The Academy Award-Winning director Ang Lee returns with another cinema masterpiece to add to his collection. The best selling novel is now a highly raved film known as Life of Pi which has everyone worldwide talking.

This oscar-buzzed film is an epic majestic adventure about a boy on a lifeboat with a bengal tiger and
how their companionship led to their survival.

The story is told in a flashback from the protagonist Piscine Molitor better known through the film
as Pi Patel. Pi is approached by an author who is intrigued to hear his story in hopes of being inspired
to write again. Pi begins his story from before he was born and how he was named after a swimming
pool in France known as Piscine Auteuil-Molitor. Pi’s family owned a zoo in Pondicherry, India. He
shares his childhood with the writer because it is important to know the foundation to why he is Hindu,
Catholic and Muslim. Young Pi is content with how each religion has spiritually made him feel within
and felt he was finding meaning to life. Being the enlightened and curious young boy that he is, he hopes
to see the family’s own bengal tiger, known as Richard Parker, up close by feeding it raw meat with his hands out. Pi peered into Richard Parker’s eyes believing for a second that the bengal tiger had a soul. His father catches him right before the tiger takes the blood dripping meat from the hands of Pi and scares the big cat away. The furious father decides to teach Pi a life lesson that leaves him
scarred and spiritually broken.

Years go by and teenage Pi is still seeking for a meaning in life and God. His family decides to sell their animals abroad and plans to move to Canada away from the Indian politics.

The family is to travel with their animals on a Japanese freighter but they encounter a destructive thunder storm. The ship sinks and Pi is able to escape on a lifeboat. Frightened by the tiger, he swims away only to be thrashed under the water and into the ocean. There he witnesses the ship sink lower and lower. This scene is one of my favorites, as Pi eagerly swims back to the surface he halts at the sight of the sinking ship. In that moment everything he knows had just been taken away from him. The computer graphics of the sinking ship is so breathtaking and believable at the same time. Pi swims back to the boat and survives the night by strapping his body through ropes on the boat.

The epic adventure centers on the survival of Pi and Richard Parker who are left on the lifeboat for several days. The two must compromise with each other in order to live. The hostile situation eventually becomes a friendship once they realize they rely on one another. As the film progresses you watch desperation and death sweep over the two characters, this shows in their face, body and spirit. Hundreds of days pass and as each hardship approach Pi finds himself praying to God to guide him into the right path.

The story of Pi will touch everyone even if you’re not spiritual or religious. Almost every scene is just
beautiful, filled with radiant colors.

The CGI (computer-generated imagery) was surprisingly not obnoxious. When the majority of a film is shot
on green screen one of the biggest concerns would be if it is realistic enough. What’s great is that they didn’t exaggerate too much, especially with Richard Parker. It was a good choice to blend a real tiger with CGI, but it was done so well that you were sure it was real throughout the movie.

This film is more than a visual masterpiece. It is a heart-warming story that is sure to make you walk
out of the cinema blown away.

Thinking along the lines “amazing” “brilliant” and “magnificent.” Overall director Ang Lee is a genius
for the Life of Pi contains all components that makes a movie revolutionary. Great storyline with a
compelling meaning, strong acting, beautiful pictures, uplifting scores and outstanding visual effects.

It’s one of those must see movies that will change your life, similar to the impact “The Matrix” “Titanic” and “Avatar” had. Life of Pi is sure to take home many Academy Awards.

It is unlike anything we’ve seen in the last couple of years.