A Technical Wonder With A Lacking Script

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2016)

I'm not really sure what to make of 'The Revenant'. It has been a week since I saw the film but it sort of feels like a distant memory.
I definitely have respect for the film. You've heard this before but I have to say that the cinematography is pretty fantastic. I was never in awe at its beauty but it pretty much captured the perfect look for the film. I can't help but feel that it looks "correct". The long takes and hand-held shots are also pretty impressive. The acting is great all round. Pretty much every actor does an impressive job in the roles that they are well suited for.
However, I wasn't really that engaged. I wasn't bored out of my mind either, but the great craftsmanship can only go so far. The characters aren't very interesting or relatable. This is especially a problem for Hugh Glass. He didn't feel like much of a person, which meant I couldn't feel his desperation or the brutality of the more violent or gory parts of the film. I will admit that there were a couple of moments where I looked away from the screen to see who in the cinema was talking. I'm pretty sure I missed one of the dream/flashback montages earlier on in the film because of this, which could have resulted in me not caring much about the character, but I still feel that we didn't learn much about the character throughout the rest of the film.
Overall, 'The Revenant' is a bit of a disappointment. It is a technical wonder but there was too much focus on making it look real and not enough focus on laying down the foundations that would make it actually feel real.
(In case you're wondering what happened to the people in the cinema talking, it got the point where I had to shush them. One of them glanced over at me as if I was being rude and they left a few minutes later.)