A slow movie, but good

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2016)

Honestly, the movie is probably over-hyped. It's basically a story about loss, survival, and revenge. The survival part, the middle of the movie, is very long and slow moving. I was interested the entire time, but still found myself almost dozing off. It was not boring, just slow. The acting was good; I could understand how some may join the bandwagon and think the acting was great. However, I don't think the acting was even close to last years performance by Bradley Cooper in American Sniper. There is also no great idea, concept, or emotion to be taken from the movie either, as it is simply a revenge movie. My thoughts upon leaving the theater is how brutal, and yet beautiful, frontier live in the Dakotas was. If you have a desire to see this movie, then the movie theater is definitely the way to go. Don't wait for DVD. The movie is visually stunning on the big screen, and it should easily win an Oscar for cinematography, costume design, and visual effects. Hunters or outdoors-men may enjoy the movie just for the magnificent scenery. Women might not enjoy the movie due to the honest brutality of the movie. Leave the kids at home; they will be bored stiff in the middle of the movie. I don't know if this is a movie that I would watch again. By the end of the movie, the viewer just does not experience a whole range of emotions. Anguish, survival, and revenge are about the extent of the emotions, and they're all similar. That's the whole range of emotions experienced. Is the movie an action, a drama, or a western? I don't think that can be answered either. Compare this to my favorite drama in the past couple of years, The Judge. I knew it was a drama, and I experienced pain, love, loss, laughter, kinship, justice, and understanding; all in one great flick.