The Revenant (2015)Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Written By: Mark L. Smith & Alejandro G. IñárrituDirected By: Alejandro G. IñárrituRelease Date: December 25, 2015Rating: 4.6/5
Summary: Frontiersman, Hugh Glass, goes adventuring on with his crew until he gets mauled by a bear and left for dead in the woods and now he must survive on his own.
My Thoughts: I kept telling myself that this wasn't going to Leo's year because of the other movies I'd seen this year and boy, was I wrong. That was before I saw this movie. This movie is great and Leo deserves that Oscar because he acted the hell out of this movie, which is weird because I don't typically enjoy these kinds of movies, but this one was different. It was entertaining and a lot of scenes left me on the edge of my seat, but was I entertained throughout the whole thing? No.
The Revenant is melancholy. Very, very melancholy, but also very beautiful. And while it didn't make me sad, it made me feel very empty, just as I feel out main character was left feeling after everything he'd endured. While is movie is tells a great deal about revenge, it is not a revenge flick, it's more about the humanity of man, survival and loyalty. It's about what one man would do for to save himself and try to get revenge for being felt for dead by his supposed caretakers, which of one stabs his son to death and while most of his journey involves him trying to get said revenge, there's a lot of other underlying messages than just revenge because revenge is just dirty. There's nothing to it except more hurt and that's what I saw in this movie. Tom Hardy's character even says it which is wonderful because he sucks! He was supposed to be an ass and we were supposed to hate him, but I understood him and the fact he says this very fines makes me understand his choices even more. He was trying to be rational and while no one likes what he did, he was being real, something you don't see often from an antagonist in a film
Another great addition to the film was Domhnall Gleeson who definitely impressed me. While I adored him in Ex Machina and Brooklyn, I was stunned to see him in uber-masculine, tough kind of role. At first I doubted him and didn't really believe him as the captain of this crew, but once as the film went on, he settled and held his own amongst the likes of Leo, Will and Tom who definitely make this movie the greatness that it is, but if I'm going to be honest the meaning of the film was better than the substance and action in it. There were a couple of scenes here and there they kept me watching, but other than that nothing much happened in the middle of the film and that was kind of shitty, but we can't have it all, can we?
