While the large assortment of name actors may have been one of the film's main attractors, I did find it pretty important in order to keep the overabundance of characters on display straight. They really needed to focus things down to just 3-4 main characters, but the film covers such a wide array of people that it's easy to forget who's who and where during the pivotal events on Mount Everest. Problems identifying characters are inherent in films of this genre (also see any movie with a lot of scuba diving) because the characters' masks obscure their faces unless they keep removing them for dramatic effect. Another big issue with most any mountaineering movie is that, at the back of my mind, I am well aware how completely optional this whole adventure is for all the characters involved. If the story involved some desperate Sherpa who had to escort a dangerous expedition to the top and back in order to feed his family or pay for his kid's medical bills, I would have felt much more invested than with watching a bunch of guys just climbing "because it's there".
All that said, I found the film to contain a lot of breathtaking and exhilarating moments, and was surprised by how realistically it portrayed mountain climbing without injecting a lot of fake-feeling conflict and obstacles that many similar movies will do. Also refreshing is the fact that this is one of the few historically based films to not significantly alter the events, combine characters, or add in more action like IN THE HEART OF THE SEA did. It sticks to the facts, which I've found to be extremely rare in films set in the real world and covering true events.
I was a bit put off by frequent scenes which were obviously filmed against a blue screen or on a studio set, but a lot of scenes were put together well enough where it's difficult to tell what was fake and what was shot on an actual mountain climb, if not on Everest itself.
All in all it's a fine effort though not the most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. I have a feeling that the entire reason this film was funded was to dissuade people from climbing Mount Everest, as the mountain gets increasingly crowded every season. If that was the film's mission, it absolutely succeeded with me.
All that said, I found the film to contain a lot of breathtaking and exhilarating moments, and was surprised by how realistically it portrayed mountain climbing without injecting a lot of fake-feeling conflict and obstacles that many similar movies will do. Also refreshing is the fact that this is one of the few historically based films to not significantly alter the events, combine characters, or add in more action like IN THE HEART OF THE SEA did. It sticks to the facts, which I've found to be extremely rare in films set in the real world and covering true events.
I was a bit put off by frequent scenes which were obviously filmed against a blue screen or on a studio set, but a lot of scenes were put together well enough where it's difficult to tell what was fake and what was shot on an actual mountain climb, if not on Everest itself.
All in all it's a fine effort though not the most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. I have a feeling that the entire reason this film was funded was to dissuade people from climbing Mount Everest, as the mountain gets increasingly crowded every season. If that was the film's mission, it absolutely succeeded with me.