Review of The Revenant (2015) by Diogomendes — 24 Jan 2016

I haven't posted many reviews on this website recently, as I was focused on my daily studies, but I took the time to see this movie, and it was surprisingly great. I knew I was going for a slowly paced movie, but it actually didn't hit me as one. It never got boring, nor too slow for me. The violence is so awesome in this movie. Either the bear scene, or Leonardo DiCaprio's character covering himself inside of a horse's dead body, it was friggin brutal. The bear attack was especially frightening. What I like about this scene is how the bear interacts with Glass. He first attacks him, smells him and goes away for a few seconds, than Glass grabs his gun and shoots the bear, although the bear attacks him again, and shakes the poor guy like dogs do to the rugs. Then the bear stops one more time, and few seconds later, the bear takes his shot one more time, but Glass stabs it, and they both fall off, with the bear on top of Glass's body. It's amazing how they edited and choreographed this particular bit.

These excellent scenes aside, I can understand people having problems with the "revenge thriller" trope that gets a little predictable in the end, but I liked the symbolism, as Glass used his strength and his memories about his family to stay on his feet and seek punishment for the man who killed his son. Cinematography, just great. There was parts where Glass must have wondered: "Wow, if I die, at least I die watching this God's masterpiece". It sounds silly, I know, but that's the effective way I can describe it. It's purely amazing.

The camerawork is fantastic. I don't quite remember if it had one-take action sequence, but there parts where shots last very long, and I loved that. The shot where the horse and Glass fall down is fantastic. This movie also needs praise for its sound design. Seriously.

"The Revenant" is a pretty good December film. If anything, I think DiCaprio should win that Oscar. While I liked Matt Damon's charismatic performance in "The Martian", Leonardo really stood out here, as the icing on the cake. And Tom Hardy was great here too.