A writer meets shipwreck survivor Pi who's an Indian Immigrant and he wants to write a novel based on his story. Pi gets shipped wrecked on his way to America along with his family as they also tend to sell their Zoo animals in America. Pi escapes on a life boat and is now stranded in the middle of the ocean. However, one of the Zoo animals escapes from the wreckage too and makes it's way on the life boat as well. This is not just any Zoo animal, it's a Tiger and now Pi must also learn how to deal with it. Pi however, does have hope and has a feeling that God is with him.
The premise to the story is fantastic. I love that we learn a little about our character before he gets stranded in the middle of the ocean, I love that he not only has to survive being stranded at sea but also has to survive from being eaten by a Tiger and must try to live with it then kill it. Our main character Pi is a really great character. His childhood is interesting, he's very enjoyable, his methods of survival are clever and his relationship with the Tiger is great. This is one character you hope and prey that he will get out of this OK(Even though you already know that he's alive). The performances of Irrfan Khan as Pi as an adult and Suraj Sharma as Pi at the age of 16 really give a powerful performance that show their emotion and struggles authentically. As for our supporting characters their good maybe not the best actors, maybe not as memorable as Pi or the Tiger but they still come off as good characters. By the way does anyone find it weird that the Tiger and a Hyena show no signs of them being under the tarp of the boat the whole time and that our character just crawls on top of the tarp a few times before both of the animals are revealed?
What really makes the film work is the cinematography and CGI. Alright, alright, I will be honest about the CGI. At first I found it lazy that Ang Lee is using computer animated animals then real live trained animals and looking at them especially the Tiger, they look more like computer animated cartoon characters then actual animals. With that said, as I let the film play on, I realized Ang Lee had a purpose for using CGI then just being a lazy excuse to save money. The CGI (Like "Avatar" for example) is what creates this world and feel of God. Scenes like the night scene with the jellyfish in the water as the light, the floating Island with all those meerkats, the surreal dream sequence, and even the opening to the film looks very magical like a fantasy world and while having a realistic survival story it wanted to also have a fantasy dreamlike look and it works. Yes the animals still look cartoonish but I guess it's still part of the fantasy aspect of the film and to be fair they do look realistic half the time and the actor does make you believe he's with them so it works. The cinematography makes you feel like you're trapped out there with our main character and along with the CGI there's a lot of good imagery. The score to film also pulls you into the films atmosphere and it's indeed an enchanting score.
Overall this is probably Ang Lee's "Citizen Kane". Great acting from our main character, awesome story, visually incredible and very magical. Personally I probably would have enjoyed the film more if I saw it in IMAX theaters in 3-D and if that opportunity ever comes again, I'll take it.
RATING 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment