Beautiful but Emotionless

Rating: 6/10 (17 September 2016)

Gorgeous, for sure. The natural lighting and the camera's ability to seemingly reach unreachable locations is continually breathtaking. But dammit, I didn't really care one bit about this. I've always found it difficult to connect with the characters Inarritu creates. There's a sense of detachment with every single one of his films, as if I'm being told a story by someone who I don't really want to hear a story from.
As a survival story, it's fun. I enjoyed all the various obstacles placed in Leo's way on his journey back home. It became a perverse sort of enjoyment after a while. And the action scenes all have a thrilling quality to them that felt visceral and real and painful. If it took itself a little less seriously and just embraced its greatest qualities it could have been a wild ride akin to Mad Max.
For me, in the end, I think it fails completely with the father/son relationship, the relationship upon which the whole movie relies. His desire for revenge made logical sense to me, but not emotional, and the finale felt anti- climatic as a result.