Very good, but not Oscar-worthy

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2016)

After last year's astounding Birdman, which came to be one of my favourite movies of all time, I was looking forward to A. Iñárritu's new collaboration with the cinematographer E. Lubezki. And sadly, it fell a bit short of my exaggerated expectations.
From the standpoint of cinematography, Revenant is expectedly gorgeous. Beautiful environments (shot with natural lighting!), gritty realism of the depicted situations, scenes shot from unusual perspectives - everything is as close to perfection as possible.
However, as for the movie's plot and themes, everything turned out to be disappointingly straightforward. It's just a revenge tale. No subtle nuances, no amendments to the classic conception. Besides, I'd say it has some issues with the motivation of the Indian tribe that's hunting the protagonists for a good part of the movie. What is more, while the overall pacing is good for a 2,5+ hours-long movie, it does drop after the first hour noticeably only to pick up around half an hour later.
As for acting, everything is done professionally - both the lead and secondary role actors perform admirably, but as for DiCaprio, I honestly think he's had stronger and more interesting roles than having to growl, squirm, crawl and breath heavily for two and a half hours straight.
In the end, it's a wonderfully acted, breathtakingly filmed, meticulously polished classic tale about a man overcoming all obstacles imaginable to revenge the death of his loved ones, with no twists or additions plot-wise. Is it a good movie? Yes, definitely, very much so. But is it Oscar-worthy? We will find out this February, but I personally wouldn't say so.