Impressive, but not too engaging.

Rating: 7/10 (13 September 2016)

If you had included this sort of unique technical execution in a movie that had a better story, you would have had an amazing movie. I don't think anyone would deny that the camera-work and sound mixing and such were top notch in this movie, even down to the shots that served only the purpose of passing time. But the general consensus seems to be that people had a hard time staying interested because of the story. In some ways, the tale of survival is pretty incredible, definitely much better than most movies based on true events. But it did drag on longer than it probably needed to.
The characters were deeper than I had expected, but not enough to make me fully invested in them. Tom Hardy's character would have been more despicable if he'd had more of a motive for leaving Hugh Glass. It seemed like he just got annoyed with the inconvenience of his job, which is perfectly normal for the average person, but it's not interesting to have a villain who just does bad things because he feels like it. I had similar problems with Hugh Glass. He's driven by revenge and the will to survive, but the goal never has any progression. Realistically, I suppose it doesn't need to because he has a hard enough time just trying to meet his basic needs. The only thing that really kept me interested was wanting to see how the inevitable confrontation between Glass and John Fitzgerald would turn out. There are pretty standard techniques used to give us emotional access to the characters. These failed to hold my attention, probably because I don't have any experience with betrayal or the loss of a loved one at the level that Hugh Glass does. Honestly, it was easier to relate to the Hawk's friend who travels with Fitzgerald because he's so conflicted. This doesn't reflect poorly on the writing or acting, but I feel like it's worth noting.
Anyone who wants to go into production should watch this movie and study the opening sequence. The camera-work will blow you away, especially since it was shot live and not computer generated. So this is a must for all budding DP's and directors (and even professionals). For those interested in writing, this provides some good examples of how to use a location as a character. The acting won't blow you away, but it seems like everyone took a lot of pride in their role and gave it the best performance they could. Even DiCaprio's performance wasn't his best. He certainly earned his title as an Oscar winning actor, but it probably should have come from a different performance.
To casual viewers, you may want to be a little wary. This has enough slow part that you'll be bored if you only watch movies for action. The action scenes themselves are very exhilarating, but they come infrequently. It's also pretty long and can get a bit laborious to watch at times. I was able to get through it without much trouble, but I would have liked it to be shorter. It got a decent amount of hype, and it sort of lives up to it, but don't get your hopes too high. Overall Rating: 7.8/10.