For the first 30-40 minutes of this, I thought it was a masterpiece - stunning visuals, breathtaking scenery/photography/production design, some excellent acting, two superb set pieces: the opening Indian attack then the fight with the bear. This is what cinema is meant to be. Alejandro Inarritu is clearly a major talent. The moment where Tom Hardy kills Leo di Caprio's son in front of his eyes is truly heart-wrenching.
But once this moment passed the film became less engaging - and two and a half hours was really an hour too much. There were so many sequences that felt unneeded - confrontation with the French traders, the Indians. By the time Leo di Caprio got back to the fort and was about to head out for revenge I was thinking "alright, already can't someone else have shot Tom Hardy". For me a movie that runs that long needed to have more substance. Okay, I get that Leo had an Indian wife who was killed, and a son who was killed, and life was harsh around that time but... at the end of the day, wasn't this a simple survival film with some interesting colonial subtext?
Strong support cast, including Hardy, Will Poulter (who I recognised but couldn't pick it - he's the kid from We're the Millers) and Domhall Gleeson (romantic lead from Love Actually). Some amazing stuff in here, to be sure, I just wish it had been longer. Female characters are loving wistful types in flashbacks and/or bit part rape victims.
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