A Failed Opportunity at Greatness

Rating: 4/10 (28 January 2016)

With so many poor stories and plot lines often undertaken in mainstream film, when a director and actors get a chance to partake in a potentially great story like The Revenant, you have to come through. The potential for greatness is right in your hands.
So without being too wordy or descriptive this movie is a Failed Opportunity at Greatness and is completely over-rated. No reason awards should be going out in this film except for cinematography and to Tom Hardy (who was great!).
PROs: -The film did do a fairly good job of capturing the brutal frontier life, the hardship of survival in the west during the early 1800's, and gosh just how stinkin hard life must have been back then. -The imagery and cinematography was GREAT. The scenes were visually epic. The bear scene was so raw. The film was just plain raw and real feeling. -At no point did you feel good or happy during the movie (except snowflake eating scene). And that's a success, in that they were certainly going for that feel.
CONs: -Considering everything above, this movie bombed. Creating the above PROs on a $135,000,000 budget is easy. Making it more than that is the challenge. Not much was added on by directing and acting. -2 1/2 hour movie that had ZERO character development (except for Tom Hardy's character Fitzgerald). He was great not by script but by personal performance. Everyone else was hollow and uninspiring. -The story did not grip you in anyway. At no point did I find myself caring for Glass(DiCaprio), or anyone else outside of maybe Will Poulter's character Bridger. -There was little clarity as to where, why, and for who everyone was living for. No sense of purpose. -Leo's performance was so OVERRATED. He did not portray ruggedness, mournfulness, frustration, anger, revenge, in anyway. Not through facial expression, sound, or action. I can't believe he's getting so much credit for this role!?!? Why, because it was hard to film!? What a joke. -The revenge chase should have lasted longer. It was a week ending. -The soundtrack was just OK. With minimal dialogue, and a primarily visual film, you need to hit a homerun with the soundtrack. Very disappointing.
And that's quite it. Just a straight up disappointing film. Might be worth watching just for the visuals and bear scene. Outside of that, I'm glad to never see it again.
It was a combination of "The Way Back" and "The Road". Just not as good as either film.