The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Wes Anderson's marine adventure is without a doubt, one of the Best Movies of the Year, but in a very strong year, it wont get recognized, just like his previous masterpiece The Royal Tenembaums.

We follow the story of the titular filmaker and oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) and his group of marine life researchers and adventurers (much like Jacques Cousteau), in their search for the 'Jaguar Shark' that killed Steve's best friend Esteban (also member of the group ) in their previous adventure.
Before leaving, they get 2 new members: Steve's son Ned (Owen Wilson) whom he's never met (and is not sure if he's his son for sure), and Jane (Cate Blanchett) a journalist writing a cover story about Steve.

And so they embark their super awesome ship, The Belafonte (which includes a Swedish sauna with a paid masseuse btw) and they go on an adventure unlike any other, when we'll get family relations, romance, crime, kidnapping, fun, music, incredibly amazing (and non-existent) species, oh, and pirates!!! All documented on camera for cinematic purposes of course.

Bill Murray and Owen Wilson are excellent in their scenes together, and Wilson's relation with Cate Blanchett is great too. Blanchett was pregnant during filming, and so Jane is pregnant too, and she looked more beautiful than ever here (loved the tattoo).
The rest of the group brings more laughs than anything and it works great, specially when delivered by the awesome Willem Dafoe and his Klaus (he's German) and Jeff Goldblum's Alistair Hennessey, Steve's nemesis, and his wife Eleanor's (Angelica Houston) exhusband.
Wes Anderson's wild imagination with the supporting character shows, as we have lots of them in The Belafonte's crew, including a stripper girl who's always naked, and 5 unpaid interns just looking for college credits.

Special recognition goes to Seu Jorge, who portrays the Portuguese Pele who takes care of the sound in the Belafonte, the documentaries, and 90% of the actual movie's score, as he translated David Bowie's songs and performed them on camera with his guitar.

All in all the movie is a lot like The Royal Tenembaums (not sure which one is better yet), with The Life Aquatic adding action but with less character development, mostly because there are more this time, with the main 5 or 6 are more than well developed.
Also, Wes Anderson's supreme storytelling story needs to get recognized again, but since he already got an Oscar nod for Tenembaums, and with so many great original stories this year, it's going to be tough, but it's deserved.