I anticipate many viewers will disagree with whatever score I give this film, and that's something you could likely say about any rating for any picture. It seems particularly true in this case though. My rating should make it clear that I wasn’t overly impressed. That doesn’t mean the movie is poorly made, of course; a similar thing can be said about ratings generally, especially mine. Now, I suppose I've confused everyone enough, so let me attempt to clarify things. As a work of cinematic artistry, this film excels. The performances are quite strong. I particularly enjoyed John Hurt’s portrayal of the educated bounty hunter, though most of the main cast did a commendable job. The visuals are stunning; the Australian outback provides an excellent setting and it's refreshing compared to typical North American western landscapes. However, as a movie, it doesn’t quite work. I feel that a film should at least attempt to present a narrative. Even if its goal is to be art, it ought to try to deliver a story the audience can grasp in some fashion. This picture has an underlying idea for a plot but doesn't really tell one. We never learn who the antagonists truly are, what they actually did—beyond vague suggestions of killing and rape—or why. In fact, we aren’t even told if the men who were flogged to death were involved in whatever happened. Throughout the film, the villains supposedly remain hidden in an inaccessible location, prompting the protagonist to try to manipulate the brother of one of them into taking action. It's not very believable. The governor, Eden Fletcher played by David Wenham, or whoever he was meant to be, was largely unpleasant. Every movie needs a character like that, I suppose, but his part never really felt developed. After he arranged for the young boy, innocent or otherwise, to be flogged, we don’t see much of him afterward. The conclusion mirrors the rest of the film: visually impressive, yet lacking in narrative substance. There isn't a proper resolution; it simply concludes with a series of well-executed scenes but without any real story driving them. Perhaps I am overly simplistic when it comes to these kinds of movies, but even though I appreciated the quality of the visuals on my television screen, I didn’t really enjoy it as a film.

Source on TMDB