Cathy wanted to watch this. I was pretty indifferent. In the end, it's a nicely photographed movie, but the story didn't captivate me.
Everything up to the point that he gets lost at sea was considerably more interesting. Once he's on the boat, it turns into an interesting survival story, but the problem is that it's still being treated as some kind of mystical journey story. The result is that there isn't much tension there. This is compounded by the fact that we know that he survives. since he's narrating the story. Perhaps if the story were more about how the tiger helped him survive, that might be more interesting. Nevertheless, for people who enjoy the photography and effects, there's lots to see. But watching it for the story just didn't feel complete. This probably works better in book form.
I did want to say one thing about the effects. There's a very comic-book look to the movie. This isn't a problem, except that it's supposed to take place in the real world. The result is something that doesn't feel balanced. Colors are vivid, the water is clear blue. Things glow. Lots of things glow. The effects work with the animals is mostly good, but not great. There are some effects that are very well done. The zebra's breathing is great. But then there are other shots of animal movement that don't look right at all.
I was thinking of a number of shots early on, where the tiger comes directly at the camera. These are intended to be startling, (I wonder if they considered releasing the movie in 3D) but the perfection of the shot takes some of the believability out of it. If they had made those shots a little rougher, possibly a little off-center, that would have made a big difference.
I also consider it to be a failing of the story that I don't care about which version of the story is true. The fantasy nature of the whole thing just means that I don't buy any aspect of the story.
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