Have to admit I was a little bored

Rating: 6/10 (12 January 2013)

When I saw the trailer for Life of Pi, it really sparked no interest in me. I have never really been a fan of Robinson Crusoe stories and I didn't think the presence of a tiger would make much of a difference. But then the movie received 11 Oscar nominations, and I thought maybe I had shortchanged this film. I'm glad that I saw it, but my initial instinct was correct: Life of Pi just isn't for me.
I will start with what I liked about the movie: the visuals. Just about everybody agrees that Life of Pi is the visual masterpiece of the year, arguably a greater contribution to 3d than Avatar. The digital creation of the tiger, named Richard Parker, is one of the most realistic examples of CGI in recent memory. The way the clouds are reflected in the water and the psychedelic images that Pi sees on his journey are the most amazing things you'll see this year.
For anyone who might not know, Life of Pi is about an Indian teenager's (Gandhi, not Sitting Bull) harrowing spiritual journey as he is stranded on a boat for over two hundred days with only a Bengal Tiger for a companion. This story is partially narrated by Pi as an adult, who is visited by an author with writer's block. The author was told that Pi's story can make him believe in God. The problem is the author is the most boring character you'll ever meet and the constant transitions back to the older Pi are intrusive.
Overall though, Life of Pi gets off promising start despite the poor framing device. Pi is raised by an atheistic father who owns a zoo, so understandably he becomes enamored with animals and religion. Pi is raised Hindu, but he soon becomes interested in Christianity and Islam and converts to both faiths. I thought this was an interesting point in the film- why couldn't somebody follow all three religions? When Pi's family comes upon rough economic times they are forced to move their zoo to Canada. Their freighter encounters a vicious storm in what is the most visually impressive experience in the movie. Pi evacuates on a life boat with a wounded zebra, but after the storm passes he discovers an orangutan and a hyena. Somehow, the tiger hides under a canvas on the boat for two days, but whatever. Pi must learn how to hold the tiger at bay while surviving at sea.
This is where Life of Pi started to lose me. No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to focus on survivor stories. There might be something more than my bias against these types of stories though. There is something about Ang Lee's directing style that reminds me of still water- it just doesn't excite me. I admit it's not fair to categorize this film just as a survivor story because it deals with the testing of faith during a crisis. But the religious themes just felt pedestrian to me. For me, this film's saving grace was the 3d, which is unusual because I usually think that 3d is a waste of time.
The most controversial aspect of the film was the ending. Without giving away too much, Pi reveals an entirely different version of his survival story and the audience is forced to choose which one to believe. I like the idea of being able to interpret the events of this movie in more than one way, but I didn't like the way it was executed in the story. It would have been much more effective to hint at the alternate survival story during the movie rather than just lay it all out at the end. I find myself strangely indifferent to the plot twist. I don't think it's particularly clever or "deep."
Nevertheless, this film has a real chance at winning the Oscar for Best Director because they snubbed Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain. It will certainly win a lot of technical awards, and deservedly so. Overall, Life of Pi is not a bad movie, but it never really excited me as much as it should have, nor did I find it particularly thought provoking.