Average Rating: 8/10
Reviews Counted: 216
Fresh: 190 | Rotten: 26
A 3D adaptation of a supposedly "unfilmable" book, Ang Lee's Life of Pi achieves the near impossible -- it's an astonishing technical achievement that's also emotionally rewarding.
Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 5
A 3D adaptation of a supposedly "unfilmable" book, Ang Lee's Life of Pi achieves the near impossible -- it's an astonishing technical achievement that's also emotionally rewarding.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 75,774
Director Ang Lee creates a groundbreaking movie event about a young man who survives a disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an amazing and unexpected connection with another survivor...a fearsome Bengal tiger. -- (C) Official Site
All Critics (216) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (190) | Rotten (26)
Mr. Lee's film is stronger as a visual experience-especially in 3-D-than an emotional one, but it has a final plot twist that may also change what you thought you knew about the ancient art of storytelling.
There's an audience out there for this movie, but the question is whether they will find it.
The movie's energy peters out in a series of book-club conversations about divine will, the power of storytelling, and the resilience of the human spirit.
A movie that can't be dismissed because there is too much in it but can't be embraced because it's all spread too thin.
This transcendent fable carries a real sting in its tail. Ang Lee has made a bold and wondrous movie, one of his best.
Claudio Miranda's luminous camera, set to Mychael Danna's intoxicating score, captures all manner of wild delights.
Endorses the notion of blind faith, and denial as a positive character trait.
Mystical and endless as the number pi, 'The Life of Pi' works on a number of levels, all of them enchanting.
Takes some time to find its flow. The CGI-tiger is the greatest marvel here-the intensity of its stare alone makes it the truest fiction of all. Religious platitudes remain fairly pat; the final allegory's overstated.
The morals of the story don't come through, while the film's extensive metaphors are belatedly rammed down your throat like a get out of jail free card.
Ang Lee's extraordinary, lyrical, beautiful, moving, genre-defying Life of Pi can be recommended with the simple, sweeping assurance that it is unlike anything you have ever seen before.
A dazzling digital dreamscape that sets staggering new heights for what can be accomplished with 3D technology.
Martel's novel could have yielded a greater film in different hands, but Lee's work remains one to be grateful for.
(Ang) Lee has gone above and beyond, executing the job with near flawless precision.
When adrift with Pi and the tiger on the open sea, the film is at its most wondrous: a ravishing spectacle that treads judiciously on the infinite line between what's possible and impossible.
Life poses as a spiritual experience, but it's more like a postcard.
What better analogy for our place in the universe than a couple of scared creatures stranded on a precarious liferaft in the middle of a vast nothingness?
Life of Pi is director Ang Lee's artistic expression of faith on film that's close to his very own version of the Sistine Chapel, minus the neck pain.
Bleak facts or magical stories, science or faith, connected or alone, instinct or animals with souls - these are the dynamics explored by every aspect of Life of Pi.
Flawed it may be, but at its core lies an epic journey that shows Lee reborn as a creative force.
I haven't been able to shake the thought-provoking finale. Don't expect to leave this story behind as you exit the theatre. Life Of Pi has something to say.
The 227 days at sea are a test of physique, mental adaptation and faith, and Suraj Sharma makes Pi's spiritual journey as convincing as his nautical one.
The screenplay reaches out to people of all religions and faiths and gives you the confidence to make your own mind up about things.
Lee is a wizard, Life of Pi is an incredible spectacle and the technical effects are brilliant.
Working with perceptive writer David Magee (Finding Neverand), Ang Lee creates one of the most thoughtful, artistic blockbusters ever made by a Hollywood studio.
Life of Pi is chiefly to be recommended for the punch of its core story. Never mind the cod-philosophical breadth - feel the impressive emotional depth.
