There's a reason why fans of Ang Lee continue to stick by him so rabidly even when he fails rather miserably. While I enjoyed The Hulk, many others didn't, and Taking Woodstock was a misguided effort from the start. Lee has never shied away from tackling big challenges, to the point where even his failures are interesting ones. There aren't many who would have dared bring a film like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to this country with that type of success. And how many others would have taken the reasoned approach to the Hulk that Lee did? So when Lee makes another movie, it's a big deal, and Life of Pi might pose the greatest challenge for him yet.
After wowing critics at CinemaCon and teasing us with a very brief clip only a few weeks ago, the first full trailer for Life of Pi has been released, and right away it's clear Lee is in top form. He needed to be in order to adapt Yann Martel's best-selling book, an epic high seas fable that has stumped others looking to bring it to the big screen. Lee appears to have fully embraced the fantasy aspect of it, as the film is awash in vibrant colors and ultraviolet hues that appear to have sprung from the pages of a storybook. Undertaking 3D for the first time, Lee looks to have grasped the intricacies of the format rather quickly, and I can only imagine how beautiful this will look in it.
After conducting a national search to find the titular Pi, Lee settled on newcomer Suraj Sharma, who we see here struggling to survive the sinking of his family's boat, bypassing a terrified zebra as the cabin floods. Making it out of the wreck but losing everything in the process, Pi encounters the ferocious Bengal tiger that would become his companion for the rest of the voyage. Lee appears to have captured the life-affirming qualities of Martel's book, but I'm curious to see how far into the darker aspects he's willing to go. Fox clearly has visions of Oscars nominations dancing in their heads, and based on this trailer they're aiming for a wider demographic by presenting it as a straight fairy tale.
Life of Pi stars Suraj Sharma, Gerard Depardieu, Tabu, and Irrfhan Khan, and hits theaters on November 21st. Check out the trailer below...
