Revenge is a dish best served cold, wet, and bloody

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2016)

The first bit of this review is spoiler-free. I'll let you know when the spoilers start, so for all you die-hard cinephiles who have managed to stay off Wikipedia for as long as you have, don't worry -- I have your interests at heart.
The Revenant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki opted to film only in natural light, often leaving the crew with only 90 minutes of specific light to shoot long, arduous scenes. While this proved to be a difficult policy to maintain, it really shows on the big-screen, the natural light complementing the intricate juxtaposition between beauty and brutality that Lubezki and Iñárritu so meticulously maintain throughout the film. As a Canadian, and one blessed to live so near to the Rocky Mountains, I see many a shot that is vaguely recognizable, from the frozen lake with snow-capped peaks in the distance to the mountains silhouetted against the Northern Lights. Lubezki revels in the natural beauty of unspoiled wilderness -- as he should.
But what The Revenant taught me is that beauty is desensitizing, especially if one is inundated with it in a repetitive and unrelenting manner, eventually taking on a (beautiful) monotony. Each scene is done in exactly the same manner:
1. Beautiful nature shot for approximately ten seconds 2. Setting shot 3.Tracking shots
While this strategy is at first riveting, its repetition becomes all too clear after about the first hour or so. I was left in a dull state of certainty as to what was to happen next, amplified by the film's predictable narrative and false profundity.
Now, that isn't to say that the Revenant doesn't initially succeed. The first hour or so of the film is more transporting and disturbing than any CGI-infused blockbuster. Up to the midway point of the film, I was ready to proclaim it the best film of the year. Despite Dicaprio's lack of a need to act (he mostly just crawls around and screams), he crawls and screams quite well. If that's what the Academy is looking for, I'd say for sure, give him the Oscar that he's supposedly been deserving of for so many years. But acting in general is not something I am prone to appreciate, as I find that the best actors/actresses only succeed when the audience doesn't see them as an actor/actress.
I LOVE gritty filmmaking, and The Revenant is as gritty as it gets. We see Dicaprio getting rained on, beaten to a pulp, soaking wet, falling off cliffs, crawling around with a broken leg, dirty, ragged, you name it. The environment that the film depicts is harsh, Iñárritu refusing to compromise his wonderfully maintained atmosphere of mud, blood, and water for the sake of the audience, and we are so much the better for it. Sure, it's tough to watch, but it's not so much imposing as demanding.
[*SPOILERS FROM HERE*]
The Revenant becomes extremely predictable after the first hour. Dicaprio gets mauled by a bear (the scene is brutal), and left for dead by John Fitzgerald (Hardy), who kills his son right in front of him. It's undeniably disturbing stuff, especially when Iñárritu decides to throw in some gore to spice things up. Dicaprio then finds his dead son, and then the film segues into a tiresome, revenge flick that echoes man's immaturity while attempting to demonstrate some sort of profound knowledge of the human condition. In truth, The Revenant is as emotionally corrupt as its characters. By the end of the film, Dicaprio has come such a long way, seen so much, and yet, he is the exact same man that he is before.
I hate to quote Shakespeare, but "the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance", and this film fails to realize that. And yet, it sees fit to assume a certain undeserved intelligence (through the use of symbols and flashbacks).
Technically, the film is a masterpiece despite its repetition. Narratively, the film has a flawless beginning and a solid ending. Thematically and intellectually, the film is a mess.