Over the top

Rating: 5/10 (15 January 2016)

4/5 for cinematography, 1/5 for story.
There are too many plot holes to list them individually, but in general they follow the "looks- great-but-makes-no-sense" type flaw. It starts with the attack on the camp by the local tribe. Leo and his son are a little way off but run to the rescue, for some reason through water, even though it's much slower and louder than running across the land to the side of the stream. The attacking tribe seem to have no sense of strategy and risk killing their own as much as the trappers. The trappers for their part seem very slow to realise they need to hit the deck when arrows start killing every other man. You get the idea about the drama that follows, lots of scenes wading needlessly in freezing water, which would have made them hypothermic, lots of sheltering under sparse trees even though there are much thicker clumps of trees nearby, lots of camp fires which would have alerted the hostile tribe to their location, lots of things making no sense at all - it's like no one has any survival instinct.
On this point, two big plot holes really spoil the movie. Leo would have definitely died of those bear wounds. No question. His back is shredded, not to mention his throat, and he would have passed out from blood loss. The freezing cold would then have finished him off. The leader of the expedition trying to stitch him up just looks ridiculous.
Second plot hole - why Tom Hardy, left to guard the near-death Leo, does not just kill him as he is concerned he is a burden in a hostile area. He seems to need to him to acquiesce, okay so he has some kind of conscience, but then is interrupted by Leo's son, and kills him instead. He then could just have tied up loose ends, killed Leo and claimed to his returning companion the son ran off from grief, but no, he leaves Leo alive, which he obviously needs to do otherwise there is no rest of the film.
It's too OTT to be described as grim and the cinematography is too gorgeous for it to be boring, but in a way that's what underlines what a really badly thought-through story it is.
Missable if plot-holes bother you. Birdman was genius, if you haven't seen it, watch that instead.