Visually Spectacular

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2016)

At over 2 and a half hours, Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest film is a true epic. A thrilling, survival western full of adventure, visually stunning camera-work, and some surprisingly strong brutality.
It has a very simple story, and handles it to near perfection, showing the most horrific side of both nature and humanity. While it may not suit everybody's tastes and may come as a disappointment to people who may be looking for better all around plot and haven't really done any research beyond the fact that it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and has been nominated for quite a few Oscars. If you're looking for the best film of all time, you may not really find it here, because there are some flaws.
From my point of view, while this was easily one of my favorite films to come out this year, the running time seemed like it could've been a bit shortened. I get that it is an epic film, but you could've cut around 10-20 minutes of the film and it would have a very similar impact on me. However, while it was a bit on the long side, I was never actually bored or anything throughout the film, I just needed to look down at my watch a couple of times.
The performances are spectacular. Leonardo DiCaprio deserves an Oscar at this point (he was horribly snubbed in 2013, when he didn't win the Oscar for his absolute greatest performance in the hilarious satire "The Wolf of Wall Street"), and Tom Hardy does even better as the villainous murderer of DiCaprio's son who leaves him alone to die in the cold. Hardy manages to put in a lot of power and intensity into his performance, even more so than DiCaprio, and is one of the film's absolute highlights. He really transforms into this spectacular character!
The camera-work and filmmaking are breathtaking. They showcase the brutality in a way that made me feel as if I were really there, using some really long shots and fascinating camera angles, this is a true artistic masterpiece.
"The Revenant" is a great film if you know what you're getting into.