Life of Pi

Colours, animals and gods in a pleasant adventure, and a twist that can be considered nice or nasty, depending on your nature. I reckon the book version was sharper and Ang Lee probably blunted the edges, but it doesn’t matter. Great filmmaking that the ending prevents from being a mere naive religious tale. Thumbs up. (01/06/2013)

People like to look for a noble, spiritual dimension in suffering. I suffered like a hyena for two hours, but I didn't find any such dimension (although "my mother is an orangutan" at least brought a wicked laugh to my lips). Objectively, it's very nicely colored, smooth and cleverly told, but I always prefer the adrenaline and animality of 127 Hours over the spiritual Circus Humberto. Perhaps one of the 33 million gods who spiritually sponsor this film will not send me on a ship with Suraj Sharma. Because at the moment I want to kill him. (12/05/2012)

It’s way too digital. The constant special effects annoyed and disturbed me all the time except for the perfect tiger, as did the camera, and the story seemed to me to just be ordinary. I couldn't worry about the main character during his journey (why should I, when we see him older, whole, alive and healthy at the beginning, right?)... I can't deny the visual impact of the scenes with the sky reflecting in the endless water surface, and I quite liked the interlude with the school of flying fish, but why did everything have to be so kitschy neon and digi-hallucinogenic? Moreover, the music (yes, the Oscar-winning one) is completely bland. Two stars would be too many. (03/09/2013)

Similar to What Dreams May Come, visually captivating, technically precise, and an essentially empty film outlining religion, family cohesion, and survival adventure. But it’s so tedious that even though the form is self-indulgently mesmerizing, it’s not entertaining. Ang Lee leaned too heavily into the camera and and the visual effects at the expense of everything else, and there’s no originality, let alone this being the film of the year. (08/14/2015)

Two stars are quite a decent result for a film that I didn't enjoy at all. Ang Lee approached the laws of physics his way, relied on CGI and made a film about high moral values, with no chance of appealing to me (a shallow individual). The film is technically distinguished, but its story left me cold. (06/01/2020)