Got the chance to see Everest early in IMAX 3D. I'll start off by saying this, if you get the chance, definitely see this movie in IMAX. It adds to the experience and you feel like your on the mountain. That aside, let's dive into one of my most anticipated films of the year.
Everest is chalk full of star power. Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley, Jake Gyllenhaal, the list goes on. Everyone is believable in this hostile environment, going from optimistic and adventurous to mortified and forced to fight for their lives. Each character is given a back story, some more drawn out and centered than others, and you get attached to most but not all of them. When the emotional blows hit, they hit hard for some, but not as much for others.
The visuals are, as you might have guessed, stunning. The shots they get of climbers and the way the camera gives you an an idea of how dangerous this is are breath taking. The cinematography is definitely award worthy. IMAX only added to it, putting you in this environment and taking you along for the ride.
Baltasar is an Icelandic filmmaker who knows how to shoot a film in such an environment where the weather can be unpredictable and it can go against you at anytime. He didn't want all of this movie to be shot entirely in a studio, this is not entirely visual effects work, they actually went to Nepal and some of the other locations include Val Senales, Italy. It's out there in the elements, outdoors locations that force even the actors themselves to leave their trailer comfort zone behind. And that is evident on screen, it really shows, because every single frame successfully makes us the audience feel like we're there, we feel the danger, as if we're there climbing the mountain, feeling the pain that comes with excruciating cold because human bodies aren't design to survive such temperature. I think the timing of the arrival of this movie could not have been more perfect. If EVEREST was made a decade or fifteen years ago, for example, when filmmaking technology and the cameras weren't as advanced, I'm not sure if it could've given us a movie-watching experience of this quality.
I think the only main problem with this movie is a loose focus. It seems like they tried to make a disaster, drama and documentary stories at the same time but failed to develop any of that properly. But the good things first: stunning scenery, overall tension and a few really great scenes make this movie worth watching without a doubt. It is just somehow not working as a single piece. With a fast start you expect some eventful action to follow but there's nothing like that. The characters developing is limited to a couple of sentences excluding Rob Hall and Beck Weathers what makes others a little more than forgettable 'guys who die first'. For some reason, Scott Fisher, being a smart capable mountaineer is shown as a careless hippie-like person, Anatoli Boukreev as a cliché tough Russian playing garmon in a tent, Beck Weathers as a hardly-realistic guy from Texas. But it doesn't matter anyways as when the masks put on it's really hard to follow who is who and and their position on the mountain, especially on descending.
The ensemble cast is a true highlight of this feature, all the actors slot perfectly into their roles and no outlier is to be found. Jason Clark leads the film as the central protagonist "Rob Hall" his performance is top notch and investment in his character is instant. Josh Brolin, Kiera Knightly, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robin Wright each show talent in important roles, with Gyllenhaal once again stealing the show as the cocky, rash and dedicated "Scott Fischer".
The movie begins with a classic beginning. The depiction of the collective excitement of the first timers, experienced amateur climbers, and the professionals, gathering in Nepal having fun and training. With this Classic dialogues and scenes, we see the climbers' families reaching them with satellite phones, and emotional depiction of the climber's fear implies when they speak to their families on the phone.
And the climbing part as the second part of the movie begins with a classical and rapid climbing victory scene and joyful celebrations appears as plenty of them reach the peak.The thrilling begins slightly and you feel the peak point's low oxygen level in an exhausting gaze.Then suddenly film turns into a complete thriller and achieves its goal of keeping alive of the audience's nausea, suffocating and exhausting feelings when the climbers die one by one freezing and facing the same circumstances we live hypothetically.
7.4/10·IMDb
72%·Rotten Tomatoes
64%·Metacritic
8/10 - Verdict
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