Life of Pi (Ang Lee, 2012) Review

See! I told you that this was The Amazing Spider-Man. It features Irrfan Khan and has a character called Richard Parker. Or it could just be a major coicidence. That seems much more likely. As you may have guessed (...probably) this is one of the films that is up for several Oscars. Frankly I think the Oscars are a bit...eh this year so it is no guarranty of quality (Prometheus gets a nomination yet The Dark Knight Rises and Looper don't?) so does that make this a good or a bad film? Let's find out!

Piscine 'Pi' Patel (Suraj Sharma) is a young boy whose family owns a zoo in India. When the family decide to move to Canada in order to expand on their business. When travelling my boat, a strong storm causes Pi to fall overboard on a lifeboat with only a few animals to keep him company. He is stranded out in the vast, empty ocean with only their tiger, Richard Parker, to keep him company, and by that, I mean not try to rip his face off. Now Pi must survive against Richard Parker and find a way to get back to civilisation.

When I asked my friends why they wanted to see this film, they said that they loved the look of the mystical things and how good it would be in 3D. HA! No...I wanted to see it because of the idea. Imagine being stranded on a boat with only a tiger to keep you company. It builds loads of suspence and the best moments of the film were the quiet moments between Pi and Richard Parker...although the funny moments are pretty good too (I never expected any humour in this film but I guess this film is full of surprises).

I will admit there was one scene that really angered me. It featured flying fish coming at the camera and flying over the boat. Not a problem, except that the screen changed size so that the fish could go out of the frame! WHAT?! You can't change the aspect ratio of a film just to suit the 3D viewing! I didn't see this in 2D sadly but I hope that didn't happen then. 3D shouldn't be the focus of a film. STOP IT! Really, that's my only gripe and apparently I'm the only person that noticed. Aw well, maybe I got caught up in the madness of the film.

Life of 3.1415 is a clever film and will probably claim a couple of Oscars for itself. If so, I congratulate it. If not, what the hell is wrong with the Academy (other than the major snubs). HOW DID AVENGERS ASSEMBLE NOT BE NOMINATED FOR BEST MUSICAL SCORE?! *Ahem* forget my freakout. Anyway, join me next time where we look at a very weird film...so weird that I'm not even sure how to score it.

Verdict:
9/10
A clever film with a great new star and an interesting concept to keep it suspenceful.