Breathtaking but repetitive.

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2015)

'The Revenant' is unlike any movie you will ever see. It is an absolutely breathtaking film about one of the most insane human feats ever. The film is all about a man by the name of Hugh Glass. A man that survives a bear attack. A man that then crawls and limps his way 200 miles after the man that slaughtered his son before his very eyes. Saying that this man is hardcore is an understatement. What he endears is a testament to how resilient the human spirit can be. So who better to play him than the legendary Leonardo DiCaprio. This could very well be the film that finally gets him that coveted golden statue at the Oscars this February. Aside from the insanity that is this story and Leos superb performance, this film has a lot to offer. Most noticeably is how the film itself looks. Shot in all natural light, 'The Revenant' is able to bring a sense of realism that few films have achieved. It's a beautiful film to behold that effortlessly sucks you into its world.
Honestly, if I were to rate this film from a technical stand point it would most definitely receive a perfect rating. Everything done behind the camera is flawless. The standout being Inarritu himself. There are some scenes in this film with so many moving parts it's a wonder how he is able to control them all. We have fights between white men and Indians that flow so naturally that you can practically feel like you're there.
Yet I found myself ultimately disappointing with this film. Perhaps this my fault. Coming straight off 'Birdman' I found the next film that Inarritu was making and kind of went crazy. I saw this films story line along with the director and all star cast and have been losing my mind waiting for it ever since. I held this film up like many people were doing with 'The Force Awakens'.
That being said, as I watched I found some very obvious mistakes. The film never felt like it quite made it to a final draft. The problem with this film is that we don't learn one single thing about our main character. He is certainly the most determined human being of all time but what do we really learn about him? There seems to be nothing making him a man other than a convoluted back story with a side of vengeance. There is so few character traits that we can actually point to that make him human.
This makes the lengthy two and a half hour run time drag at times. He tries to survive then runs from Indians over and over and over again. There is a point where this just isn't exciting any more. And it left me longing for some actual character moments from him. In fact the only characters we really get to know aren't in the film all that much. What's stranger is that, through the entire run time, a tribe of Indians is on his tail for absolutely no reason. Yeah they are looking for a stolen girl but why on earth are they following the company that they demolish at the beginning of the film? Obviously she isn't with them so why on earth didn't they investigate literally anyone else?
The subplots in this film made so little sense that switching back to our relatively bland main character came as a breath of fresh air. The film never really felt like it was fully thought through. There was so many things that didn't add up that following the repetitive journey of DiCaprio became, at times, a strain. But somehow, it remains a good movie. It's gritty, hard to watch, but most of all an absolute spectacle and landmark in film making.