Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a masterpiece of quality production. The movie starts out great, giving the background of a boy that grows up in French India. His name means "swimming pool" in French, but people make fun of him, so he tries to go by "Pi". One day, he writes a huge number of digits of pi on the board and the name sticks. Growing up, he tries just about every religion, being secular, Hindu, Christian and Muslim. His family has a zoo, but they eventually fall on hard times and decide to take a boat with the animals to Canada.

There is a big storm on the boat trip. Pi is exited and happens to be outside when the storm hits. He eventually ends up as the lone person on a lifeboat that has a bunch of animals - including a tiger. At this point the movie starts starts to slow down. I wouldn't have minded if about 30 minutes of lifeboat time were cut out. You can get the point that he is struggling, yet the character just doesn't seem to grow.

At the end he is finally found as the lone survivor and the tiger scampers off in to the wild. The shipping company comes to ask him about it, but they don't believe the first story, so he tells a different story where the animals are people and he is the tiger. Was he with a tiger? Was it imaginary? Does it even matter? The end result is he survived but lost everything. There was some force that helped motivate him to survive.

Hulk

The Hulk is a very different movie than some of the modern comic book movies like Dark Knight or Spiderman. Instead, it seeks inspiration from the likes of the old Batman TV show. Instead of a Dark, brooding scores of other movies, we get a light, yet ominous score. Rather than hide from its comic book origin, the Hulk embraces it. From the opening credits, to the scattershots, this one feels like a comic book.

However, is this a good thing?

The "lightness" of the movie makes it more difficult to be engaged. Sure there are some big action scenes, but you feel that these are mere bullies fighting. You don't feel a strong attachment to the outcome.

The relationship between Bruce Banner and the "token love interest" brings back memories of King Kong and the girl. The big green monster cares for the puny girl. But its hard to feel much fear or involvement in their actions.

I did like the style of the movie. However, it didn't quite fit the content. Hulk is a dark, scary figure. The style Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would have been better suited for this movie. Perhaps that's what the producers were expecting when they picked the director.