Life of Pi

I hope you are all sitting down while you are reading this as instead of my usual half apologetic disclaimer I am pleased to announce that I have read Life of Pi.  This sad little factoid is likely to be the most interesting thing I will write in 2012 purely because it is such a deviation from the norm.

PLOT:  After his father decides to relocate to Canada Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) finds himself on board a freighter with the family zoo.  Midway through their journey a terrible storm sinks the ship leaving Pi ship-wreaked on a lifeboat with Richard Parker, the Patel family’s tiger.  Pi must learn to survive at sea and avoid being eaten by a sea sick tiger.  END PLOT

I’ve never been the strongest blogger and my plot descriptions are usually the weakest parts of my reviews.  The plot description of Life of Pi is not the exception to the rule as it doesn’t do the film any justice.

Granted the film is a story of a sixteen year old boy trying to survive at sea with a hungry tiger but despite its simple premise Life of Pi manages to be one of the year’s most heart warming and emotionally traumatising films of the year.

Both Suraj Sharma and Irrfan Khan are excellent as the young and older Pi.  Sharma’s performance is all the more notable as in the majority of his scenes he was acting alone against a green screen backdrop.

The supporting cast of Tabu and Rafe Spall are solid in their roles as characters which are never meant to stray from the background.

Much has been made of the 3D but it is not often that a film lives up to the hype.  Life of Pi is a visually stunning film – right from the colourful opening credits to the jellyfish sea there is always something special to look at and no one from the UK will view the Meerkat Island without affection thanks to a ridiculously successful advertising campaign.

The 3D gives the film a greater sense of depth and is again a testament to the efforts that have gone into the special effects in the film.  There are no real pop out moments which would normally render the 3D pointless but as the film was so visual it didn’t matter.

The creation of Richard Parker is quite an achievement given that only a few swimming scenes involved a real tiger (IMDB trivia).  I think it is reasonable to expect Life of Pi to fare quite well on the technical nominations come awards season.

Life of Pi clocks in at 127minutes and although I didn’t feel the length there were a few moments when I wanted the film to move things along just a smidge quicker. 

I read the book on the recommendation of my A Level psychology teacher due to the section of the book which focused on the conditioning of the tiger to respond to the whistle.  It took Pi a few attempts to train the tiger in the film but it felt as though this part of the book was brushed over quite hastily in favour of additional visuals such as the whale.

Ang Lee has created a gorgeous film and he has made it look effortless.  Whether you opt for 2D or 3D Life of Pi is one film that must be watched in the cinema in order to appreciate it fully.  It gets a 8.5/10. 

Rise of the Guardians

 

Rise of the Guardians appeared with very little promotion but the knowledge that Hugh Jackman voices a rabbit is more than enough to get me to the cinema.  It is more out of formality than anything else that I would like to confirm, for the record, that I have not read the books the film is based upon.  It may be a different blog but I do enjoy singing the same tune.

PLOT:  Jack Frost (Chris Pine) wakes from his summer sleep and finds himself transported to the North Pole where he must help the Guardians - North (Alec Baldwin), Tooth (Isla Fisher), Bunny (Hugh Jackman) and Sandy to defeat the evil Pitch Black (Jude Law).  END PLOT

The plot of Rise of the Guardians plays out like an animated mash-up between The Bourne Identity and The Avengers although admittedly I wasn’t able to make these comparisons myself.  This is no bad thing as it puts a different spin on what is essentially a familiar coming of age storyline.

The voice work of the cast is excellent with Alec Baldwin’s Russian Santa and Hugh Jackman’s Australian Easter Bunny being the most memorable and entertaining of the bunch.  Jude Law does deserve a mention for his uber posh English villain Pitch Black.

There is plenty of humour mostly in the form of the idiotic elves or put-upon Yetis but as it transpires that I have a genuine affection for Rise of the Guardians I found the humour more entertaining than I probably should have.

Rise of the Guardians is a gorgeous film and the 3D version does add some depth to the animation.  Unfortunately the pop out moments never stray beyond a few snowflakes at the beginning and end of the film.  The film was enjoyable enough to look past this but if the option was there I would have chosen 2D.

Pixar has held the monopoly on animated films for years but they were easily knocked off their pedestal with How To Train Your Dragon.  While not quite up to the standard of How To Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians does show that the quality of Dreamworks animation is on the rise. 

Rise of the Guardians gets an 8/10 but poor box office returns means that we may not get any more films in the franchise which is a shame.