Here’s a Wiki article on Wes that lists some influences.
I think I have watched the Life Aquatic about 8 times now and I like more each time I view it (I still think The Royal Tennenbaums is his best movie).
I lurved this movie. For me, however, I liked it better than *The Royal *Tennenbaums. I can’t really pinpoint why but it just resonated with me more. I think, also, the visual aesthetics completely reeled me in. (Pun not entirely intended)
I was pondering starting a thread about this movie…
I wanted so much to enjoy this movie, and by all empirical measurements it should have been an absurdist dark-comedy classic, but it just didn’t work for me. Uniformly, every quirk, joke, and line fell into a limp and lifeless splat of unfunniness.
On paper, it seems the movie was shooting for Buckaroo Bonzai styled humor and style, except in a Jacques Cousteau setting. On rewatching, it even felt like a direct homage/imitation of BB.
But the key to BB’s success, and Life Aquatic’s failure, I feel is timing. Some comedian once said, “Timing is the secret to comedy”, and that’s where I feel this movie missed its mark. Script/screenplay/acting, this was a perfect movie, until it was violated by the director and/or editor to have all comedic timing sucked out.
This movie is like watching Al Gore telling Johnny Carson jokes…objectively you know it should be humorous, and you can imagine just how good it could be using Johnny’s voice and tempo in your mind’s eye, but the sour taste of a joke told poorly is worse than no joke at all.
Somewhere, in a parallel universe, there was another director/editor/production crew that turned this into one of the top 5 comedies ever made 
I’m with GargoyleWB, but would extend his critique to “The Royal Tennenbaums” and “Rushmore” as well (I haven’t seen “Bottle Rocket.” To me, Anderson is always missing the target. I always find myself squirming uncomfortably when watching his movies.
Funny thing, I just watched this film last night. I liked it. I understand why some people wouldn’t. It’s weird, absurd, deadpan–all those things that just don’t click with a lot of movie viewers. So be it. But I also thought the style parodies of the Cousteau films and books were straightforward and pretty hilarious. Same with the animated sea life. It may not be your cup of tea, but that doesn’t make it bad. It’s not like it’s Big Daddy or any shit like that.
Same here. Overall, I don’t care for Wes Anderson’s style, but something in The Life Aquatic just sorta “clicked” with me, too. I don’t generally care for Bill Murray, or Owen Wilson either, but thought they were pretty good in this movie.