Everest - Movie Review

Everest Movie Premiere Poster - courtesy  Universal Pictures

Everest tells the story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when 8 climbers died in a period of 24 hours. It features some big name stars like:

• Jake Gyllenhaal as Scott Fischer, an expedition group leader.
• Josh Brolin as Beck Weathers, a doctor. 
• Sam Worthington as Guy Cotter.  
• Keira Knightley as Jan Arnold, Rob Hall's pregnant wife.
• and Australian actor Jason Clarke as Rob Hall, a New Zealander expedition group leader.

The movie shows the arrival in Nepal of the various expedition groups and follows them on their journey to attempt to summit Everest. The competing commercial expeditions and their rivalry both on a personal and business level is shown but like much of the film it is just lightly touched on leaving you feeling that there was much that could have been  explored.

The scenery, some shot in the Italian Alps, some in Nepal and some CGI is as spectacular as you might expect.

The characters and this is not a reflection on the actors but more the script, are a bit shallow. The script wanders around and hopes you will follow it. It is no help at all to the actors and doesn't show much depth or evoke deep feelings even in pivotal scenes.

No doubt some people will find this a "nailbiting" disaster film but it didn't draw me in to that extent.

The film does show quite well in my opinion the commercial pressures on expedition companies to get their people to the summit. You can all too easily see the tragedy unfolding and the almost reckless decision making that occurred that contributed to the death toll on that fateful day and night. Disregarding things like turnaround times on summit attempts because of the money involved, crowding on the ascent and poor planning, the whole clearly conveys the impression of a slowly unfolding tragedy that could have been avoided to a great extent except for the obsession of reaching the summit.

Is it worth seeing? It is, for the scenery, The story could have been told better and the script needed some work. Was it worth the cost of a movie ticket? Yes it was, as a large screen is needed I would think to fully experience the grandeur of this films locations.

Universal Pictures

2 Stars