Not uncommon movie tropes, done in a clever and fun way....

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2020)

When a movie that stars Leonardo di Caprio as the main antagonist takes more than one hour to finally introduce his character, one gets the idea this is going to be special.
And the sole reason for this audacity is the charming and captivating presence of Christopher Waltz, who had already proven his mettle in Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" - evidently becoming the talking point of that movie. The rest was taken care of by Jamie Foxx playing Django, a character that transitions from the oppressed to the entertaining to the Badass.
What also surprised me was the timeline of the film which was relatively linear, given Tarantino's fondness for messing with the order of events.
So the movie begins and Christopher Waltz within minutes convinces you you need to look no further for surprises and fun. Accompanied by him, Django, the freed slave embarks on a journey of Bounty killings until he decides its time to free his wife from slavery. Waltz, realising how dangerous an adventure like this cpuld get offers his guidance and comes up with a plan. It is shown Waltz is fully aware of how difficult it could be to free the woman.
They ride together, disguising themselves as dealers of fighter black men. And then do we finally get to meet possibly one of the best movie villains - Leonardo di Caprio as Calvon Candie. He is introduced as an affluent man with devilish fetish of a wrestling game that mostly ends with a death and lots of blood.
He does seem intrigued by Django's ways and demeanor, but reserves his approach as Django offers him a plump sum to get one of his wrestlers. And as they ride to his house, the guests get a live show of Candie's personality and business ethics as he punishes one his fighter slaves who tried to elope.
All seems to be going merry to the plan, until Candie's pet slave figures out the real scheme of the guests....and that is when Leonardo's character gets to shine. Be it the skull demonstration or the fiery thumping on the table with a thunderous scream...he was instilling fear and accompanied awe every moment.
Waltz, pale and later red-faced signs off a new deal offered to have his way out but chooses to not shake hands with Candie. This isn't received well either as Candie takes it as an insult and tries to surrender Waltz into a handshake. So Waltz walks up to him, smiles and does something that leaves us as shocked as Candie. And with the two star characters gone, it dawns upon us that the finale belongs to the character to whom the movie belongs - Django Unchained.
What then follows, from his escape to his final revenge reeks with goofiness, but Django's crazy gun skills make us feel he could've actually pulled it off.
The end is pretty cliche' but there is no denying it is satisfying. And Tarantino's signature blood baths arrive, albeit late, in full glory.