(ignore this im in a photoshoppy mood)Surprised there was no thread already, if there was one I did not see it and I apologize. (Ok we need to work on that, it wont use the word 'of' because its common and 'Pi' because its too short so it ended up searching LIFE) The film was beautifully edited and the colors were to die for, while the visual aspect of it was stunning, the CGI not so much. The CGI quality seemed inconsistent, one scene Richard Parker is a convincing tiger and the next he looks borderline cartoony. I wish they bothered to use more footage of actual animals, I understand that putting a boy in a boat with an actual tiger is not the best idea, but there are scenes where it didn't require a lot of 'acting' from an animal. Again, animal behavior is unpredictable, even if they're 'trained' its still not the best idea to endanger Suraj Sharma. I really do understand, but I just wished the animals seemed more convincing. Adaption-wise it held well, although I wish the more gruesome scenes were in the movie. I felt that the more grotesque scenes were great aspects of Pi's dehumanization, while it was touched upon in the movie, it was a small scene. I was also disappointed that the entire part about Pi going blind and meeting the Frenchman was omitted, it was one of the most interesting scenes in the whole book to be honest. But I can see producers wanting to keep it as PG as possible. Another thing that bothered me was that the algae island did not turn its water into acid to kill the fish. In the novel it turned its salt water into fresh water, therefore killing the salt water fish and thats how the meerkats survived. I was pretty sure Pi said that the acid disintegrated the fish, which makes it pretty questionable as to how the meerkats survive. But this is just sheer nitpicking. I have mentioned the scenes omitted, but I want mention something inserted; Pi's girlfriend. It just felt extremely irrelevant to add a love interest, especially since she is never seen again. Overall, it was a solid movie. Suraj Sharma blew me away, his performance was stellar, I am extremely shocked he was not even nominated for an Oscar.
Life of Pi was beautifully done! Not going to lie that I had my doubts of wanting to see it, but when I finally did, I fell in love with it. Suraj Sharma did extremely well. I'm surprised he wasn't nominated too. Well deserved it in my opinion. The CGI was really well done. I do agree that the tiger didn't feel too real in some scenes but overall he was very believable. Went to a panel with the head of visual effects at Rythm and Hues and he showed us the process of making Richard Parker......goodness, it was crazy and the render time took days. So I can understand why he wasn't so realistic at times. Spoiler I think they inserted the girlfriend scene as a build up. Pi had a lot in his life and then suddenly it is all taken away. He has to leave his girlfriend then he loses his family and gets stuck with a hungry tiger in the middle of the ocean. So this added more to the "holding on to his belief" as things get tougher. If that makes sense =)
