A Thrilling Frost Bite

Rating: 6/10 (19 September 2015)

Everest is directed Baltasar Kormákur and is written by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy. It stars Jason Clarke, Jake Gylenhaal, Keira Knightly, Josh Brolin, and Robin Wright along with a slew of about ten thousand other equally talented actors.
A climbing expedition on Mt. Everest is devastated by a severe snow storm. Basically summarizes, the entire movie in a nut shell.
This movie is literally Gravity on Earth. That isn't a complete negative. Like Gravity it is well acted, well directed, and beautiful to a fault but just as thin plot wise.
For this review I'm going to break one of my rules and start with the negatives of this movie. This movie is very poorly scripted. The sheer potential of a story like this is as great as the title mountain. The fact that Gravity had a razor sharp edge on its themes of guilt and depression is what sets this movie and Gravity miles apart. Though the theme of redemption and survival is present they aren't as Hard hitting as they should be. Full of One dimensional characters galore this movie treads the line between watchable and enjoyable and luckily it manages to maneuver in just the right ways to succeed at both .
Part of its success is awarded to the stellar performances from the all star cast especially Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal. Clarke may very well be the only three dimensional character in the movie because of his phenomenal performance. It was magnificent. It offered a deep sense of dread to the already terrifying landscape and only upped the suspense factor ten folds. Gyllenhaal does the same but in a more minor way which did disappoint me. Another great aspect to the movie was the direction. Baltasar Kormákur sure hand approach to filming the actors and shot was spectacular and definitely deserves praise.
Now on to the single best part of this movie. This part should and will win best cinematography. The cinematographer, Salvatore Totino offers the best shots I've seen in a very long time. Rivaling Gravity in visuals if only at one thing Everest's cinematography was absolutely flawless. Every shot looked better than the last but my personal favorite was the first fall from the mountain. It was intense and unforgettable.
Everest is an intense thriller that doesn't let up but leaves a lot to want in terms of plot which is precisely the reason Everest Gets a B or a 6/10. This is a Thrilling Frost Bite.