Overlong, overrated but not bad

Rating: 7/10 (12 April 2016)

I usually wait until all the hype has cooled down before going to see a movie. This one, being an Oscar winner, had a long hype cycle. So it took me a while to finally see it. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great. It wasn't Oscar worthy. But it wasn't bad.
From the trailer The Revenant was the first DiCaprio movie I've ever actually wanted to see. Usually he doesn't impress me. He's a decent actor. He's not bad. He's just not worthy of all the hype. But this movie looked like it would be pretty good and, from the trailer, DiCaprio looked to be playing a character I could care about. Which usually is not the case.
I have to say that his performance was good, maybe better than any other performance I've seen him give. But every actor in the movie was good. Tom Hardy wasn't just good - he was awesome. But then bad guys don't usually get the Oscar now do they?
The cinematography was beautiful. Emmanuel Lubezki flawlessly captured, in dark tones, the spirit of the freezing freaking cold untamed wilderness. But then it was filmed in Canada so how are you going to mess that up.
Personally, I think Alejandro G. Iñárritu is highly overrated as a director. He's not bad, per se. But two Oscars in two years? OK, granted, this year he didn't have much competition.
The movie was decent. And since I waited until it was playing at the $3 theater I felt like I got my money's worth. But a good editor with a sharp pair of scissors could have cut about 45 minutes out of it and made it much better.