4. Life Of Pi
Released: 21st December Ang Lees long awaited adaptation of the Booker Prize winner about a boy and a tiger in a life boat finally arrives in last breath of the year. Life of Pi is the sort of book that quite easily could have been given the oft thrown around unfilmable title; it requires child actors, extensive water based scenes and plenty of animals, all at the same time. But if the trailer is anything to go by, it may just have been pulled off. Lee is the perfect director for this sort of project, with all his films marked by their ambitious visual style; Hulk may have been rightly lambasted, but its visuals were certainly unique, emulating the formatting style of a comic book. This ambitious nature lends itself for a story that involves themes of redemption as much it does massive set pieces. Lee may have joined the legions of filmmakers needlessly jumping on the 3D bandwagon, but if that distraction is what it takes to see this fascinating, layered book on the big screen, it may be a price worth paying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Hjrs6WQ8M