After the relative confines of the theatre setting for his Birdman, director Alejandro González Iñárritu has spread his wings for his next feature and landed in the wide-open spaces of the frontier. It's here that Leonardo DiCaprio can be found not only in his element but also the chillier kind as provided by Mother Nature.

The wild frontier; an immense and unforgiving land. Fur trapper Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) and his son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) - whom he had with his Native American partner - are on a hunting expedition for pelts with a group of men under the command of Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson).

Out of the blue, the group are attacked by a Native American tribe, and their numbers are dramatically reduced as a result. Glass finds himself cut off from what's left of the group, wandering the woods. It's there that he spots some bear cubs, who it happens, aren't on their own and Glass suddenly finds himself on the wrong end of an attack from an adult bear.

Amazingly he survives, and possibly even more amazingly, he's found by Henry and his men. Despite the immediate need to vacate the area, with the Native Americans surely still in the vicinity, it's clear that Glass is in no fit shape to be moved. For a cash reward, two members of his party - the experienced Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and the young Bridger (Will Poulter) - stay behind with Hawk to keep Glass safe.

Fitzgerald has other ideas though and decides that Glass is far too injured to survive, so buggers off leaving Glass for dead.

Not ready to leave this mortal coil just yet, Glass finally finds the strength from somewhere to get on his feet with two objectives spurring him on: one is to survive the harshness of the weather; the other is to hunt down Fitzgerald and demonstrate to him that he's still very much alive and kicking and he hasn't forgotten what transpired in the wilderness.

Although it's easy to assume that The Revenant is just another example of Man versus the elements, Iñárritu's story, based on Michael Punke's novel of the same name - which in itself is based on the real life adventures of frontiersman Hugh Glass - has slightly more depth than that.

As well as being about an injured man in the middle of nowhere, the story has two other strong, compelling elements; being stranded in Native American territory, with one tribe keen to see the return of one of its own at any cost, and Fitzgerald's singular attitude towards self preservation. These other strands not only contribute to the film's substantial length (of nearly two hours and forty minutes), but aid in necessitating it, to a certain extent. There is quite a bit of tree porn however, that could have been cut out/down, and that would have certainly shortened proceedings, but the director clearly has a fetish for them, so what can you do.

Performances are strong from all round, particularly from the Brit contingency of Hardy, Poulter and Gleeson (who could easily go on to open their own law firm with that collection of surnames); Hardy in particular is his usual mesmerising self, playing yet another slightly unhinged character.

It's no surprise that DiCaprio wanted this role; it offers yet another chance to prove himself as not only versatile, but that he's still one of the best actors of his generation. Not only that, but there's every likelihood that his best work is yet to come.

You wouldn't expect anything to outshine DiCaprio in this mood, but that's not the case here. Probably that little bit more captivating is the impressive cinematography. Emmanuel Lubezki, who also worked on Iñárritu's Birdman, is clearly channelling the work of Cimino, in particular his classics The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate; everything from the framing and the rhythm is straight out of Cimino's playbook, which is no bad thing.

It's 12 Oscar nominations probably aren't entirely merited, but it deserves a few of them; no more so than DiCaprio, who having been passed over with his previous four nominations by the Academy, looks to be a shoe-in this time around. And about time too.

Iñárritu delivers a film about survival and revenge, within an interesting historical context and a visually stunning background, making it both gorgeous to look at and deceptively gripping.