Life of Pi (2012)

All Critics (221) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (199) | Rotten (27) | DVD (5)

Flawed, yes, but marvellously ambitious, and unforgettably gorgeous to look at.

December 11, 2012 Full Review

Tom Huddleston

Time Out

Top Critic

Mr. Lee's film is stronger as a visual experience-especially in 3-D-than an emotional one, but it has a final plot twist that may also change what you thought you knew about the ancient art of storytelling.

November 22, 2012 Full Review

Joe Morgenstern

Wall Street Journal

Top Critic

There's an audience out there for this movie, but the question is whether they will find it.

November 21, 2012 Full Review

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

The movie's energy peters out in a series of book-club conversations about divine will, the power of storytelling, and the resilience of the human spirit.

November 21, 2012 Full Review

Dana Stevens

Slate

Top Critic

A movie that can't be dismissed because there is too much in it but can't be embraced because it's all spread too thin.

November 21, 2012 Full Review

Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Top Critic

This transcendent fable carries a real sting in its tail. Ang Lee has made a bold and wondrous movie, one of his best.

November 21, 2012 Full Review

Tom Charity

CNN.com

Top Critic

Some of the most gorgeous 3D images this side of 'Avatar.'

May 13, 2013 Full Review

Al Alexander

The Patriot Ledger

Everywhere you look there are images of beguiling beauty: a mirror-like sea reflecting golden clouds; a sudden swarm of flying fish; an island bristling with meerkats; and a breaching whale glowing with bioluminescence as it leaps out of the water.

April 30, 2013 Full Review

Jason Best

Movie Talk

If you're in search of a film that's something a little different, they don't come much more different than this.

April 26, 2013 Full Review

Russell Lewin

SFX Magazine

Ang Lee's fantastical and frustrating Oscar-winner is kept afloat on Blu-ray by Fox's highly commendable A/V transfer and a bundle of helpful, relevant extras.

April 5, 2013 Full Review

Chris Cabin

Slant Magazine

Ang Lee's Life of Pi is a visual masterpiece, often transcending the boundaries of special effects and what they're capable of, but the film's actual story is hollow.

March 23, 2013 Full Review

Jeremy Lebens

We Got This Covered

The search for religion takes a back seat to the spectacular visual splendor of a boy floating alone on the ocean with a vicious tiger.

March 21, 2013 Full Review

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

A wondrous tale of survival and faith that challenges our notions of the possible.

March 20, 2013 Full Review

Rob Vaux

Sci-Fi Movie Page

Best director Oscar-winner Ang Lee unleashes some serious CGI black magic to create a ridiculously lifelike gang of animals stuck aboard the wackiest life raft trip you're ever likely to see.

March 19, 2013 Full Review

Phil Villarreal

COEDMagazine.com

Winner of several technical Oscars and Best Director, Ang Lee's Life of Pi gets an absolutely gorgeous HD transfer in a nice full featured, simple Blu-ray package. It is a visual feast for the eyes.

March 14, 2013 Full Review

Michelle Alexandria

Eclipse Magazine

"Life of Pi" isn't just a visual effects movie stuck at sea. There's a compelling story here as well.

March 13, 2013 Full Review

James Plath

Movie Metropolis

Endorses the notion of blind faith, and denial as a positive character trait.

February 24, 2013 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

Mystical and endless as the number pi, 'The Life of Pi' works on a number of levels, all of them enchanting.

February 3, 2013 Full Review

Linda Cook

KWQC-TV (Iowa)

Takes some time to find its flow. The CGI-tiger is the greatest marvel here-the intensity of its stare alone makes it the truest fiction of all. Religious platitudes remain fairly pat; the final allegory's overstated.

January 29, 2013 Full Review

Brian Gibson

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

The morals of the story don't come through, while the film's extensive metaphors are belatedly rammed down your throat like a get out of jail free card.

January 20, 2013 Full Review

Sam Bathe

Fan The Fire

Ang Lee's extraordinary, lyrical, beautiful, moving, genre-defying Life of Pi can be recommended with the simple, sweeping assurance that it is unlike anything you have ever seen before.

January 16, 2013 Full Review

Jim Schembri

3AW

A dazzling digital dreamscape that sets staggering new heights for what can be accomplished with 3D technology.

January 12, 2013 Full Review

Tom Clift

Moviedex

Martel's novel could have yielded a greater film in different hands, but Lee's work remains one to be grateful for.

January 10, 2013 Full Review

Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

(Ang) Lee has gone above and beyond, executing the job with near flawless precision.

January 9, 2013 Full Review

Matt Neal

The Standard

When adrift with Pi and the tiger on the open sea, the film is at its most wondrous: a ravishing spectacle that treads judiciously on the infinite line between what's possible and impossible.

January 8, 2013 Full Review

Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Life poses as a spiritual experience, but it's more like a postcard.

January 8, 2013 Full Review

Jake Mulligan

Boston Phoenix

• 1. Pi Patel: I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.
  – Submitted by Mati M (2 months ago)
• 1. Writer: It is a lot to take in--to figure out what it all means.
  2. Adult Pi Patel: If it happens, it happens, why should it have meaning?
  – Submitted by Chrisel Ann K (2 months ago)
• 1. Santosh Patel: Do you understand? Good.
  2. Young Pi Patel: I would like to be baptized.
  – Submitted by Adi P (2 months ago)
• 1. Santosh Patel: Believe in something then to accept everything blindly. And that begins with thinking rationally.
  – Submitted by Adi P (2 months ago)
• 1. Santosh Patel: In a few hundred years science has taken us farther in understanding the universe than religion has in 10,000.
  2. Gita Patel: That is true. Science can teach us more about what is out there, but not what is in here.
  – Submitted by Adi P (2 months ago)
• 1. Adult Pi Patel: I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye
  – Submitted by Jillian L (2 months ago)