brilliant story telling with amazing acting worthy of all of the Oscars

Rating: 7/10 (2 March 2016)

This is going to be a hard review to do. On one hand, you have a film that has breathtaking cinematography and amazing practical visual effects. Not to even mention the acting. But on the other hand, you have a movie that is designed for the festival circuit. It has the long pauses between scenes, the long exposure shots of nature for you to come to terms that the film only used natural lights and there was no addition of exterior light set up. Not to mention the length time of the story could've been done in half the time.
I have been a fan of Leo for a while now. I believe that he should've won for What's eating Gilbert Grape and Blood Diamond, but it wasn't meant to be.
Acting in the Revenant is of extremely high caliber. Leonardo DiCaprio does a fantastic job showing his acting range in emotion and through use of expression rather then dialogue as it is kept to a minimum. All of the cast did a fantastic job. Tom Hardy was better then what i was expecting, i have found that in some films he has the tendency to go back and do certain traits of his own, but in this film he was really kept to his character.
Story; as most people already know that the story is based on a book by the same title. It follows the struggle of Hugh Glass as he is left for dead after a bear had mauled him. The film really allows Leo the freedom to capture our attention and grab us by the throat as we watch him growl, cough, bleed and struggle to make out one sound. The story of survival and vengeance of Hugh Glass is extremely interesting and will have your attention. However, the constant cuts to the 30 seconds clips of nature and the surrounding forests or mountain rivers are beautiful but are distracting and in some way make you lose concentration and you start to wonder how long would this film have been if it was cut properly.
This is a great film, for those who love to capture and analyse every aspect of a movie. It has incredible visual effects, great acting, incredible camera work and fantastic score. But for those who are casual movie goers and just want to watch the story and are not as intrigued by the practical side of making films, will be left looking at their watch and thinking when is this film going to end.