Were we supposed to take this movie seriously?? It was entertaining, but that's pretty much all that could be said for it. The dialogue is on par with modern B flicks like 'Bats' and 'Bad Moon', the direction (by the talented Martin Campbell) was way off, and it's obvious that there were a lot of problems during production. Why do I say this? It looks like they went with an early, unfinished cut, and that the production team just wanted to get it over with and go on to bigger and better things, and didn't even bother to do more than a take or two, so ultimately the entire film has this crude, unpolished look to it.
Piling on the criticism, did anyone even bother to hire anyone to monitor the continuity in this movie?? I mean, even my films have fewer small problems with it than this. For starters, the entire thing takes place above 26,000 feet in the middle of the snowstorm, but not once is the characters' breath visible, and it makes you feel like you're in the tropics, even though all of the faces are constantly frozen, everyone's always shaking so much that it's almost nauseating, and wearing a ton of heavy clothes-- but you don't see their breath. Additionally, there a ton (literally) of small errors and places where computer effects are obviously added in. For example, one scene has a shot of the midday sun, and tracks out to reveal that the camera is actually inside a hut looking out a barred skylight, but when the sun is supposed to go behind the bar, the special effects/cgi crew apparently forgot to actually put the sun behind the bar, so it just goes over top of it and looks fake beyond words.
The dialogue is unbelievably bad for a movie that had an estimated budget of over a hundred million dollars. A four year old could've written a better script. The characters aren't really flushed out, and other than the two main characters (Peter and Annie Garrett), you barely know the names or faces of the others, and feel for them or generally care when they run into the inevitable troubles that seem to happen in every climbing movie. The villain of the piece doesn't emerge until minutes from the end, and never is actually very menacing, it seems he was just made into a villain to spice things up a bit... as if the mountain wasn't bad enough already.
I know it sounds like I've absolutely trashed this movie, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. The stunts and locations were stunning, and rare action scene that actually worked was exhilarating... but that wasn't often enough. The acting was surprisingly good for a script this bad, Scott Glenn being the stand out. He was given one of the weakest, most two dimensional character in the piece and almost succeeded in making Montgomery Wick fun to watch.
There's no doubt that this had potential, but it is little more than a bloated disappointment. It runs way too long, takes forever for anything to happen, and is generally, well, bad. This film supposedly went way over budget during production, but it doesn't really show. Only a few shots actually had a high gloss, refined look to them, and a more efficient director could've made the film on far less. A really good climbing movie still has yet to be made, as neither 'Cliffhanger' or 'K2' were really all that good, and this sure doesn't fit the bill.
Entertaining, but little else. It's better to stay away from it, especially after it leaves theaters, where at least the action and scenery seem impressive.
4.5/10
Piling on the criticism, did anyone even bother to hire anyone to monitor the continuity in this movie?? I mean, even my films have fewer small problems with it than this. For starters, the entire thing takes place above 26,000 feet in the middle of the snowstorm, but not once is the characters' breath visible, and it makes you feel like you're in the tropics, even though all of the faces are constantly frozen, everyone's always shaking so much that it's almost nauseating, and wearing a ton of heavy clothes-- but you don't see their breath. Additionally, there a ton (literally) of small errors and places where computer effects are obviously added in. For example, one scene has a shot of the midday sun, and tracks out to reveal that the camera is actually inside a hut looking out a barred skylight, but when the sun is supposed to go behind the bar, the special effects/cgi crew apparently forgot to actually put the sun behind the bar, so it just goes over top of it and looks fake beyond words.
The dialogue is unbelievably bad for a movie that had an estimated budget of over a hundred million dollars. A four year old could've written a better script. The characters aren't really flushed out, and other than the two main characters (Peter and Annie Garrett), you barely know the names or faces of the others, and feel for them or generally care when they run into the inevitable troubles that seem to happen in every climbing movie. The villain of the piece doesn't emerge until minutes from the end, and never is actually very menacing, it seems he was just made into a villain to spice things up a bit... as if the mountain wasn't bad enough already.
I know it sounds like I've absolutely trashed this movie, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. The stunts and locations were stunning, and rare action scene that actually worked was exhilarating... but that wasn't often enough. The acting was surprisingly good for a script this bad, Scott Glenn being the stand out. He was given one of the weakest, most two dimensional character in the piece and almost succeeded in making Montgomery Wick fun to watch.
There's no doubt that this had potential, but it is little more than a bloated disappointment. It runs way too long, takes forever for anything to happen, and is generally, well, bad. This film supposedly went way over budget during production, but it doesn't really show. Only a few shots actually had a high gloss, refined look to them, and a more efficient director could've made the film on far less. A really good climbing movie still has yet to be made, as neither 'Cliffhanger' or 'K2' were really all that good, and this sure doesn't fit the bill.
Entertaining, but little else. It's better to stay away from it, especially after it leaves theaters, where at least the action and scenery seem impressive.
4.5/10