Slow-moving and far too long, but some impressive sections make it worth sticking with

Rating: 6/10 (18 June 2016)

Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team are on a fur trading expedition when Glass finds himself badly injured after being mauled by a bear - this is after a subsequent attack by a bunch of Indians. As a result of his injuries Glass is barely alive and is left in the care of two members of his hunting team John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and Bridger (Will Poulter). However, Fitzgerald has no intention of looking after Glass and leaves him for dead (after killing Glass' son in front of him). This prompts Glass to track down Fitzgerald and seek retribution against him.
The Revenant is another in a long line of 'big films' that has been hyped as being a brilliant film (its current IMDb rating of 8.1 seems to follow this trend). Whilst it's far from awful, I think it's both inaccurate and misleading to represent it as being a flawless piece of work.
In order not to appear to be too negative I'll begin with a few positives; firstly this is a very handsome looking film; the bleak, cold cinematography makes the film look and feel realistic. Some of the special effects are also very good - the bear attack on DiCaprio was one of the highlights of the film and again was so realistic that for a moment you may actually believe that he's fighting against a real bear. The brutality of the picture and its sheer rawness means that it's a film that you rarely want to take your eyes away from and much of DiCaprio's story arc sees him having to survive against the elements with little more than his instincts and knowledge and again it made his journey interesting if nothing else. The performances in this film are also excellent; DiCaprio is an actor who has steadily improved over time and this is easily one of his best performances and likewise Tom Hardy is also excellent and to his credit his American accent isn't bad either.
So yes there's a lot to praise this film for, but there are clearly some problems here that need addressing; firstly we come to the pacing and although the first 15 minutes are pretty exciting and well-staged Inarritu seems to take his foot off the gas after the opening battle sequence and fills the first hour up with the huntsman squabbling and dragging DiCaprio around in the snow - OK there is a bit more to it than that, but not much more if I'm being honest. The second problem lies with the running time; at its core this is a revenge thriller and I personally feel that if they're tightly plotted revenge thrillers can be wrapped up in 90 minutes or so - quite why a 150 minute run time has been assigned to a film with a plot as basic as this is a mystery to me? This results in The Revenant being chocked full of lengthy scenes which add very little to the film and ultimately make the film a bit boring at times.
One thing Inarritu does seem to get right is the tone of the film; it does have some brutal violence and it does contain some stomach churning scenes, but these things are included at the appropriate moments and many of these scenes do serve a purpose (in other words these scenes are included when the narrative dictates rather than simply to shock or induce nausea).
Ultimately The Revenant is worth your time because when it's good its very good, but at 150 minutes it's too long and I personally feel that if it had been more tightly plotted and had the narrative been a bit stronger than it would have been an excellent film rather than merely being a good film.