very overrated and confused movie?

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2016)

I only went to see this film because of the director "Iñárritu" and it was very disappointing. It started out with a good premise, it felt like an art film at times, it reminded me a lot of "Terrence Malick" films, one in particular "The New World". However, this quest to revenge is where I think the film failed. There was a lot of great scenes with the main character Glass having visions and memories of his wife; that could have been to reflect on finding some kind of forgiveness. The other Indian "Elk Dog" who was also looking for his own revenge of his daughter could have been explored further to parallel to Glass's revenge of Fitzgerald; where they could have met and maybe the exchange of their meeting would have had an impact on Glass to reflect.
I know no book is ever translated to the screen exactly the same, I just thought this film had the potential to add more depth together with the visuals to the arc of the story. Glass was helped by the Indian who also suffered a lost, then Glass rescued another Indian girl who was getting raped and those two characters alone could have had more of exchange with Glass. The film relied way too much on visuals that character. Glass's journey is an odyssey in itself, like Homer's odyssey, but in this odyssey "The Revenant" is an empty one at that, where the film didn't present you characters that parallel, cross and effect's Glass's character for him to maybe reflect his quest to revenge. That's where the movie felt short. So yes people rave about the visuals and Di Caprio's performance, which again I had problems with because I don't think he is a good actor either; just way way too over rated, he is like a parody as an actor. I would have picked maybe either Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale or even Tom Hardy for the role of Glass, I just see more range from those actors than DiCaprio; he is like a boy pretending to be a man.
The film continued on this relentless and unrealistic path where Glass survived the impossible, first to survive a bear attack is one thing but to live through the wilderness winter ice cold weather with the injuries he had, no food, then to swim down the river, then jump off a cliff with a horse and survive that again?. I had already lost interest midway into the movie, where its all about Glass survival's to avenge his son's death. There was no arc in the story for this character to maybe pause to question his revenge, it would have had more of impact if Glass had found forgiveness for Fitzgerald through his journey, maybe through all the visions of his wife, maybe by his interactions with the Indian who helped him whom had also lost his wife or Elk Dog. Maybe a better ending would have been once Glass found Fitzgerald he had realized his revenge was futile?. Maybe if Fitzgerald had ran into the Indians later and got killed by them instead, it would have been karma catching up to him, not being half stabbed to death by hands of Glass.
Even Glass himself said right at the end: "Revenge is in God's hands, not mine", which debunked and contradicted all his actions. Where did Glass found God in the entire film that he suddenly had a epiphany when he sees the Indians and let them kill Fitzgerald.?. It didn't matter if ElK Dog gave the final blow to end Fitzgerald life; he would have died bleeding as he was floating down the river.
So many people praise this film for all its acting, photography, direction, etc, but those are all a disguise and a camouflage to cover up flat story. What is it you get walking away after watching this film?..what's the message here?. That revenge is the answer and it will bring you peace?.