Flawed.

Rating: 6/10 (20 September 2015)

Everest is a film that tells the story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a climbing expedition is devastated by a severe storm. The film was directed by 2 Guns director Baltasar Kormakur and written by William Nicholson (Gladiator, Les Miserables) and Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours), starring Jason Clarke, John Hawkes and Josh Brolin. To start the film is beautiful; the director of photography Salvatore Totino presented the size and scale of the environment beautifully with multiple aerial shots. Totino has a clear and linear style, which is refreshing after the summer, which with the exception of a couple of films, has been dominated by shaky-cam and extremely quick cuts.
The dialogue in the film stands out, however the plot does not. The characters were underdeveloped, partially due to the lack of introduction that is given to our main characters; this combined with the slow pace of the first act causes the film to drag. However it should be noted that the film makes a point of showing the process of preparing to climb Everest. The second act is fine, not great though and is intense especially during the storm and finally the film just finishes, which really throws you out of the film.
Although none of the performances in the film were award-worthy they still were acceptable and in some cases quite good. Jason Clarke and Josh Brolin had the meatiest roles, and they both provided good performances. However out of the two, Jason Clarke provided the best performance. The side characters were forgettable, with the exception of Doug (John Hawkes) and Yasuko (Naoko Mori), with Doug being a postman and Yasuko finally completing the seven summits, two things which helped to distinguish them. Everyone in the film was 'care-beared', thankfully, and they had to be otherwise it would impossible to tell who you were looking at.
One part of production that deserves praise in this film is the lighting department who did a superb job on presenting a clear environment; especially during the storm. A quick side note- the score of the film was forgettable.
Ultimately, Everest is an intense drama thriller that has its problems, however is still beautiful to watch, I wouldn't purchase it on 3D Blu-ray, as after watching it in 3D I didn't find anything spectacular or noteworthy, however I would consider buying it on Blu-ray. Overall, I am going to give Everest a C+ or 6/10.