Starring
Suraj Sharma & Irrfan Khan.
Directed
by Ang Lee.
Rated
PG.
Story: 5 / 5
Direction: 3 / 5
Acting: 3 / 5
Visual: 2 / 5
Overall Rating: 3.25 / 5
Explanation of rating categories appears at the bottom of each review posting.
[The following is taken from an original blog post where I spend most of my time
ranting about my hate of 3D. Some edits have been made and some additional
material added to fit the format used on this site.]Story: 5 / 5
Direction: 3 / 5
Acting: 3 / 5
Visual: 2 / 5
Overall Rating: 3.25 / 5
Explanation of rating categories appears at the bottom of each review posting.
Life of Pi tells the story of Pi, a young man who survives the sinking of a cargo ship carrying his family and their zoo animals en route to their new home in North America. If you’ve seen the trailers you know there’s a tiger in the life raft with him, and maybe you even said “That’s crazy! That *bleep*ing tiger would eat that kid in like five seconds.” Have faith, the film is about so much more than that.
What will people think of cinematic version of Life of Pi in twenty years, heck maybe even ten? With any luck they'll think "It's too bad that movie wasn't made by serious filmmakers. It's such a great story!"
The reality in 2012 is that the movie was made by Ang Lee,
who used to be a very serious filmmaker, known for his clever visual style. For
reasons known only to him, and the Hollywood executives who funded this
project, he chose to make this a 3D movie. On some level I assume he thought it
would give a more fantastical feel to Pi's story, and maybe even enhance it.
The problem is that the underlying story is so incredible and timeless, that
this movie could survive the decades ahead, but this passing fad of 3D
entertainment dooms it to a future at the bottom of the DVD bin, an unusual
high concept work from a silly era of filmmaking.
It’s rare for me to love a concept so much, but be so
thoroughly disappointed in its execution. It's exactly the opposite of Beasts
of the Southern Wild. In that film I loved every single thing about it
except the story. In Life of Pi I was so in love with the story but frustrated
by the way it was filmed.
I'm being overly dramatic. Everything except the visuals in Life
of Pi is brilliant. The acting is fantastic, and other than the awkward 3D
crap, which looks simply baffling in 2D, and some very inappropriate use of
CGI, it's still a great film. Nearing the end it leaves you hanging, wondering
what the entire point of it was, but with a single line the entire thing comes
together. "And so it goes with God."
That's not a spoiler. You'll totally forget I even said that
until after the line is said and with any luck you'll be too busy enjoying the
film to go "Oh crap, he did mention that line". And if you don’t
understand it, or if you don’t agree with me on how brilliant the story is,
then you’ve not at all understood it, and probably need a second viewing with
Wikipedia at the ready.
Would I recommend this film? Definitely. Try not to be put
off by the 3D stuff if you end up seeing it in standard presentation or on DVD.
Explanation of Ratings
All ratings are on a 5 point scale where 1 is the lowest possible score. A score of 3 indicates the film was simply effective in this regard. A score of 5 indicates perfection in a given category. The overall rating is a simple average of the four scores.
- Story
-- How well the film was written? Did the story make sense? Were there
plot holes? Was the dialogue natural for the style/genre?
- Direction
-- How well was the film put together? Did all of the elements come
together properly? How was the pacing? Was the tone consistent and
effective? A subcategory of this would be editing, but for the purpose of
these reviews it is combined into one category.
- Acting
-- How good were the performances? In a drama did the lead actor/actress
draw the audience in? In a comedy where the performers funny? This is an
amalgam score of all the performances in the piece. A single great
performance can elevate the entire score, but a bunch of bad performances
can just as easily bring it down.
- Visual -- How did the film look? If
there were visual effects were they used appropriately and did they look
good? Did the overall look enhance the telling of the story?
No comments:
Post a Comment