Kinda torn on this one! Emotionally I wasn't that grabbed by Lewis's performance and I wasn't that invested in the core romance. And while I got a lot out of picking apart the movie's ideology, the ahistoric framing of settlers and natives as essentially peers with a common interest in resisting imperial power left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
That said, the sights and sounds of this movie were spectacular. The lighting was fantastic. I loved the two pivotal ambushes, the siege, the canoe chase, the finale. The slower moments too, the moonlit near-miss, Alice and Hawkeye's rendezvous in the fort, beneath the waterfall.
Ultimately I think it is on the strength of the finale that this lands at a 4 instead of a 3 for me, at least on first viewing. I really do think it's a very well-made movie, but I'm concerned with it's place in relation with it's source material as a foundational piece of American myth-making.