What makes it different from others?

Lack of good storyline.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

So this dude was the lone survivor of a shipwreck, and he floated around for 8 months before washing up on the Mexico coast. That's a rare, amazing story as it is. No need to embellish anything about it. The mundane parts of figuring out how to catch fish, constantly being on the verge losing hope, being unbearably lonely, and weathering storms in a tiny vessel? You can easily tell those stories and keep my interest. As the Tom Hanks character did in Cast Away.Telling such an incredible, completely ludicrous life story that any sane listener would naturally assume he was embellishing? The charm of Forrest Gump was that the Tom Hanks character wasn't embellishing.Of course the main point of The Life of Pi is to spotlight the natural human awe of storytelling, particularly to explain things beyond our feeble comprehension like religion. But if I was the author dude, I would have punched this jerk in the face for wasting my entire day. I can't recall ever feeling so frustrated from a movie as I did with about ten minutes remaining in this embarrassment of a film.That said, visually beautiful and a great musical score, yadda yadda yadda. But the story is so absurdly frustrating and unforgivable.

The film opens with a lengthy character build-up of Pi. It starts off with the crude explanation on how he got his name. It contrasts this with Pi's discovery of religion to the point of believing in universalism. His lofty ideas are quickly contrasted with a dose of reality when a tiger, he thinks he has connected with, eats a live goat. After he develops a love interest we finally come to the meat of the tale.His family opts to go to Canada on a Japanese merchant ship and if everything went okay, you wouldn't see a picture of Pi in a boat with said tiger promoting this film. His life's experience are reflected in his relationship with the tiger and survival at sea.Pi's life is one filled with contrasts. He is a microcosm of India and perhaps the world as his name is symbolic of the constant the defines circles, orbs, and globes. That is the spiritual aspect. However his name derives from the "P" word giving it a dose of crude reality. The film/book is designed to be a metaphor. This is demonstrated in the end when Pi gives us two stories, then asks, "Which do you prefer?" as a way to test one's views in a world of contrasts.While the film is interesting on a number of levels, it is heavily narrated with an accent. This caused me to occasionally miss a word every now and then. Hopefully the DVD will have English subtitles.Parental Guide: No sex or nudity. While rated PG I thought Pi dropped the F-bomb near the end when he was talking about the two Japanese investigators. It was tough to tell with the accent. Beginning of film frequently refers to pi**ing.

Very nice flimed movie, but at the last 5 minutes you understand the point of the movie and it makes you think about it for weeks. One of the greatest movie I ever seen

If you hated the book, you may be pleasantly surprised by the movie. I truly loathed the sanctimonious tone of the novel and was very bored throughout reading it for a book club meeting. However, my friend wanted to see the movie recently and I'm glad I gave it a chance. The visual and audio aspects of the film were incredible, and I found it a much more enjoyable experience than the novel.