So Everest is out and with such a hugely talented ensemble cast, breath-taking cinematography and some edge of your seat moments you’d expect this to be released during the blockbuster season considering all the trappings of a blockbuster. Probably one of the reasons that this wasn’t released during the blockbuster season is because it does choose to play it safe on one too many occasions, but that’s not to say that this is not an exciting film.
Touching back on the cast again, I can’t emphasise just how much everyone looks like they belong in this film. They just all feel so genuine with lots of great weathered actors like Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Emily Watson looking like they belong on a mountain, and we even get some decent turns from people like Sam Worthington. Jason Clarke is the heart of the film as climber Rob Hall and he brings a real human and humble touch to the role, he’s just a good man trying to do the right thing as opposed to the usual Hollywood approach of making him overly heroic. The only weak link in the cast for me was Keira Knightley as Rob Hall’s wife. Her acting is top notch with respects to the ugly crying and I mean ugly crying with the snot and everything, the only issue is her very distracting accent. It could be Australian, it could be a New Zealand accent, I don’t think even she knows...
It is filled with large sweeping scenes of mountains and the amazing terrain of Nepal that really needs to be seen on a decent quality I-Max screen to appreciate the magnitude of what the maniacs who trek the mountain actually overcome. Unfortunately this is a movie about characters who don’t necessarily overcome said mountain, so don’t get too attached to any of the climbers. Character deaths are interesting in this film, often choosing to have someone disappear off screen as a reminder that in an environment like Everest, there's no way to know what is going on around you.
There is no ham fisted foreshadowing like in other similar films. Instead we are treated to the process and procedure that everyone must go through when attempting Everest. It’s detailed, it’s thorough and the main reason I’d never go up Everest because it just sounds so tiring.
Now you have certain expectations going into a film like this, especially off the back of the trailers however the film chooses to forgo a lot of the cliches and goes down a much safer path. Was this the best choice by the filmmaker? Hard to tell... It's still a survivalist movie but might have been misleading advertising it as s disaster movie. Instead of going for the big over dramatic avalanche scenes or everyone screaming in terror whenever something happens you have very downplayed but realistic moments for what would probably happen all the way up there. And considering that this is based on true events it would probably be doing the people this film is based on a huge disservice by presenting it any other way.
Overall, this is a really well made film that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible, but just adjust your expectations from a disaster film to a survivalist film and you should not be disappointed... except for the weird Aussie/Kiwi hybrid accent.
Everest gets Four and a Half out of Five Stars (or Four and a Half nightmares about frostbite)
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