If the movie had been a guy with a spear VS Tiger in a boat in the middle of the ocean for 2 hours, then all of my money in the bank. But that didn't fucking happen. When I really think of it, I don't see a point to the story, hahaha.. Who's going to give me back my 2 hours and 6 minutes? Only thing I took with it is don't be friends with a tiger. And there is NO tiger. I hate the fact that they kill a whole fucking Zoo to tell the story of a boy who got so seasick he thought he was a tiger. Pi didn't say on the movie that he eats anyone. But he can't handle the truth that he ate his family to survive, so he created a fantasy world to coop with that fact. Pi doesn't just see shining whales. He see shining everything all the way down to bottom of sea. He see stars and universe. The sun and sky and storms and fishes are all beautiful. These are all God's revelation for him. Yeah, all that shit was magic but the glowing water was phytoplankton. This movie really shows how religion is for the insane.
Many people said that whole point of the movie was a religious propaganda, through and through. It was not what bothered me the most. It didn't matter what was true. The movie is equating religion as some form of escapism. How is that even remotely pro-religion? Faith contributes to the main character surviving an experience and effects how he derives meaning from it. The events in the story being an allegory for human is bullshit. The only point to the horrible story was to demonstrate to the audience that if given two stories where the consequences are identical, we pick the one we like better. Why that means anything I don't know. My best guess has been that we live our lives, and whether or not you believe in God is in your life story, the events are the same. So which one do you like better? :)
The whole point of the movie is that when people don't know something, they seem to tend to believe that which is the more interesting story. The movie examines how humans tend to irrationally do a sort of reverse Occam's razor. The guy never says which one he believes, just which story he likes better. There is a huge major point in the second story that doesn't get enough attention: According to that story, Pi is a murderer and a cannibalist. And he ate his mother. These are about the biggest taboo in all society. You don't just walk away after saying things like that. After saying this, the relationship between the speaker and the listeners is changed. Now how do those two Japaneses and the Canadian face him? Personally I don't think I can continue the conversation after hearing this, unless I laugh it off and say "you must be joking!" or something. That's how I see these listeners' answer. They now know that this Pi before them is a cannibal. For politeness they choose not to calling him out. They choose the tiger story for politeness. What I find funny, is that the act of eating family members is prevalent even in ancient Greek mythology, as a way of explaining the world. Chronus ate his children right after they were born to stop them overthrowing him.
Here is the distinction between Fight Club and Life of Pi: The Life of Pi utterly centered around God and spirituality, and Fight Club is completely centered around nihilism, primalism, and masculinity. Spirituality is a personal and mysterious thing that every individual have. Spirituality is a small part of religion. Religion includes Spirituality but is not limited to it. Religion includes habits, rules, culture and politics, and even institution. In this the Life of Pi, there is no religious institutions and there are some brief mentioning of religious idea, and are lots of ideas about spirituality. With inner peace comes the possibility of laziness. With the tiger (or his darkside) tamed, he had a chance to rest, but you cannot stop there or you will never achieve greatness. But yeah, If my animal aspect was manifested into a tiger then it might change the meaning of my story.
Stories provided by religion sound like silly made up stories but it is only told to you this way because the reality is too harsh and brutal for you to accept. So God gives you a more palatable version of the story but the point and result of the stories is the same either way. So eat up the piles of shit in the Bible, if it sounds like bullshit, its just God being nice. You can describe anyone's life story with or without God just as you can describe any story with or without fantastical elements that pretty much have the same point. And Pi's dad is right: the whole religion thing is made up by men and it keeps India in the dark.
I would not take this movie to that much heart so all I have to say about this movie is that it is a pretentious piece of work covered with beautiful cinematography; which is what Ang Lee is "usually" known for. But as for watching this movie, it is long and pretentious. This is just going to be a slow year for Academy Awards and Oscars. Which movie do you guys think that will win best movie on Oscar? For me this one or Miserables. The best thing about Life of Pi was the compelling love story with that girl at the beginning. I was moved. The Indian part of the movie is great. A story set in India without Bollywood musicals. :)
