Visually Incredible but Narratively Repetitive

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2016)

The Revenant was a film I was very curious about, I love Leonardo DiCaprio and AGI has proved himself to be one of the most ambitious directors working today and after seeing it I really liked this movie I didn't quite love it but I have to admire its ambitiousness. What they were able to accomplish with this film technically is Incredible, while there aren't a whole lot of action sequences in this movie when there is, it is absolutely stunning this film contains some of the most realistic violence I've ever seen with its incredible long, uncut takes and realistic make up and excellent performances from the extras all come together to put the viewer right in their and make them feel the danger of the situation. In the lead up to this movie its was highly anticipated that DiCaprio was finally going to win his Oscar for this film and he did, he was great in this movie, not only did he commit himself physically to this part he was also perfect at conveying the pain and suffering that his character was feeling. However to my surprise I actually thought Tom Hardy was better in this film, Hardy completely digs himself into this roles to create such a despicable character but one that is understandably so, you get his experiences in life and understand his hateful attitude and ruthlessness and it's easily one of Hardys greatest performances. The Revenant contains some of the greatest cinematography I've ever seen this film looks incredible, the snowy landscapes look incredible you feel the cold and the misery of these environments and it's all due to the extremes The the filmmakers went to, in order to make this film look as realistic as it does. However this films greatest shortcoming is its repetitiveness and melodrama. The sequences where DiCaprios character blacks out and has hallucinations and flashbacks just feel odd and unnecessary, they don't really add anything to the hatred of the character. This film does have A tendency to rely on a formula that becomes blatant really quickly, Glass crawls around for a little while, feels a lot of pain, finds himself in a bad situation, fixes that situation conveniently, we get a wide shot pointing up towards the sky. This pretty much happens for the entirety of the second act and actually started to bore me at times.
The Revenant is a very good film its incredibly ambitious, everything technically is incredible, the performances are fantastic, it's extremely atmospheric, it does have some issues with its story but I honestly think that any film fan should watch this movie at some point.
80%/A-