Above average oscarbait

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2016)

While this movie is shot beautifully and visually looks really good at times with some amazing camera-work, almost everything else in it is average.
For those who are not familiar with the story, it's based on a real life events. But, "based on real life events" is a bit strong word for it. Movie itself is (loosely) based on a book from few years back that is (very loosely) based on real adventures of Hugh Glass. And that means that in reality, this movie is pure fiction inspired by his multiple adventures slapped into one.
While there were Fitz and Bridger and other people and there was a bear attack at some point in Hugh's life, that's about as much as the movie has any resemblance to the real life events. For more, just google Hugh Glass and compare with the movie.
This was not a critique of the movie for not sticking 100% to real story, but I think it's important to note things like that and mention them. It's a fun trivia to know for sure but you shouldn't weigh movie quality by this. Also, if by some bad luck, you find yourself in similar situation do not look back to this movie for guidance, watch Les Stroud's Survivorman instead.
Now, DiCaprio, Hardy, Poulter and Gleeson,they all give good performances but by design, the don't have much room to do something more with characters. Leo himself had some amazing and way better performances recently than this. So ughing and aghing through mud and snow and having painful face expressions can go only so far. And he does that great, but that's about it, even with a lot of help from great camera-work and direction. Character himself was written like that, he did what he could with it and it's solid. Not Oscar worthy, but solid. Same goes for the others.
I can't say what could make this movie better, it just is what it is and that's okay. Story was already changed to be more engaging than it maybe was in real life. Characters are boosted up, there's revenge boost as well and yet it's still somehow just an okay movie with only thing that's exceptional is it's visual style and the way it was shot. Without that it would be just an average 5/10 movie. So just for the visuals, and some wilderness cruelty, you should probably watch this movie.