Everest Review

Snow, Altitude, chaos, Adventure; Hollywood has seen enough movies in this genre; Cliffhanger, Vertical Limit and many more. Everest comes under the same league only upped by a greater part of awe-inspiring CGI, Direction and special effects. Everest is a recreation of an ill-fated climb to 29,029 feet above sea level, where altitude sickness silently stalks the most experienced climbers. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) lead rival expeditions, racing against one another and the elements to ensure their clients are on top of the world. Unlike his rival, Rob takes a demanding, cautious approach to each ascent with his company Adventure Consultants, promising his pregnant wife Jan (Keira Knightley) that he will return soon for the imminent birth of their daughter.

Thanks to director Baltasar Kormakur's who is from Iceland and a climber himself, the through "Everest"  audiences can get a intense feel for the persistent hostility of the climb to the world's highest peak shockingly often -- toward their deaths. Based on weather forecasts, all the tour guides have decided to make the final ascent on the same day, and there's no one to co-ordinate or tell someone they can't go whenever they want. Cooperation is useful up to a point, but once you get up to Hillary's Step(a point of climbing), the final 40-foot wall approachable only by a narrow passage where even one slow climber can cause problems to the rest, overcrowding becomes an issue at a location where, until 43 years earlier, no one on Earth had ever set foot.

One of the characters jumps off to his death, not only to save the another guy harnessed to his rope, but also because he has reached the Everest peak and has realized that he has seen everything in life - it's chilling. One interesting scene has a character posing the typical question - why are they climbing the Everest, which leads to the same answers which argues the motive. With so many characters in the movie, the director quickly takes his time to build the characterization as the movie requires the emotional content as the climbers start making their way to the top, but somehow like in Vertical Limit or other adventure movies we hardly get to know the characters and their purpose which drives the ascend to the top.

The first half of the film is a slow and steady build as the team climbs up to the Everest base camp and then prepares to make the ascent to the summit itself, and it's as effective and stressful as that poster and trailer suggest. The film shot on actual mountains as well as sound stages, dragging the cast to altitudes as high as 16,000 feet, the film reflects the struggle. The second hour is devoted to the final ascent and its aftermath, and it's all quite intense. A perfect, entirely unexpected storm comes in as the first climbers arrive on the tiny stage, while many more are lined up single row on the narrow path, waiting their turns. While it's sometimes impossible to identify who's who under all the coasts, hoods, goggles and masks, director Baltasar Kormakur does a very good job, given the gusts of whooshing wind and blinding snow of keeping the action intact and involving; the consequences of over-exposure to the elements are made plainly and painfully evident. It is, in the end, as sad and tragic a film as the story warrants.

The film is a visual avalanche, for an average Indian viewer its nothing but infinite splendor and the 3D just keeps bringing in the shivers. The film has been released in a number of religion, languages too, the tamil version of it tries to keep up with the sounds of the characters in agony too, so a good watch for everyone.

Verdict 3.5/5