LIFE OF PI

Watching Ang Lee's new film Life of Pi, I kept wishing over and over again that I had read the book. Half of that wish could be attributed to personal guilt, Yann Martel's much acclaimed novel has long sat on my shelf waiting for me to get around to it. The other half has to do with the perception that it's just one of those unfulfillable stories.

But Lee gives it his all, and does a mostly excellent job, telling the story of Pi (newcomer Suraj Sharma), a zookeepers son with a somewhat porous sense of faith. He's born Hindu, but eventually incorporates Catholic, Islamic and Jewish aspects into his own personal religion.

One day Pi's father decides to sell the zoo and move the family and the animals to Canada. But the ship encounters a heavy storm and sinks. Pi ends up alone on a lifeboat with several animal refugees including a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

Most of the animals are dispatched quickly, leaving just Pi and Parker in the boat. The idea that Pi could manage to find any sort of bond with Parker is potentially the stories least believable element, but Lee handles it expertly by never forgetting that Parker is a wild animal. Pi is constantly fighting the elements, starvation, dehydration and the tiger. Furthermore Pi knows that the only thing keeping Parker from turning on him is his ability to feed the beast. It's a very complex, carefully built relationship.

Lee's filming of the story is absolutely dazzling. The sinking ship is easily one of the best action set peaces you'll see this year. Many of the digital editing tricks Lee experimented with in Hulk return here, we get transitions were one scene is composited over the next, shifting aspect ratios, animated book illustrations, you name it. But were those gimmicks grew tiresome in Hulk, here they are always invigorating and Lee has learned to keep these tricks at the service of the story. (it also looks fantastic in 3D). The film also uses some of the best CGI ever rendered to bring Richard Parker and the other animals to life.

The thing that doesn't work is the framing device were the author, a clear stand-in for the books author, seeks out the adult Pi (Irrfan Khan) to tell his story, which is advertized as "a story to make you believe in God." The movie is a powerful adventure story, but it's not that powerful. I guess it doesn't help that I already believe in God, but the film's final moments, which are the ones designed to affirm or re-affirm spirituality which probably played as much bigger revelations in the book, just don't work as well as they should. As visual and cinematic as Lee makes his adaptation, it's just something that feels more suited to the page because spiritual experiences work better when induced my a more internalized medium. Still, that Lee took on this film at all is commendable. The idea that only 90% of it works, hardly seems like a detriment when the resulting film is as rich and ambitious as this.

Grade: A-

AVENGERS RECAP: HULK/THE INCREDIBLE HULK

After the success of Iron Man, Marvel Studios went forward with the next film in their Avengers prequel project - The Incredible Hulk. The Hulk is, arguably, the most well known of the Avengers team, due to being the subject of a popular and still beloved 70's TV show. But the angry, green giant had some baggage too in the form of the 2003 film Hulk directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Even though Lee's film in no way ties into The Avengers, I thought it might be valuable to look at it before moving on the the main review. Those uninterested in Ang Lee's Hulk can feel free to scroll down to the second picture of the Hulk.

In Lee's Hulk, Bruce Banner (Eric Banna) is a micro-biologist trying to get along with his coworker/recent ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly). One day there is a lab accident and Banner is exposed to an ultra lethal dose of Gamma radiation. He really should have been killed, but he's fine, except for the fact that he now turns into a giant, green monster whenever he gets angry. Eventually we learn that the reason that Bruce survived is that, as a child, his father David (Nick Nolte) had experimented on him giving him regenerative, absorption powers that allowed him to be transformed by the radiation rather than killed. So it's not a question of the radiation turning Bruce into something new as that it brought out something that was there all along. Late in the film David refers to the Hulk as his real son. This issue of parentage, while a wild diversion from the comics, is at the core of Lee's film. Betty also finds herself dealing with daddy issues of a different kind. Her father Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Sam Elliot), is an over-bearing, emotionally distant army general who want's Hulk "neutralized." There is a point in the film where we realize that no matter how much they struggle, Bruce and Betty will always be living with the consequences of the choices their fathers made for them, that some shadows are too big to step out from.

Nick Nolte once quoted Ang Lee as saying about Hulk: "I don't know how to make a comic book, but I do know how to make a Greek tragedy." For better or worse, the film bares this out. Hulk is one of the most emotionally involving films of it's genre. Performances are top notch across the board. The central Bruce/Betty relationship feels real in every way (having them broken up at the start is a nice touch). Lee's use and execution of theme is impressive. Before we ever see Hulk in the flesh, we see him in Bruce's dream, not as an alter-ego, but a manifestation of repressed memory.

