Good but not great

Rating: 6/10 (13 January 2016)

The opening scene - with all the action and the amazing camera work - is really strong, as well as Leo's scene with the bear, which looks frighteningly realistic. But as the story unfolds, and Leo's character finds himself alone in the wilderness, the movie becomes very slow paced, even boring at times. Not much happens from that point on, and what does happen you can pretty much see coming. Also, to be honest, DiCaprio is not doing a lot in this movie, other than moaning, crawling, running, swimming and shouting. Sure, he does a fine job with the material he got, but there's nothing extraordinary about his performance. Furthermore, there are some great scenes involving animal corpses, but all in all it's an average adventure/drama that's biggest strength is that it was very well shot.
The Revenant might deserve an Oscar for best cinematography. Make-up and visual effects are also outstanding. But apart from that it really doesn't live up to the hype.
6/10