Textbook Artsploitation

Rating: 4/10 (20 January 2016)

Technical achievements aside, The Revenant is a pretty hollow and depressing experience. Lacking diversity in tone and exploiting a unique combination of time period and environment to tell a tired revenge narrative. The story is too basic to be set against such a complex backdrop. You've got colonial politics, genocide, a civil war (Which wasn't even brought up until the third act) and yet at the centre, the emotional core, all there is is just a revenge movie.
No problem with that at all. It is a problem though when it's a matter of KFC being served on silverware. The best this film can provide is to watch poor Leo suffering for an hour for the pleasure of people who don't want to sit through the Oscars.
When I see rape used as a cynical attempt at an audience pop, I know then this is not my kind of film. That being said, the biggest pop from the audience i was with was when Hardy's character had his fingers cut. This is from a film featuring such highlights as a one shot bear mauling, graphic arrow injury detail and all other types of contemporary award bait. Finger chopping. That's what did it for people and that was because Hardy was the most interesting thing in this hawkish misery. A character, not a plot device or a motivation, but a character, with layers. What a luxury!
It's so sad that it's usually the little things messed up during Oscar season. Puts the work of so many talented craftsman to waste. In short, i did like The Revenant, in the cut they chose to release. It was passable. But considering it's ambition, so painfully evident on screen, passable just isn't good enough.