A worthless film.

Rating: 7/10 (28 February 2016)

Translated from 3rd January review
Excellently acted, directed and filmed (especially filmed), The Revenant didn't however manage to captivate me once in its 150 minutes. Which means I had a lot of time to think about "Why?". It's because such a movie is useless to our world.
The story isn't interesting, or new, there isn't a single theme that wasn't presented in the exact same way in a previous film. You won't see any new ideas or techniques that would justify the making of this film except that they wanted to make an Oscar film. The director wanted to show off his skill, the same for the actors and technicians. So, they found an old story that would let them shine AND which traditionally catches the eye of the Oscar crowd. It's true, they added a modern angle to the treatment of the indigenous population by the white invaders but, it's nothing special either. I don't want this review to be negative. Tom Hardy gets completely lost in the role of Fitzgerald. DiCaprio is again fantastic in a slightly unusual role compared to what he played in the last few years. Where he played more verbally than physically. (Screaming his way through half of those films. Hugh Glass is a tragic character, a survivor, beaten down by the world of 1820's, not one who pumps his chest, getting ready to take on any adversary in his way. (Yes I'm talking about The Wolf of Wall Street here). Directing is, again, excellent. Inarritu demonstrating that he can also direct calm, somber and atmospheric scenes without dialogue. But, if it weren't for Emmanuel Lubezki, the movie wouldn't look, or flow nearly as well. Those in the sound department also pull their weight marvelously. It's very difficult to capture that feeling of solitude in the wilderness, but they managed to do it in this film. You can really feel the cold, the dampness and the loneliness, wherever you are while watching The Revenant. I don't want to take away from The Revenant any one of these technical achievements but that's the problem: it's a lot more of a technical spectacle than a story worth telling than a great film. Sort of a Transformers for the Oscar crowd.