Revenant = Empty shell

Rating: 3/10 (15 February 2016)

I went to this movie with high hopes. The trailers looked awesome and, after such classics as Inception, I would see anything with Hardy and Di Caprio. I left at the end of the movie, though, terribly terribly disappointed.
Don't get me wrong; much of the movie is very strong: the sound design, the visuals, the strong sense of realism. As a travelogue for the wild mountains, it is superb.
However, when I enter a cinema to watch a movie, I enter a contract with the director: I will give you my attention, reactions and engagement if you give me the opportunities to engage. I therefore expect that a director will give me character development, mystery, surprise, plot development, unexpected twists or one of the basic (and ancient - decent story telling is not a modern thing) elements of good stories. Engage me, Mister Director! Give me a reason to care! Make me remember - and rave about and love! - your movie for years to come! Let me know that part of your craft is a desire to please the audience! However, Revenant gives me none of that. Apart from one delightful, terribly short - and brutally terminated - moment of humour, there is nothing in this movie to engage me. There are no human connections, no surprises with the plot, no character development, no suspense, nothing that asks me to care.
The characters remain flat and unchanging throughout and the end is obvious from early stages. The movie is a brutal, hyper-realistic and bleak exercise in portraying a series of events without ANY concern for the audience. It is, ultimately and sadly, tedious. It should really have finished after 1.5 hours, but dragged on for many dull minutes of Di Caprio being forced (by the director ultimately) into one life-threatening situation after another.
As a technical exercise, this movie is superb. As a human story, it is empty and without heart.
Avoid.