Quibbles.
I didn’t care for some of the camera work, especially in the (near) opening battle sequence. I didn’t like the handheld, shaky cam. I usually don’t like it, though not always. I know they’re trying to immerse us in the action. But because this was annoying, it did the opposite for me.
Too often the camera was too close for my taste. I generally loathe extreme close-ups, anyway. This was especially true in the battle sequence. On the other hand, some of the many other close-ups throughout the film did work well for dramatic purposes.
I also found myself annoyed by some of the, I would say, unconventional, angles. I think there’s a reason why they’re unconventional. Maybe if I see it again, I’ll find I was mistaken about this.
In the third act, why in the world would only the two of them go out after Fitzgerald? You would take a passé, at least a handful of men. It was groan-worthy. And you knew at the get-go the Captain would be killed. It was much like the complaint many of us have about the stupidity of characters’ actions in horror films.
I understand if they had taken a passé then the climax would have been much less climatic. So I can give them a pass on it. However, I always appreciate it when writers or filmmakers figure out a way to give was that dramatic climax without making it so difficult for us to suspend our disbelief in the set-up.
Audio. As in such films as Interstellar, I and my movie buddie had trouble making out the dialogue at times. Not appreciated.
• * * * * * * *
The bear attack was pretty amazing. You could still tell it was CGI a tiny bit, but hardly. Pretty amazing they can get such realism now.
Scenery was pretty amazing.
The acting was good and characterizations were good.
The story was quite good for a revenge tale. I’m generally not all that fond of revenge tales. There’s usually just not much to them —not very satisfying for me. But this film managed to give us a bit more than just the trek towards revenge.
The score was quite good and fit the film well.
I think allowing DiCaprio's breath to steam the camera lens worked quite well.
