Everest

I was surprised to find that another eleven folks turned out on a cold and wet Sunday morning to the 10:30am session to see Everest.  I was looking forward to seeing this one, and a busy week ahead meant that I had to see it by myself, which I don't mind during the day.  In NZ, we are all familiar with the story it tells.  Rob Hall was a NZ mountaineer who led paid customers to summit Mt Everest as part of his company.  In May 1996 his team leads a group of 7 to summit, as well as other groups who intend to take the same journey.  A variety of decisions and a blizzard led to 8 deaths on the mountain, one of the deadliest days in the history of mountain climbing.

I feel a bit conflicted about watching the movie in 3D.  Parts of it help to show the majesty and scale of the movie and help making the action scenes more dramatic, but parts of it make you feel like you are watching the movie through a viewfinder and make it feel stited and not put together.  There seems to not be a seamless transition that you would expect through the 2D-3D parts, making it for me feel stitched together and comes across as a gimmick.  The attempts at a Kiwi accent were also a bit of a challenge, a difficult one for overseas actors and actresses to manage.

I did enjoy the story, and even though I knew the ending it did bring a tear to the eye of this middle aged lady.  It did leave me with the feeling that this mountain should maybe left alone, and that anyone climbing must be partly crazy.  4/5