Movie Review - Everest (2015)

As an avid fan of hiking and mountain of sorts, this is the movie that I'm not going to miss. I will never get to climb Mount Everest, unless I won millions in lottery and employ many porters to help me up. Even then, I will just probably climb other more accessible mountains rather than risking my life on climbing the granddaddy of all mountains. Or probably just chilling out with mojito drink by the sandy beach on a lazy summer.

It's Jake Gyllenhaal, and he make the movie cooler.

So I got to watch the exclusive screening of the movie in 3D. Not much nice 3D effects, so probably not worth the extra fee for 3D. The movie is based on true story and accounts about the 1996 disastrous Everest climb. The movie focuses on two expedition groups, mainly Adventure Consultants headed by Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Mountain Madness headed by Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal). We can see a contrast between the two guides, with Rob being a more serious dude while Scott is more of a hippy guy.

Rob Hall trying to call his wife via Viber.. ermm I mean satellite phone.

We have a great ensemble of clients joining the expedition, most notably on Rob's team. We have Beck who at first impression puts in as a probable antagonist, but he misses his family back in Texas. Doug Hansen is a postman whose reason to climb the Everest is to motivate the children he met at school. We have Yusuko Namba, a 47-year old veteran that is completing her 'Seven Summit' grand slam at Everest. At the base camp, we have Helen (Emily Watson) who acts as the mother for all the climbers. Rob's wife, Jan (Keira Knightley) didn't really have many screen time but she's just in there to complete the story.

Hey why don't they just build cable car here.

The cinematography is what you can expect in real-life, a gorgeous hilly Himalayan grandeur, from the city of Kathmandu, the airport of Lukla, the village of Namche Bazaar, and of course the surreal scenery along the climb up to Everest. There is one part where they show 2 illogically long hanging bridge and there seems to be too many people crossing at one time! That part just doesn't make sense. The camps at each stop seems to be very welcoming, will many tents dotted the campsites. It just seems like a proper settlement to me. Well I will need to climb myself to find out.

It's a preview of what heaven looks like, minus all the suffering.

After the Everest Base Camp (5364m), that's where things start to get interesting. There are campsites that I've never heard before, there's the deadly Khumbu icefall, and we seen occassional snow storms in the movie along the way to the top. But of course as in the real story, the worst snow storms would befall the teams when they were in the Dead Zone, which is 8000m and above where the oxygen is very thin or almost no oxygen at all. Watching the movie, you can feel the chill that were experienced by the climbers, and you also almost need to grasp a breath watching them trying to get to as many supplies of oxygen as possible.

You know you're screwed when you see a snow tsunami.

Overall, for me it's actually not a very entertaining movie but on knowledge wise about Everest, I do get to know and learn a lot about the treacherous route. It is definitely a very suffering journey that one must undertake even though they pay a small fortune in order to climb the Everest. May I remind this movie is one strenuous and depressing movie, so don't expect any 'happily ever after' type. Watching all the gorgeous sceneries from the comfort of a seat, I do feel grateful I didn't have to do the ultimate climb myself.

Rating: 7/10
Director: Baltasar Kormákur