Vs. A Boy, A Lifeboat.... and a Tiger!

*Says to himself* This is my boat! I am The Man! I am THE BOSS..You're no match when I'm in stare down mode.

The trailer for Ang Lee's new film Life of Pi debuted a few days ago. It's been a while since Ang Lee went all Oscars on us and delivered a movie of this magnitude.


His last outing was the underwhelming Taking Woodstock; a poor man's Almost Famous. The movie was a huge letdown for me as a strong supporter of Lee's work. With the slow but rewarding Lust, Caution, I thought Ang would never let me down. Yes folks, I would even stand to defend his version of Hulk. I actually liked that movie and thought it was able to tackle some interesting points on the psychological aspects of Bruce Banner and his Mr. Hyde-like persona. In addition to that, it was stylistically appealing with it's use of numerous split screens giving the viewers a sense of a comic in motion. Sure, there may not been enough Hulk SMASH moments, but I felt it tried to push the comic book movie genre into new places both emotionally and visually.

So here's the director's latest venture, which looks to be making a run for best picture in this year's Oscars. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name detailing a boy's near death experience with the sinking of a freighter and the ordeals he faces on a lifeboat with several animals, which include a Bengal Tiger. Tiger's are known to bring the awesome factor to any film. The Hangover is solid proof. In my opinion, the absence of a tiger is one of the reasons why the sequel failed in surpassing it's predecessor. Big fucking tiger always trumps chain smoking monkey. Plus, Ed Helm's Stu composed that cool 'tiger' song.   

You do notice I'm a tiger right? MY BOAT, BITCH!

The visuals speak for themselves and as evidenced by the trailer, Ang Lee looks to be once again at the top of his game. There are moments in the trailer that are visually similar to the film, The Tree of Life. I've never read the book but the preview invoked some parallels to Cast Away, The Jungle Book, and Robinson Crusoe. Of course, I could be completely off the chain just throwing ideas left and right. Regardless of the plot, this trailer has me very excited to a return to form from a masterful director.

The trailer can be viewed below!