Average film on an epic scale

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2016)

Firstly, the acting in this film cannot be questioned, Dicaprio, the underrated performance( in my opinion) of Tom hardy, Will Poulter and Domhnall Gleeson really bring alive what in fact is a simple, predictable script and formulaic story. The latter of which cannot be complained about as you must surely have a grasp on how the film will finish going in, with Dicaprio(Hugh Glass) finding and killing( or serving on a plate) Hardy(John Fitzgerald) in a brutal fight to the death which was beautifully shot and captured.
It is the way this film is captured that makes it Oscar bait and thus a 12 time nominated picture. With Inarriru and Lubezki choosing to shoot with natural light, in real locations, with some of the long takes that were so brilliantly seen in Birdman. Coupled with the engineering of an avalanche, the brutal almost life like bear attack and the actors willingness to push themselves that really take the film to another level than you'd expect from what is basically a 19th century Hollywood action movie with a 140 million dollar budget.
I was expecting the film to probably stand still at points and basically be time filling between the brutal battles at the beginning and end of the film, with basically just 2 hours of Dicaprio demonstrating his acting skills. However I was surprised at the amount of on screen time for both Hardy and Poulter who formed an interesting relationship on screen and I believe saved the audience from watching Hugh glass drag himself across the floor for 2 hours+, as we know Dicaprio has a talent for such a task(flashback to the Wolf of Wall Street) and I believe credit has to go to Inarritu for focusing not just on Glass and his remarkable story but allowing us to also revel in Hardy's performance, which I believe is his best to date and worthy of winning the supporting actor race. While Leonardo Dicaprio's performance cannot be denied and as much as he deserves recognition and will probably win best actor, I don't believe it's his best or in fact as commendable as Michael Faabender's effort in Steve jobs.
I imagine we will not see a film that feels so real and on a scale of this magnitude for some time and it is nice to see an era of real live action sequences (without CGI, minus the bear) beginning to emerge once again with this and of course Mad max Fury Road, which is why I believe people should look past the predictable nature of the script and see the epic scale of what Inarritu and Lubezki persevered for years to create.