Warning:
Naughty language, kids.
Notes:
I’m
surprised with how short this turned out. I expected this to be one of my
longer ones, but I guess not. So it will be one part instead of the normal two.
I figured to give you one long review instead of two short ones. You’re
welcome. P.S. I love Canada.
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Music: 5/10 tigers
I’ll be honest, I
wasn’t very entertained with the first part of the movie. I had the same
experience with the book, the first hundred pages are bluh, but after that it
gets really good. So bear with me. The movie is narrated by an adult Pi who is
telling his story to a writer (is voice only pops up once in a while during the
main part of the movie, most of the narration takes place at the beginning and
end of the movie). He starts with the background of himself, Piscine, or Pi. We
learn about his family and how his dad owns zoo, a zoo that includes the other
main character, Richard Parker. He’s a tiger, who will be called Parker from
this point on. We also get to know his parents and their religion and how he
discovers his religion. Or religions, he follows three different religions.
We also get to see his
first experience with Parker. He thinks
animals have souls and he decides to befriend a tiger. You know start small. He
almost gets his arm torn off and his dad gets mad and shows him what a tiger
can do. Poor goat. Why are goats always the victims (i.e. Jurassic Park)? There was some slight personification of
animals going on in Pi’s mind.
After that there’s more
back story. Pi is older. He is now played by the main actor. Pi is sad because the world has lost its
enchantment after he saw Parker’s true animalistic nature. He is now on a quest
to find something to bring meaning into his life again. Surprise, he meets a girl
in a dance class he is drumming for. Like any Tumblr user, he follows her around.
She catches him and is like: “What the hell?” He answers he with a question
about what a certain dance move means. Thus,
a relationship blossoms. They hang out and do that dating shit but of course it
doesn’t last. Pi’s father tells the family that they are leaving India, selling
the zoo, and taking the animals with them. They’re going to Canada, so adventurous.
At least the people are nice.
They are finally on a
boat. I swear I am not happy about Pi losing everyone, it’s just, compelling
story time. The crew are jerks to them, except this one kid, the cook on the
other hand, is the worst. But hey, they
have their animals, that’s good. It’s totally good. I swear.
Storm night arrives and
Pi wakes up and ascends the ship to go outside. He’s a little weird and goes a
little cray as he enjoys the storm. But his fun times are ended when an alarm
goes off. He looks at the deck and sees the ship being overtaken by the sea. He
tries to go back down in ship for his family but it’s already underwater. He can’t
get to family and goes back for help. But no one cares and some sailors put him
on lifeboat. Before they can get in, a fucking zebra jumps on the life boat and
knocks it into water. So yeah, the ship sinks and Pi is freaking out but he
sees someone in water. He helps them but oops, it’s actually Parker. Pi tries
to get Parker away but a wave washes the tiger on board, but there’s nothing to
worry about yet because Parker immediately takes shelter under the half of the
boat still covered by the tarp.
The next shot is cool
but really sad. Pi falls off boat and gets hit by wave. While he’s underwater he
sees the sinking boat. It’s an amazing
shot. Did I forget to mention this movie is visually stunning? Because it is. The
tragedy is obviously his family. He knows his family dies on that boat, and he
can’t do anything to save them. He just lost everyone. It’s worse when he tries yelling for them once
he’s back on the life boat.
The morning after the
storm, Pi is busy getting water out of the boat. But surprise, a freaking Hyena
pops out from underneath the tarp, spazzing out like an asshole. Pi fights it
off with oar, probably thinking: “Fucking really?” But the guests aren’t done
arriving yet. He hears a commotion and sees Orange Juice the orangutan floating
towards them on a pile of bananas. He pulls her on board and Pi, Parker, the
zebra, the hyena, and Orange Juice all spend some time together (I typed that
out a shook my head, Jesus fucking Christ).
The peace is ruined
though when the Hyena goes off again. And he really is an asshole because he
kills the zebra. Pi tried to stop him, but what can you do against an African
predator? Pi decides to get outta dodge and makes a raft from life jackets, netting,
and oars and ties it to the boat. Now he has a safe place to be, separated from
the crazy by the ocean. While still on the life boat, the stupid Hyena kills
Orange Juice. What a prick! I was so mad, even though I knew it was going to
happen.