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Topic | Last Post | Replies |
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Love this movie | 1 day ago | 1 |
Bad Reviews | 1 day ago | 15 |
Were the animals in Life of Pi real? | 2 days ago | 19 |
Then Who is Pi? ****SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS********* | 4 days ago | 3 |
Are the visual effects better than Avatar? | 5 days ago | 17 |
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Bravely adapted to screen from Yann Martel's bestseller - which, by the way, was said to be unfilmable - the versatile Ang Lee hasn't just beautifully brought it to life, he makes it look easy. Or perhaps better said, as easy as Pi. We should all thank our deities that it was he who got the assignment and not M. Night Shyamalan, who at one point was attached to write and direct this gargantuan project. Also Jean-Pierre Jeunet was among the considered, which is kind of ironic as many of its eye-popping qualities reminded me a lot of his work.
Adventurous and deeply symbolic, it chronicles the story of Pi Patel, the son of a zookeeper who already as a child exhibits an unusual fascination for the mysteries of life, by its many faiths and religions. As narrated from his adult and present-day self, he recounts how he became multi-religious; picking meanings and parables from the various religions of the world like hors d'oeuvres from a smorgasbord. "Faith is a house with many rooms", as he explains to a young novelist who is interested in doing an adaptation of his remarkable tale.
The most essential part of the story, however, begins with a sea voyage where Pi and his family - by initiative of his rationalistic father - leave their old life behind to settle for a new home in Canada. Along for the journey is all the animals of their zoo, in what basically boils down to a metaphor for Noah's Ark (which is just one of many religious references to discover throughout the film). Their venture soon takes a dramatic turn, however, as a storm plummets the ship to a watery grave, leaving him the only survivor in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Only human survivor that is, as he is now adrift on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. What sounds like the premise of a bad joke, now becomes an epic struggle to stay alive and afloat. You wonder who's gonna eat who, although if you've read the novel or seen the trailers, you should already have the answer.
Beyond the trials and tempests though, what really struck a personal chord with me was the matters of faith and inner endeavors. Juxtaposed to my own life, there was a time where I, much like Pi, was searching for the truths behind all things cosmic and earth-bound. What I discovered is that I couldn't identify myself with any one religion. By tradition, I was born and baptized as a Christian, but thankfully I lived in a family that allowed for open and critical thinking, and thus I was encouraged to form my own view and apprehension of the world.
I believe that all religions have some truth to them, but none has all the answers. For instance, I am convinced there is a spirit world and a higher power beyond our comprehension. But I don't believe in God as represented in the Bible, but in my own version of "him", as a force and greater intelligence in all things, as opposed to an old man sitting on a cloud, dealing out judgment left and right. I also, like in Hinduism, believe very strongly in past lives and that each life we live comes with important lessons, the wisdom and spiritual evolvement from which we carry into the next. I don't pretend to have found all the answers, only that this seems true in my eyes, based upon instincts and personal experiences. My mind is always open and respectful towards those who believe differently or not at all. And I think that's what I'm trying underscore here: the film's underlying message of tolerance and broader perception. It's a key most valuable, if we're ever going to find that golden balance to bring harmony to our diverse society.
I'm gonna stop there though, before this review leaps out of subject and expands into a thesis on my relations to faith. Besides, I think the 10-page essay I wrote in high school covered most of my thoughts on it. And there's so much more to this film than its compelling existentialism. Like the breathtaking visuals, which are as much a marvel to the eyes as they are to the soul. The effects conceived for Richard Parker alone is a milestone in technical wizardry. Although 86% of the tiger shots are CGI and the rest filmed with a real tiger, I honestly couldn't tell the two apart. Truly astounding, if not to say the best application of visual effects I've seen since Gollum and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".
Grand in scope and enchanting in every step of the journey, Ang Lee has with Life of Pi created a stunningly beautiful saga, not soon to fade from memory. A tragic, touching and incredibly piece of cinematic art, which emphasizes his genuine love for transcendent and soulful storytelling. I'm literally in awe with this film, which is, hands down, his best achievement to date.
Vibrant, mesmerizing, phantasmagorical and colorful; whichever way you choose to interpret this spectacular adventure (and believe me, you will be left with a lot of thought-provoking choices), it's from any slant a gratifying magnum opus in the borderland between fantasy and reality. Not perfectly so perhaps, but what I can say with great certainty is that I - passionately and with much enthusiasm - already long to come back for another slice of celestial Pi.
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