Mixed reviews for Baltasar’s Everest

The first reviews of the 3D film Everest – to be premiered at the Venice Film Festival later today – are coming in. The film has already attracted a host of adjectives ranging from “sensational” to “disastrous”.

Everest is a star-studded disaster thriller directed by Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur based on the story of eight climbers who died attempting to scale Mount Everest in 1996.

A towering action drama

Deadline’s Pete Hammond describes Everest as a “terrific film which represents the best of moviemaking at its most daunting”. He highlights particularly the director’s ability to make all of the main characters “three-dimensional human beings, particularly when all hell breaks loose on the mountain”.

Edward Douglas, reviewer for ComingSoon, praises Baltasar’s efforts to “remain factually and technically accurate, while brilliantly building the tension necessary to keep the viewer invested in the story”. Everest is “authentic without ever skimping on the drama or suspense,” Douglas concludes.

Scott Mendelson, reviewing the film for Forbes, is in full agreement, describing the film as “a towering action drama” livened up by a “refreshing […] matter-of-fact approach”.

Shockingly short on feeling

A view not shared by Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian. “Everest is a frustrating movie in many ways – despite some lurches and shocks, it doesn’t quite deliver the edge-of-your-seat thrills that many were hoping for,” is his assessment, leading to a miserable 2/5 star rating.

Similar criticism is heaped on the film by Screen Daily’s Tim Grierson. “For a movie about battling the cruel realities of nature, Everest feels surprisingly artificial, a technical exercise in producing dread that’s shockingly short on feeling,” is the damning conclusion.

Everest is scheduled for general release on 18 September.

Everest is to be premiered in Venice this evening. Photo: Wikipedia