The Climbers

I don't know where the low ratings come from. This movie had excitement,tension, action,romance,great cinematography and was well edited. If you enjoy movies like Vertical Limit and Everest then you will love this. I had to write this review because I did not see how the rating was so low and it should be seen.

Pan Deng Zhe or The Climbers is a Chinese action-adventure movie inspired by historic events. The movie explores how a group of Chinese mountaineers attempts to ascend Mount Everest from the perilous north side. The film exposes the intense relationships between the mountaineers and the challenges related to the expedition.

The movie has been shot on location in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The settings are therefore quite authentic and the landscapes are absolutely breathtaking. Lead actor Wu Jing conducted a cold tolerance training before the shooting and his dedication shows off in a convincing performance. The intense scenes on the mountain have been filmed with great care in form of emotional acting skills and impressive special effects.

The movie also has a few downsides. The numerous highly emotional relationships between the members of the expedition feel somewhat exaggerated and only distract from the already fascinating main plot and the stunning mountaineering scenes. As many other Chinese productions, this film has also an extremely strong patriotic side as it's constantly claimed that Mount Everest is a Chinese mountain that must be climed by Chinese mountaineers which has to be proven and shown to the entire world.

If you are willing to ignore the overtly emotional side stories and the strong propaganda, you will discover a good mountaineering film that should please fans of movies such as Vertical Limit. The settings and special effects alone are worth watching this movie as its high budget shows off quite impressively. To leave an even better mark, this movie should have had less dramatic side stories, less propaganda and more skilled actresses and actors.

The movie itself really shows strong determination of conquering not only the greatest odds of mountaineering on Everest but also the sacrifices that have to be made for the sake of achieving the ultimate goal for any mountaineer and so as for their country. This is where the movie shines by a lot. You'll it good flowing down your skin as you watch it.

Where the movie doesn't shine? It's too unrealistic to be honest. The CGI made the location look odd compared to Western's Everest movies. The visual at the Everest are totally lacking realism to be honest. And also they made it way too dramatic and kinda long too to be honest.

Nonetheless, it's still an okay movie to watch but I've seen better. Even so it's not bad nor best but rather mediocre movie that is still worth your spare time.

Not a bad movie. Not great either. As a climber myself I took into consideration that in those days the gear was nowhere near as advanced and strong as the gear these days. Though on a couple of thigs I was laughing as the way the gear failure was portrayed was laughable. A good excuse for a bit of Kung Fu type gymnastics and action to be thrown in. The acting was wooden and we didn't really care about any particular character because they all blended into a mess of "Try your best to keep up". I think I fell asleep for 20 minutes but didn't miss anything when I rewound it. I give it a 5 because the action scenes were well done (though unbelievable). If it was a Hollywood film I'd give it 3 or 4.

Over the limit even? No pun intended - it has been quite a while since I last saw that movie. But I do have it in really good memory and I am patiently waiting for a 4k release ... it'll happen eventually ... right? Please say yes - even if it's not true. And I mention this, because while many compare this to Cliffhanger, it reminds me more of that movie - I may be wrong ... we all may be wrong and you can't really compare it to either of those movies.

That all being said, this is playing in the mountains and it has quite a lot of snow in it. There is rush, there is excitement and there is suspense for sure. It does check of many boxes and it has quite decent cgi and effects overall (since it is newer than the other movies, probably way better effect wise than those two).

The story is coherent enough and if you let it, it will entertain you for all the right reasons. You may even recognize some actors in this - if you've seen Chinese movie before that is. It says exactly what it - sorry it does exactly what it says on the box (climbers) ... so is this what you want to see/watch? Don't blame the movie afterwards ... well shot as it is too.