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Reviews for The Revenant (DiCaprio, Hardy, dir. Iñarritu)

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inm8num2

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http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_revenant_2015/

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ComingSoon.net: 8/10
Brutal action, beautiful landscapes, and impressive performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy make “The Revenant” worth checking out on the big screen… if you have the stomach for it.
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The Hollywood Reporter
The combination of stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, the director and critical enthusiasm in most quarters will make this Fox release a must for audiences in search of cinematic red meat (something the story offers up in abundance, and mostly uncooked), although vegetarians and viewers with otherwise delicate constitutions could spend half their time squirming with their sweaters pulled up over their eyes.
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Time Out
But what makes this more than just a punishing, fearful, expertly crafted thriller focused on one man’s endurance is heavily down to Emmanuel Lubezki’s attractive, thoughtful photography...Here, that same visual style, coupled with the film’s concern for the Native American experience and its compassion for the father-child bond, makes ‘The Revenant’ not just gruelling, but often gorgeous and quietly spiritual.
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The Film Stage: B-
Even DiCaprio’s mostly silent performance, while undeniably grueling, offers little range or depth. As he endures a series of accumulating, arduous events in which his body and mind are stretched to their utmost limits, we’re kept at an emotional distance from the suffering.
...
Lubezki is, again, irrefutably the star of this production, capturing the unspoiled backcountry with a brisk, arresting touch. From the first action set piece, we’re immersed in the feral surroundings.
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Mishandled flashbacks and emotionally detached narrative notwithstanding, The Revenant mostly pays off with its sheer scale and uncompromisingly somber tone.
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Indiewire: B
...the story keeps sagging until the unimaginative climactic showdown. Accept it as one of the best-directed action movies of the year (second only to "Mad Max: Fury Road") and Iñarritu has done a great service to an underserved genre. Yet no amount of ingenious camerawork and breakneck pacing can obscure a simplistic core. Ultimately, the ambition of "The Revenant" overshadows its big moments. If "Birdman" is about the quest for artistic transcendence, "The Revenant" illustrates the never-ending conundrum of chasing it.
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Variety
DiCaprio has never been this feral or suffered for his art quite so vividly on screen. His frequently wordless, stripped-to-the-bone turn may not match the live-wire energy and inventiveness of his histrionics in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” but it’s as scrupulously, agonizingly detailed a portrait of human suffering as you could ever want to see.
...
Inarritu has managed to appropriate the beauty of Malick’s filmmaking but none of its sublimity — another word for which might be humility. There is plenty of amazement here, to be sure, but all too little in the way of grace.
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Slant Magazine: 1.5/4
Teamed again with one of our greatest living DPs, Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant lacks not for ambition. Distinct from González Iñárritu's previous features, what's on display here is an almost comfortingly old-fashioned sense of screen scale.
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That The Revenant is egregiously overlong is almost beside the point; audiences will manage their expectations in that regard. What pushes the film, at long last, into the icy river, is its very design, as a monument to slick, mercenary grandeur.
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Uproxx
It’s a long movie for such a simple plot, but it’s still very well made, absolutely beautiful, piece of filmmaking. But the thing is: the movie knows all of this.
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This is nowhere near DiCaprio’s best performance, but it is his most urgent, in a “Do you not see how hard I’m working for you people?” kind of way. I wish the movie itself had a little more substance than, “this sure was a hard shoot.”
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Crave Online
The Revenant is a film for the broken hearted. It is a violent and masterfully acted tale, beautifully filmed and handsomely produced. It has pacing issues, and that’s a hindrance, but if you think about it the whole film is about hindrance. Appreciating the beauty of nature while they bleed out in the snow is the best that many of these characters can hope for. In the audience we can hope for a little bit more than that, and we probably deserve it, but putting ourselves in these poor bastards’ freezing pelts for a while and sharing in their pain and suffering is a bittersweet and potent experience, well worth having.
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Screen International
At over two-and-a-half hours, The Revenant sometimes strains to be the epic fable that Iñárritu is plainly striving to achieve...There’s an elemental power to much of The Revenant but also a sameness, the film pounding on a few themes without much variance. Even The Revenant’s juxtaposition of harsh violence followed by contemplative nature shots becomes formulaic on occasion.
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edit: more reviews posted since making the thread

