WIth then Oscars just around the corner, and the nominees now posted, I have been trying to see what best picture nominees I can. Most recently I saw Life of Pi (3D).

    I think it's important to note that I have never scene an Ang Lee film (except a few scenes from Hulk) so I really don't know anything about him as a film maker. So I had no prior expectations, hope's, or fears going into this movie, and as Far as the movie itself goes, I just didn't get it. Not literally, but in the scene of, I don't know why you told me that story, and in that regard I might sound a bit subjective here, but let me attempt to explain.

    So the Plot of the movie is, a man named Pi gets stranded at sea on a life boat with a full grown Killer Tiger, and must survive The Dangers of the sea, Starvation, and thirst, all wile avoiding being eaten by the Tiger. This is probably where my biggest problem with the film is, Beyond that, nothing really happens. Right from the beginning of the film we know that Pi survived his ordeal at sea, so the only thing at stake in the film is never at something we have to worry about because we know he is going to survive anyway.

    Another aspect that doesn't work for me about this plot is that a tiger is not going able to offer the same type of push pull character development as another person would. This again is a bit more subjective but hopefully this next question will help you understand how I feel on the matter. In which of these two situations would you be more likely to learn about yourself? Being locked in a room for a week with a person you've never met, or Being locked in a room for a week with a house cat.

    One big problem I had was how this movie was structured. The first act is adult Pi talking with the guy who sought him out and explaining his life before the incident. At one point the guy is listing to Pi said exactly what I was thinking. What does this have to do with anything? To be fair they explain a few necessary things like Pi and the Tigers names, but it docent take 40 minuets to do something you can sum up in 10 at most. Anyone who has seen The Hobbit knows what I'm talking about as Bilbo doesn't leave his house for like 40 minutes.  Anyway that all happens with the narration and once that ends, old Pi basically says ok lets begin the story, and then proceeds to tell the actual story which starts in the second act which has no narration at all from older Pi until the third act where he narrates parts of it. The point is that there is almost no consistency between the 3 acts and I feel thats rather alienating to an audience.

    Most of the other problems I had were mostly nit pick stuff. I thought the Island was just stupid and the people wanting another story at the end as forced and totally pointless, but hopefully now you can understand the roots of the troubles I had and where they expand to.

With that said there is some great stuff in this film. I honestly never thought a trapped a sea movie could be cinematically engaging, but damn it was Epic. It should also go without saying that VFX are top notch. One of the few things I thought even best fx guys couldn't get quite right until recently was live action fur, but Life of Pi had me questioning my sanity because the fx where good.

Not sure what else to say about this one. I would recommend giving it  a watch for the visuals but I don't plan on watching again anytime soon. 3D Take it or leave it, It didn't do much for me.