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The Long(er) Version:
The Good: I��rritu and his team shot this movie using natural light and at "magic hour" and the results are stunning and scary. America’s West of the 18th century looks as amazing as the surface of Mars and as deadly. The world is not your friend, at best it is indifferent and at worst it and everything and everyone in it wants you dead: the Indians, the wildlife and the weather. And while The Revenant isn’t an action film it has several set pieces that are brutal in their depiction of violence. There is no "it’s just a flesh wound" mentality here. When violence happens you feel it as well.
As for actors this is no way looks like it was a "fun shoot." It’s little wonder that this movie took ten months to complete and their commitment to the project must be commended. Everyone brings their "A" game in portraying their characters and script deficiencies aside, all the actors rise well above the material.
The Bad: The script, the script and the script. I wish I��rritu and his writing partner had spent as much time on character development as was spent on the cinematography and the verisimilitude. All the characters, with the exception of Hardy, are undercooked, especially that of Glass. He’s the lead but has very little in the way of backstory. We see some of it in flashbacks but these are too short to do more than give us glimpses in someone who should be a riveting character. (And with a movie that runs two hours and thirty minutes it would have been easy to find the time to tell his story.) It feels as though we are supposed to identify with Glass simply because he is the lead and because of all the Hell he endures.
Unfortunately, for all of DiCaprio’s hard work, Glass remains a hollow character. Hardy, on the other hand, fares much better because he’s actually given dialogue and he makes the most of it. He has no backstory to speak of but through his actions, which are many and varied, we understand the man and even come to agree with some of his decisions. Glass, in contrast, is defined and confined, by his desire to survive and then get revenge on Hardy but that A to B goal isn’t very fulfilling because at the end of his journey what comes next? If you define survival and living by the act of revenge, what happens to you should you achieve that goal?
The Ugly: No one and nothing comes across as appealing. As previously mentioned, men, beasts and nature all want to kill you in the world of The Revenant. As good reminder that nature is red in both tooth and claw.
My Two Cents: The Revenant is worth seeing on the big screen and I’m glad I saw it but because it is so light on characterization, it won’t be part of my Blu Ray collection.
I would think seeing as you just mentioned how great the cinematography is, that you would want it on Blu-Ray. 😛
The people we follow in The Revenant weren’t explored as traditional characters; they were raw. Almost animals, adrift in the wilderness.
I thought the cinematography and performances were incredible. But it was a hard watch; I’m not much on visceral gore, and you’re right about it having brutal moments.
Only one action track in it and barely at all.
The real good action stuff was never put to album.
It’s one of those sappy romance albums where nothing but dramatic music was put on it.
Glad I got a full refund on it for the 24bit version.