Watched The Revenant this evening. It was pretty much all that Archers said it was. As an overall experience it was hugely impressive. I can't that it was enjoyable to watch, and neither can I say I was held 100% by it. The acting, although of a high standard from the leads, was uneven. The cinematography, although visually stunning much of the time, was actually technically poor on the odd occasion. For example, there were moments where the character of Glass [De Caprio] reflected on his prior life, which was framed by a wide angled lens with an edge filter which elongated and distorted the images off the centre, That was fine, but then in certain situations the wide angle lens was used in the real world [without filter] which elongated the images and distorted the perspective. That detracted from the experience rather than enhanced it, for me. Other camera use was superb. Really long takes where the camera got up on a horse alongside the protagonist and ran with him, for example. One started to wonder how this was done it was so visually stunning. The sound one or twice got a little phased, as the major volume shifted from one speaker over to another [this was listened to on stereo which should be an easy format] and also the character of the sound would change, for example, a speaking voice would start to mumble after being absolutely clear. The music soundtrack itself was very impressive.
But tbh, I'm carping a wee bit. De Caprio and Hardy carry the film very well. De Caprio has the more interesting role, but Hardy executes his better. There was a good 5 mins where I was trying to identify him and I couldn't, he was so buried in his part that he'd gone native. De Caprio is always good. Indeed he's usually the best actor in any film he's in [and that comes from someone who always thought his face eminently punchable], but not this time. Tom Hardy is so real in his character he's stopped acting, as far as I can see. So an impressive experience. If you want fun though it isn't here. Oh, I forgot. The Bear. Wow.