650. Life Of Pi 3D

Master W was unimpressed. "In 2011, you told it as you saw it. Now you just want to be like the movie critics."
He was right. I had just said how I was going to mark Life Of Pi higher than Pitch Perfect even though I enjoyed the latter more.
My reasoning? Because I have to accept that director Ang Lee has done a brilliant job and the film is like no other I have seen in terms of its ambition and skill.
Master W's point was that the same could have been said of Avatar but I condemned it as overblown and even a bit boring, regardless of its critical acclaim.
I also went for The Fighter as my movie of last year despite it being wiped away at the Oscars.
So, forget what I think I should write about Life Of Pi and let me just be honest. For the first half an hour I was struggling to stay awake despite watching it at 3.15pm.
The problem is that, while Life Of Pi is a feast for the eyes, its narrative style tends to slow down its drama.
Its premise is that an author (Rafe Spall) has been sent to glean a potential book story from a university professor Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan).
It transpires that Pi does, indeed, have an amazing tale to tell and takes the writer back to his days of living with his family in a zoo in India and then surviving a shipwreck with a tiger.
Apologies if that seems like a spoiler but have a look at the poster above or the trailer and I would argue that game has already been given away.
Anyway, the build up in the Indian paradise is pretty but a bit dull, the sinking of the ship is the highlight, Titanic-esque in its execution, and then, for more than an hour, Pi is on a rescue boat on the Pacific, fighting for his life.
While he is there he has to play a game of cat and mouse (well, cat and man, actually) with a tiger which had already survived the sinking.
Obviously, life on the ocean wave offers considerable challenges from the beasts of the sea and Mother Nature as well as the added obstacle of potentially being eaten by a Bengal Tiger.
And this background gives the film-makers the opportunity to lay before their audience all manner of CGI wonders.
And there lies its contradiction - a story of deep humanity relies so much on artificial means to make it work.
In saying that,  come Oscar season, it would not amaze me to see Suraj Sharma among the honours.
He plays the shipwrecked Pi with energy and passion.
But, because of its regular returns to its narrative, Life Of Pi lacks rhythm, its drama being doused by its desire to overtell its story.
Laughs: none
Jumps: three (yes, the CGI tiger made me leap out of my skin)
Vomit: sea water makes people retch, in case you didn't know
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 7/10