The first round of reviews for The Revenant are in and the movie has pretty much meets all the hyped expectations if the critics are to be trusted.

Enstars rounds up a bunch of verdicts -- which will only strengthen your resolve to watch Leonard DiCaprio get mauled by a bear -- that are celebrating Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's masterpiece.

"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." -- The Guardian

"The film is a raw-boned revenge western in which DiCaprio's fur trapper, Hugh Glass, hauls himself across thousands of miles of forests and frozen rock with life-threatening wounds, in search of the man who killed his son and left him for dead, half-buried in the iron soil of the Rocky Mountains." -- The Telegraph

"Malick's visually similar films always seem to reach for enlightenment and the ineffable; Herzog is obsessed with the infinite possibilities of human ambition. It's unclear whether Iñárritu has any broader philosophical agenda worthy of the craft he showcases here.

But while the style may outpace the substance, that doesn't make the style any less magnificent. And when it comes to sheer customer satisfaction, The Revenant checks nearly every box, up to and including the man vs. wild throwdown. It just makes a jarring, memorable statement about how often the wild is likely to win that uneven fight." -- The Verge

There is the odd, slightly negative review as well:

"Leonardo DiCaprio is terrific in this grim wilderness adventure, but Alejandro G. Iñárritu's occasionally engrossing adaptation of Michael Plunke's novel offers only surface-level cinematic pleasures." -- Forbes

The movie will be released on Dec. 25.

Tags
The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio, Movies