Not a Modern Prometheus

Rating: 1/10 (28 June 2003)

Like Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", "Pi" aims to be a modern update to the greek Prometheus and Icarus myths. It warns against scientists venturing into certain areas of knowledge. Unfortunately one point where "Pi" fails miserably is in its depiction of modern science: the days of early greek scientists working mostly alone is long gone, modern science is very much a social endeavor. "Pi" however sticks to the rogue scientist image embodied in the loner mathematician Max Cohen. Its modernization seems to be limited to technological aspects: there's a lot of technobabble about patterns in the number Pi, computers becoming sentient etc. All good natured fun in "Star Trek" but the seriousness with which it is brought in "Pi" made its inaccuracy really annoying. Perhaps the movie's makers should have used Shelley's approach to avoid embarrasing themselves: just mention all that technology is dangerous and you don't want to talk about it to avoid corrupting the reader/viewer. But then again, what would have been left in this movie? Nothing much I'm afraid, Max doesn't seem to be a very interesting character, his relationship (or lack thereof) with his female neighbour is only briefly touched upon etc. Overall "Pi" is repetitious, contains too many scenes of Max just vomiting/banging his head into something/... and is just plain boring.