Everest

This movie was a visual treat, but one that tried to cram an entire multi-month expedition into 2 hours, and fails more than it succeeds. Everest chronicles the 1996 Everest Disaster in which a number of climbers perished due to a variety of reasons which I won't spoil here. More than that, though, the movie attempts to chronicle more or less the entirety of the expedition, from the characters' various families at home, to their journey to Nepal and their trek to base camp as well as their acclimatization and preparation. The cast of this movie is utterly insane. Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Keira Knightley, Michael Kelly, Robin Wright, Sam Worthington, etc. However, besides Brolin and Clarke, none of the characters are fleshed out or even given anything to do. Because the movie attempts to hit EVERY note present in Krakauer's book Into Thin Air, every note in Weathers' book, and every other aspect of the actual, historical disaster, it comes off as butter scraped over too much bread, to quote Bilbo Baggins. More than that, the entire theme of the movie is completely obscured with the sheer amount of STUFF going on. Some climbers have trouble with their oxygen supply, others their vision, others their technical skills or their hubris or their partners. Conflicts between Clarke's character and others are sprung up out of nowhere, and never lead to anything. One of the main plot lines before the movie gets to the disaster is that Clarke and Gyllenhaal are attempting to work together although they head two different expeditions (attempting to share the duties of fixing rope, stashing oxygen tanks, etc), and their Sherpa guides object to it and fight verbally. Then, the movie just cuts. And that plot line is NEVER returned to. There is never any issue that arises due to their sharing of duties, nor is anything ever explained. Another example is that one of the guides finds a stash of oxygen bottles near the South Summit but exclaims that they're empty. Now, to readers of Krakauer's book, they'll recognize this guide as Andy "Harold" Harris, and know that Harris is actually struggling with severe hypoxia and a broken respirator that disallows him to breathe bottled oxygen even from perfectly full bottles. In the movie, however, the character just says "we're out of O!" and that's it. Guess they're out of O? It's not all bad, and generally the scenes focused around Clarke are fairly engrossing, and of course the movie looks so beautiful that you're barely looking at the characters in the first place. Unfortunately, this is hard to recommend to anyone who isn't smitten just by the premise. Justice isn't done to any character, save perhaps Rob Hall, and plot lines appear and disappear by the dozen during the length of the film. Upon finishing the film, your reaction will most likely be, "that was cool!", but upon trying to remember what happened to any specific character, or even what really caused the deaths of the 8 men and women on Everest that day, you'll be forced to scratch your head and think, "wait, who was that one guy? Did he make it? No wait that was someone else... or was it?" It's wildly confusing and jumbled even to someone intimately familiar with Krakauer's book or the event in general. 2.5 Stars.

awsome climber movie.. Hollywood of course but very much based on real story.. I've read the survivor memoirs and this is pretty close and captued some of the terror I am sure.. true tale of survival.. and we cant judge unless it happens to you.. we all wanna live.. recommend if you are a climber or awed by the crazy compulsion of climbers

Grab the tissues... this is one hell of an emotional slippery slope. The acting is outstanding and while it does seem like a fairy tale at certain points, I feel like it still stands strong as a film about a bunch of determined people whose luck simply ran out. Check out "Meru" if you like this film.