But it’s okay because
karma comes in the form of Parker. He leaps out from under the tarp and kills
the hyena. I was almost a jump scare, but I didn’t care because the stupid
hyena died. Pi, on the other hand, is
screwed because the nest thing Parker does is chase Pi off the boat and onto
raft. Pi sneaks on boat and gets food
and water when Parker sleeps. Pi is safe on the tarp too because Parker can’t
get onto the canvas, his claws get stuck.
That’s pretty much their relationship in a nutshell for a while.
During the night, Pi cries
on his raft. Parker just looks at him, almost like he’s wondering what Pi is
doing. He’s very calm. Pi still awake come morning because he can’t sleep on
the raft easily. To stay sane, Pi starts writing. He writes in a journal and in
notes he sends out to sea. One day, Pi pulls himself back to boat and peeks
under the tarp at Parker. They look at each other, Parker growls, but he does
that all of the time.
Pi starts reading a
survival manual and there is a narration/ montage of him doing the tasks the
book states. He decided it’s time to start training Parker; Pi can’t survive on
his tiny raft for too long. He tries making Parker seasick to train him easier.
Pi yells at him and makes himself big in an effort to try and establish his
dominance of the boat. But a nasty thing
happens. Parker sprays him. Pi says to disregard
any steps said in training Parker. I’m impressed by his efforts though, I would
never be able to get the balls to try and train a fucking tiger.
Pi tries new method of just
being nice. One of his efforts is to attempt to catch fish for Parker so he
doesn’t starve. It doesn’t go well at first. Once, when fish are around, Parker
jumps out of boat to try and get one. It’s funny until he swims towards Pi, who
gets on the boat instead. He takes the raft
out of water too. He almost kills Parker with an axe but he doesn’t. He saw the
fear in his eyes. Parker holds onto the boat with his claws. Pi feels bad and
makes a ladder for him to get on. But not before Pi takes the food and water and
gets back on raft, blowing a whistle; a sound to trigger Parker into
recognizing Pi’s nice-ness.
Good luck appears in
the form of a fish. Pi finally manages to catch one. A nice, big one. He has a
crisis after he kills it. I mean I get you’re a vegetarian, you don’t want to
kill it, and you have no choice, but cheer up, dude, you live to float another
day. He gives the fish to Parker and
catches more for himself.
The next night scene is
tricky. Luminescent sea life is swimming around, making the water look like an
acid trip. Remember what I said about visually stunning? This movie won Oscars
for a reason. Then you think it gets better when a motherfucking whale jumps
out of the water. The shot is cool. But the whale knocks the raft over, losing
the food and water. So it’s tricky because you go from: “Oh pretty.” to:
“Goddammit, whale!” Seriously, you have the whole ocean to leap from, and you
choose the spot right next to the tiny human. Way to go, fuck face.
Back on the U.S.S Shitty
luck, Parker is having a fit. He almost attacks Pi but flying fish come and start
beating the shit out of them. Meaning they jump into them and land on boat. The
boat can now be named “Temporary Okay Luck”. A tuna hunting the tiny fish lands
in boat and Parker wants it bad. But so does Pi. Fight! Knock out. Pi
wins.
Pi decides it’s time to
settle this. He trains Parker for real with punishment and reward; the reward
being meat. It’s cool watching this scene because the animators did a
phenomenal job bringing this tiger to life. Sometimes I forgot the tiger was
fake. Being said, I still clapped when
Pi successfully got Parker back under the tarp, establishing his own dominance.
With that settled, Pi
now has the time to make a better raft. It has shade, a real seat, and a water
collecting system. Pi knows how to live. We get to see some dolphins, but fuck
them because there’s a freaking ship on the horizon. Pi uses a flare gun but the
ship is too far away and doesn’t see them.
He continues doing this, even after the ship is long gone. It’s so
disheartening.
I just want to mention
real quick that I love how much oceanic life involved. Just the random shots of
whale sharks and dolphins add so much realism and fun to the movie. And beauty
this movie is very pleasing to the eye. I can’t get over how beautiful the
cinematography is.