Empire: 5/5
DiCaprio's raw performance helps elevate what could have been just another man-versus-nature drama, The Edge with furry hats, into a powerful ode to resilience. But this is Iñárritu's show. Some directors might have been tempted to follow an Oscar win by making a cushy comedy in the Bahamas – but the driven Iñárritu pushed himself and his crew to the limits against the elements. He defied conventional wisdom by shooting with natural light only, and in chronological order, and has emerged with something we have never seen before.
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EW: B
Like their collaboration on Birdman, Iñárritu and Lubezki are taking chances with their camera—chances, no doubt, made even more difficult by working with only natural light in frigid conditions. But it pays off, giving the film a singularly strange and haunting beauty. DiCaprio immerses himself into the nearly silent role of Glass. He’s like Job in a fur coat, being put through nature’s wringer with nothing but a few lines of dialogue and the agony etched onto his face at his disposal. When he does talk, his voice reduced to a pained rasp, you feel the weight of his words: “I ain’t afraid to die anymore … I done it already.”
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The Guardian: 5/5
But what is so distinctive about this Iñárritu picture is its unitary control and its fluency: no matter how extended, the film’s tense story is under the director’s complete control and he unspools great meandering, bravura travelling shots to tell it: not dissimilar, in some ways, to his previous picture, Birdman. The movie is as thrilling and painful as a sheet of ice held to the skin.
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P

Puck Beaverton

Banned
One of the review mentioned it (unintentionally) has a reference to Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls so now I'm even more excited to watch this.
 
I

inm8num2

Member
Overall consensus seems to be that the movie is well worth seeing for visual beauty and strong performances, but it's a little overlong and bloated for the story it's telling. My interest hasn't diminished - still very much looking forward to seeing this one.
 
N

norm9

Member
Sounds like it's a long slog. It'll still be nominated and people will still go see it because it's Oscar bait.
Best actor- Leo. Best supporting actor- Hardy. Best director- Inarritu.
 
B

brianmcdoogle

Member
Just read the Tribune's review. Sounds like it has a good first hour, Leo is great, and then Inarritu gets in the way like he does in all of his movies.
 
T

Tookay

Member
I don't feel like I have the patience for a 2.5+ hour movie anymore, in general, but that's especially so when the story doesn't really warrant it.
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
Jigorath said:
Bloated Oscar bait movies ain't my thing. Sorry Leo. I'll wait for Redbox.
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I don't think this will be much Oscar bait due to how insane it seems to be.

I love how divisive the critics are on this. I was not the biggest Birdman fan. I did like it but I enjoyed everything else he did more. I still can't wait to see this.
 
D

Daft_Cat

Member
Why are people claiming this is Oscar-bait? It's like a revenge-driven period version of The Grey on steroids. Oscar-friendly cast and crew, sure... but this is hardly The Theory of Everything.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
Yeah what dissapointingly shitty reviews it has. Only a 91% on RT???

I'm expecting it to be a pretty uneven experience tho. In it for Lubezki and Hardy for sure though. I think the good will outweigh the bad and make it a pretty unique, if sloppy, picture.
 
F

Fury451

Banned
udiie said:
well this isnt what i expected at all
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Same here. Still seems to be pretty positive despite some negative feedback, so it'll probably be enjoyable for me personally regardless. This definitely seems like one of those it works for you or it doesn't type films though, much like the director's previous film.
 
A

a916

Member
Jigorath said:
Bloated Oscar bait movies ain't my thing. Sorry Leo. I'll wait for Redbox.
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It's a fairly short movie by today's standards... I'm not sure I understand the bloat comment.

Edit: Sorry, thought this was around 90 minutes in run time.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
a916 said:
It's a fairly short movie by today's standards... I'm not sure I understand the bloat comment.
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No it's not, but average length of movies has been increasing. But just because movies tend to be longer now doesn't mean they're not bloated. In fact I would say the majority of movies over 2 hours these days are too bloated. Like do the Transformers movies of all things need to be 2 and half plus hours? Of course not. Does Innaritu need 2.5 hours to show Leo getting the shit beaten out of him repeatedly? Probably not, but we'll see.

Edit: Nvm you thought it was 90 min. LOL
 
T

Truant

Member
There are two kinds of people in this world:

Those who define themselves by what they like, and those who define themselves by what they don't like.

This thread is gold. Keep it up.
 
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