However, it's that very willingness to be experimental and abstract that nearly destroys the film. Lee didn't want to make a comic book film, he wanted to make a film that physically resembled a comic book. This concept takes the form of a extensive split-screens, picture-in-picture effects, and strange wipes and dissolves. At times the style is mesmerizing, at times it is disorienting, and at times you wish that Ang Lee would just pick a camera angle and stick with it! It's nice to see experimentation in a big-budget tentpole, but sometimes Lee's love of digital editing just gets ridiculous.

An actual, unaltered still from Hulk— no, really! 

It's a shame because apart from a little-loved fight with mutant dogs and some less-than-stelar (even by 2003 standards) CGI, the film's style is its biggest flaw.

But that said, Hulk has a quality to it. A tactile emotional reality that is deeper than any other superhero movie I've ever seen. I complained about Iron Man using character development as window-dressing, well Hulk does it right. Even Batman Begins doesn't get into it's protagonist's inner life as deeply as Hulk does. If Lee hadn't edited the film is such a severe style, or at least shown some more restraint, we might be talking about Hulk as one of the classics of the genre instead of as an ambitious failure.

Lee's attempt to re-invent film grammar was met with luke-warm box office receipts and extreme disappointment from fans (apparently fans really hate it when movies radically change the things they love). Afterwords, Marvel has been wary of letting big-name directors near their films. It seems that Marvel CEO/Film Producer Avi Arad would rather lock out a Christopher Nolan type than risk another Ang Lee.

To this end, Louis Leterrier (Transporter 1&2, Unleashed) was hired to direct the 2008 Avengers themed reboot: The Incredible Hulk. The new film had an all new cast and a new origin story (shown in the opening credits) more in line with the TV show/comic books. In this new version Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is still a micro-biologist, but this time he was experimenting on himself and the Gamma blast was completely intentional, less planed was the transformation into the Hulk. 

The film finds Banner hiding out in Rio. He's still on the run from General Ross (William Hurt) who want's to use Hulk as a weapon. Ross has the help of a British marine named Blonsky (Tim Roth). Eventually they find Bruce and he has to hit the road again. Bruce has been getting help from a mysterious scientist who might be able to cure him, but not without biometric data that can only be found at the university where Bruce's accident tool place. It's there that he runs into his old flame Betty Ross (now played by Liv Tyler).

As expected, there's not a really any connective tissue between Lee's film and Leterrier's film, not in story theme or ambition. Leterrier's film has nothing on it's mind other than being exactly what it is: a solid action construct with a few good laughs that periodically drops references to other Marvel properties to build anticipation for Avengers. The film is slick, well shot, well edited, it's in focus and everything. There are some nice touches: Banner wears a pulse monitor so he knows if he's close to Hulking-out. The film keeps track of time by counting "days without incident." The performances are all good enough.  Roth is especially compelling and has the only character who really shows a dramatic arc in the film.

The action scenes themselves are numerous and explosion heavy but with the exception of one, where Hulk is attacked by sound-cannons, they're all pretty dull. The real problem with The Incredible Hulk is that it's lacking soul. There's nothing here that doesn't feel off the shelf. It's not bad, but it's not blindingly good either. It's the reverse of Iron Man's problem — too much action, not enough personality.

Through the magic of corporate synergy The Incredible Hulk features several moments designed to set-up The Avengers: Nick Fury and Stark Industries are mentioned in the opening credits. The Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America plays a key part (though why it worked on Captain America and mutated Blonsky is something I'd like a comic-book fan to answer). S.H.I.E.L.D. is mentioned and Tony Stark (Iron Man himself!) shows up at the end to brief General Ross on The Avengers Initiative.

Before sitting down to re-watch the two Hulk films, I tried to see what I could remember about both films. From Ang Lee's version I remembered the crazy split screens (of course) but I also remembered the drama, the feeling of being moved by the sweep of an epic tragedy. From Louis Leterriers version I remembered the sound cannons. 

Grades:

Hulk: B+

The Incredible Hulk: C+

AVENGERS RECAP DIRECTORY:
Iron Man
Hulk/The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2

Thor

Captain America

The Avengers