretty visuals. Briefly entertaining, but without any depth to keep it interesting. I recommend that you see it, but do not enter with any expectations of greatness or deeper meaning.