Sound Off: Baltasar Kormákur's 'Everest' 3D Adventure

Now that you've seen it, what did you think? Never let go! Now playing in theaters everywhere is Everest, a 3D adventure from filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur. Telling the story of the 1996 expedition to Everest documented in Jon Krakauer's book "Into Thin Air", Everest is a cinematic version of that story - being presented in IMAX 3D in many locations worldwide. Michael Kelly plays Jon Krakauer, with Jason Clarke starring as Australian guide Rob Hall who leads the group. Also stars Martin Henderson, John Hawkes, Emily Watson, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Josh Brolin and Jake Gyllenhaal. So - is it intense? Once you've seen it, leave a comment with your thoughts on Baltasar Kormákur's Everest.

Spoiler Warning: We strongly urge everyone to actually see the film before reading ahead, as there may be spoilers below. We also encourage all commenters to keep major spoilers from the film to a minimum, if possible. However, this is an open discussion from this point on! Beware of spoilers, don't ruin this movie!

(Note: screened in IMAX 3D.) To fire up some O and acclimatize, I thought Everest was a solid film but felt like it was missing something, lacking some substance. It's a very straightforward telling of the tragic story of an Everest expedition gone bad, with a horrible storm ripping through at the wrong possible time. It's nicely shot, the performances are strong across the board, but it's very lightweight on any other aspects. It's very intense at times and lives up to the adventure aspect in showing just how treacherous and challenging it all is. I'm very glad they featured some Sherpas in the movie, actually played by real Sherpas, but they gloss over them and barely even get introduced. Overall it worked well, but never exceeded my expectations.

What's interesting about this expedition and why it's so historic in Everest history is that it was one of the first big commercial tragedies (ever since guides started taking clients up) due to some odd decisions made throughout, which the movie shows - fights with other teams, missing ropes, and the traffic jam/confusion at the final point. However, the film never really leans in on any direction regarding any feeling about the situation - never hinting at how bad the commercialization of climbing is, resulting in amateur climbers, and overcrowding. It mostly just says, hey some people made some weird choices, and lost their lives for it, but they're still people. It needed more of an angle in any direction. It felt like it was in there at one point, but the film was edited down to be so straightforward, it's missing that edge now. Lacking something more.

Everest

What did you think of Baltasar Kormákur's Everest? An incredible experience, or total bore?
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Saturday, 19 September 2015