SummaryInspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Everest documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements fo...
SummaryInspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Everest documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements fo...
Kormákur creates such a convincing world – the craft of this film is astonishing – that you’re willing to forgive its less delicate touches in favour of its totally compelling depiction of what it must be like to ascend into a place that’s heaven one moment and hell the very next.
Easily a 10. Great performances, great cast, and incredibly sad ending but with an amazing recovery of a certain individual after that sad ending. This is one of the best natural disaster movies of all time. If you can hold back tears, I applaud you! Because millions of people who get emotional during the end of movies will call this one another tear jerker :) What an incredible true story of loss, perseverance, and hope.
There's only one star in this movie: Everest. Kormákur couldn't shoot higher than base camp, around 14,000 feet, without sickening the actors. But a crew traveled to the top to get footage, while much of the climbing was shot in the Dolomites. No matter. You watch Everest and you believe.
Salvatore Totino's crisp 3D photography and Kormakur's way with a clear, fluid, thrilling action sequence show off the mountain in immensely impressive ways. But the humans involved get short shrift.
Though there is heroism as well as love here, because it involves the deaths of people we have come to care about, Everest is finally a sad story, though not always a dramatically involving one.
Ultimately, Everest is not concerned with the why, but with the how and it's grimly efficient at building up the drama, helped on by Clarke's wonderful character study, even if the film as a whole never quite reaches the dizzying heights of its subject.
The director was Baltasar Kormákur, a gifted filmmaker from Iceland who shouldn’t be blamed for a case of industrial filmmaking gone wrong — the culprits in elaborate clunkers like this are usually the producers and the studios.
I am so surprised that why the cinematography was not nominated for Academy Awards. Of course, the beauty of the film was not only for this feature, but also the story goes on in a both smooth and interesting way. it was pleasing.
Might I recommend watching this movie during cold weather? The cinematography is already excellent enough to sell the feeling of being on the mountain with them, but having a little chill in the air will bolster the experience. Based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, this is a great depiction of the struggles and dangers that will come with trying to ascend the world's highest mountain. The visuals will take your breath away just as effectively as the altitude. The only difference being you won't have to worry about your health in the process. The sheer spectacle adds a sense of believability that allows the films to have moments both harrowing and brutal. It's just unfortunate that I found myself unable to really care about the people struggling to survive.
There's a star-studded cast here with the likes of Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Kiera Knightley giving it their all. The amount of talent on display is impressive. Their characters aren't much to speak of though. I felt the movie tried too hard to portray everyone as good for goodness' sake everymen so that we might care when one of them dies. The predictability of it all prevents that from happening. So there's no sense of heartache occurring when one of the people suffer for trying to do something amazing by going where few others ever have gone before. Especially since their suffering doesn't seem undeserved. A handful of those who didn't make it came off as dumb people making dumber decisions. As if tempting fate to have the storm freeze them to death.
Everest is unable to ascend to any new heights when it comes to plotting and characterization. As a result it's robbed of any sort of emotional impact. This leads to moments that are supposed to be heart wrenching (of which there are many) being boring instead. It gets points for it's spectacle and performances. Plus the fact that it's based on a true story may make it more powerful for some. Ultimately though I found it to be lacking in believable humanity thanks to how forced, predictable, and phoned in the character moments were. As if the director went through a list of "Based on a True Story" plot devices and decided to throw them all in. I was actually rooting for the mountain. That really shouldn't have been the case. But my what a mountain she is. Beautiful and very deadly. Two aspects this film captures very well.
Everest is a technically sound film and sports a great cast, but ultimately, clunky writing causes the film to become undone. There are too many characters to keep track of, and this problem is made harder by poor characterization and poor relationships between the characters. We are never given a reason to care about them or their expedition. Some dramatic moments are completely undercut by poor directorial choices in addition to the poor writing choices. It's an entertaining watch, but is held back from true greatness and comes off as a paper-thin adventure movie.
It's funny they used the ladder part as the cover. Coz that's literally the only 5 minutes that something happens. Other than that it's just watching people struggling to walk. This abomination tired so hard to be authentic it failed completely on a movie design level. What's next? SPEED movie where bus driver must stop at every bus stop?
One of the MOST BORING movies ive seen. The reason i rated this even 1 was because of the scenery. Otherwise the movie lacked everything, too stretched and too boring.