Inevitably Spectacular, not perfect.

Rating: 10/10 (5 March 2016)

This movie is simply a journey through the minds of director Alejandro G. Inneritu and Emmanuel Lubezki, fuelled with creativity and flair from the offset. The cinematography in this film is gorgeous. It is an honour to watch such a spectacularly filmed movie, it's almost like a dream. Although some shots may seem repetitive (low angle tree shots) the shots seem relevant and important to the film as it focuses on the harsh reality of nature and the environment in which we live in. The representation of the 19th century is also a brilliantly executed aspect of this movie, showing the viewer what times were like in the era and how difficult it was to earn money.
The narrative of this film is simple yet underestimated. Revenge is always a tricky topic to cover for film makers, as sometimes it can end up being somewhat far fetched or cheesy, but this time, it was really effective and had me hooked from the moment Hugh Glass' journey to find Hardy begins. The acting is always the crucial part of any film, and in this particular film, it needed to be the best performance for all involved, which would be tricky as DiCaprio and Tom Hardy have had extremely impacting careers. As for Tom Hardy, this was undeniably his best 'Supporting Actor' role, showing the fierce, unrelenting nature of his character and in end, rewarding the actor with his first Oscar nomination. For DiCaprio, I believe it was up there with his best performances, but the lack of dialogue from his character could not mean that it was his best unfortunately. This does not in any way mean that his performance was anything other than world class and he deserved all credit received from this film, if not more, for me, The Wolf of Wall Street was his best, closely followed by his short spell as Calvin Candie in Django Unchained.
Overall, the film showed positive signs in all aspects, notably visual effects, make up and costume design, as well as the obvious directing and acting, but it was not perfect. However, I would recommend the film to any passionate film fan, especially fans of cinematography and directing.