In the end though, while Everest” is testing brutal and spectacular in portions, there’s never enough tension to keep you consistently invested in the drama. The thrills too are fewer than you’d expect from what’s essentially a disaster film, and we never get one compelling central character to root for.
It works despite its problems and that may just be because of the magnificence of the beast.

The film is shot beautifully, and in 3D, the dips and highs of the glorious peak are eminently watchable.

The truly breathtaking spectacle and technical achievements can make you feel like you too are on a vertical slope at 29,000 feet. But this awe-inspiring movie is also one that’s laced with dread, little triumph and even less perspective as you wait, with a knotted stomach, for the disasters to manifest.

Straight off the bat, the single most impressive aspect about this film really is the geographical titan that is the Everest, in all its towering, windswept, snow-capped glory. Salvatore Totino’s cinematography puts you right out there with the climbers, feeling that same sense of excitement, fear, trepidation and determination that the mountaineers themselves felt.

Hollywood anyway gives us an overdose of heroism from time to time so it is good to watch a film that takes a step back to see the drama unfold. Backed by commendable performances, Everest is eminently worth a watch.

There isn’t a single line of corny dialogue, which is a far cry from blockbuster Hollywood. The acting is universally excellent, with Clarke continuing to impress with his range and a New Zealand twang that never feels out of place. This visually breath-taking film will make you want to go to Nepal…

A film with exceptional visuals and many edge­-of-­the-­seat moments…

Everest takes us right to the top but is in such a hurry to get back to base camp that it ignores a question posed by travel journalist Jon Krakauer’s character to the summiteers: why is scaling Mount Everest so important? The struggle between human will and the mountain’s unbending nature is conveyed in the most basic and obvious terms. The movie shows us how the climbers reached the top, but isn’t interested in understanding why some of them died.