This next bit is a
little weird. Parker is just staring into the water, and curious, Pi does the
same. He then proceeds to have a hallucination of zoo animals and sea animals.
The ocean is all colorful and swirly. It ends with Pi seeing the sunken ship on
the ocean floor. Weird, man.
We can now see how Pi
and Parker’s relationship has progressed. Po can lounge on boat now. It’s a
good thing too because a storm is coming. Pi secures the raft and supplies but
loses his journal. I was a bit sad about it. When the storm hits, Pi once again
is having the time of his life. Parker isn’t, he’s hiding under the tarp being
all growly. In a douche move, Pi takes tarp off so Parker can see the storm. But
then he gets mad at God or the gods and storm for scaring Parker. Really, dude? But Pi secures the tarp over the
whole boat and the two wait out storm. When they wake up in morning the storm
is gone, along with the raft.
In the next sequence,
both of the survivors look terrible. Pi
knows they are dying. He tries to comfort Parker by letting him rest his head
in his lap. He has an emotional speech about being able to see his family again
and how he is sorry he couldn’t save them. But he is ready to die. And they do.
Just kidding.
Pi wakes up under the shade
of trees. By some miracle, the boat is washed up on an island. There are trees
and the ground is mostly made of vines. Like the plants, not the videos. Pi
steps onto land and explores. I don’t really understand this whole part, but he
finds a whole fleet of fucking meerkats; like a shit ton. This is good for
Parker though, it’s a feast. He also finds fresh water which is more normal. Pi
is ready to spend forever on the island; it’s a very sound logic. As night
approaches the meerkats scramble up trees and Parker runs back to boat. We know
something is up. Pi looks into the pool of fresh water and sees dead fish. Then
it gets even weirder when we get a shot of the entire island. It looks like a
person. Holy shit. But then, it gets weirder when Pi opens a flower thing and
finds a human tooth. Of course, the island is carnivorous. So much for that
plan.
Pi and Parker leave the
island. Pi packed as much food and water for them as possible. It’s cool
because Pi blows the whistle and Parker comes running. Pi could have survived
on the island by being smart, but he did not want to be forgotten. Older Pi
tells this to the author. So once again, they are out at sea.
By the time the boat
washes up on the Mexican shore, they are out of food and looking sickly again.
It’s been a long time. Pi somehow manages to pull the boat to shore. Older Pi is narrating now. He tells us about
how Parker gets off boat and wanders towards the jungle. At the border, he just stops and stares
before going into the trees. He never sees him again.
This really pisses me
off. Not just because Parker left so suddenly, but because this movie made me
do the goddamn same exact thing Pi did as a child. It made us believe Parker
had a real, human-like soul. I felt like I could see it at certain times. This
movie made us personify Parker, just as Pi did. And just like Pi, when Parker
left, it felt like some of the enchantment of the story was taken away. I will
never be over this.
Anyways, people find
him and take him away. He weeps because Parker left him. Parker broke his
heart. Older Pi is still sad about it. Even the author dude is. He’s also
attractive. Just thought I’d let you know. Older Pi says letting go is hard but
not saying goodbye is worse. True words, audience.
It is confirmed that Pi
was the only ship wreck survivor. Asshole insurance people come to get his
story, but they don’t believe his story. I understand that, but they won’t
leave him alone until they get a tale that will be acceptable to their higher
ups. So Pi tells a different story. In this version, the animals were people.
The Cook was the Hyena, the sailor was the zebra, Pi’s mom was the orangutan,
and Pi was Parker. He tells how everyone got on board. Then he goes onto tell
how everyone died. The cook resorted to cannibalism. Hearing talk about how his
mom died was hard. It was an intense story; it was so good that there is moment
of doubt. We think that maybe this is the real story. But we chose not to
believe it because we are looking for enchantment again. We prefer the story
with the tiger.
So does the author
dude. Older Pi asks him which story he prefers. He said the tiger one. He gets
to meet Pi’s wife and family and it’s really nice to see that Pi was able to
build a good life for himself, despite all the shitty things that happened to
him earlier.
The movie ends with a
shot of Richard Parker disappearing into the jungle, taking our enchantment
with him. Maybe a few tears.
The End.
