ShangLuda Admirable film.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

grantonslow What I really liked about this movie was that it focused on the true danger of climbing the worlds tallest mountains, moreover the most dangerous, K2. Beautiful imagery has a shock and awe factor similar to what you would experience watching Planet Earth. Some of what you see is truly mesmerizing. For the most part the actors do a great job and it feels as if you're right there on the mountain as they tell their side of the story. The fact that this is based on a true story makes it all the more compelling to watch. Also, its very important to note that the prelogue states "what happened that day remains a mystery even to those who lived to survive the ordeal", meaning the cause of an event may seem unclear and that is because the details around the event are still not fully known.

brendan-821-654855 The story this documentary sets out to tell is a very important one, but the documentary has been created with a very confusing narrative.The biggest problem is really the decision to include the story of Walter Bonatti, from a totally separate incident that happened on K2 almost 70 years before the tragic events of 2008 that are the central focus of this documentary.Effectively they've sandwiched together what should be two separate documentaries, and the way that Walter Bonatti retells his story (reading from a script) is really jarring and inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the documentary footage, and as a result it really pulls the viewer out of the movie and the story which should actually be the central focus of our attention (the 2008 incident.)On top of this, they also chose to use his story as a juxtaposition to the 2008 events - putting the two side by side and cutting back and forth. In the end this simply results in a very confused film narrative with two completely separate incidents that only really share two details in common: the mountain they took place on, and the way in which the events were distorted after the fact.I don't think the connections were strong enough though to actually justify putting both events side by side in this film, and there is no obvious reason for doing this - instead it just detracts from what is a very powerful story when told without any distractions.I think that it would have been far better to use that screen time to actually focus on telling the story of 2008 in more detail - there are key moments which aren't really fleshed out properly and as a result you find yourself asking: 'what the heck actually happened there?'Another thing that felt a little bit disjointed was the beginning of the documentary - it was quite hard to grasp what the actual set up was (i.e. what was going on and who the key players were), and once you get to the end of the film you realise that a lot of that initial first part of the documentary didn't actually add to your understanding of these events.I also think that after setting up some very obvious questions around ethics, the management of the fateful climb, and prudent decision-making on the mountain, the filmmakers never really explored and went back to these issues in a way that ties the film together with a solid narrative.I would still recommend this documentary, as I think the story it tells is an important and engaging one, but, sadly, the final film never really reaches its full potential because of the way it was put together.You also need to go into this movie with an awareness that, in order to properly understand these events, you will actually need to do some supplemental reading about the incident - which really does defeat the whole point of having a documentary movie about an incident.

toomanypeople2011 The question "what is happening?" came at almost every turn throughout this piece.On the back of incredible climbing stories that have been so well told in the past (Touching The Void and The North Face rank highly in my collection), I sat awaiting this story eagerly… I was however VERY disappointed for two reasons:1. This fails as a documentary to accurately and effectively document and express to the viewer a single piece of detail regarding the event. In 2008 there were a few groups of mountaineers that climbed the mountain - some of those climbers made mistakes - 11 people died and no coherent story could be wrought from the survivors. This SHOULD make for an interesting story, however there is so little viewer involvement, the story just doesn't make sense - even the number of climbers was contradicted at each point on the mountain!?2. The interviewees provided nothing of interest in this documentary. I felt these were a group of selfish, generally reckless people who I had no common ground with. That said, the film maker did not assist these people in accurately supporting them visually in their telling of their piece and as such I was left not understanding where any of them were on the mountain at any particular time, how far away from each other they were, what they were doing or at what point in the climb they were at.In this instance, i am sorry to say my 3* review is for the sensational views of the Himalayas and for what was some interesting POV shooting taken by the team on the mountain.In recommendation, seek out other climbing documentaries. This deserves a re-make.

marty8 This could have been a great story, but they butchered it. They jump from one time period, group, and place to another, then back to an entirely different setting from the first two. Nothing is in the proper sequence.Directors shouldn't be awarded with more than one star when they botch a story up as badly as this. Someone needs to take the same film and put it together in a more chronological and logical order. Then we just might have a good story.In the end, you don't really know what the movie is about. Is it about K2, the 1954 expedition, the 2008 expedition, or is it making some larger point? The movie is allegedly about the 2008 expedition, but again, they fail to simply tell us the story.This movie shows a lot of great scenery, and shots of people climbing the mountain. If that's what you want to see, you will get that.