Years after he and his sister survived a climbing accident where their father died, Peter and Annie Garrett find themselves on K2 for different reasons. Peter is on the foothills taking pictures for National Geographic, while Annie is part of the documentary crew with playboy millionaire Elliot Vaughn, who is aiming to reach the summit in time to promote the launch of his new airline. However when a storm comes in., most of the party are killed with only Elliot, Annie and leader Tom surviving in a crevice. Peter puts together a rescue mission, led by veteran Montgomery Wick.
It is just this film's bad luck that I watched it only a matter of days after I saw the much better Touching The Void. That film had me on the edge of my seat with my mouth agape at times with a story of a climbing accident and the aftermath. However Vertical Limit doesn't go for realism at any point. The plot is a real mess; it doesn't risk having it's thrills from the effects of the mountain so it also adds a traditional bad guy and a `wages of fear' twist involving the climbers carrying nitro in their backpacks. That's not to say the film doesn't have exciting moments - the opening scene is very dramatic and powerful (despite O'Donnell's crap wide-eyed acting) but it never reaches that again. Instead, it settles for effect shots of climbers hanging over great heights etc. These are visually impressive and they do manage to get a sense of urgency to them but it never lasts long.
It's a shame, because Cliffhanger was enjoyable and Void showed that the real drama can come from just the mountain itself, however here it keeps adding more stuff to try and force drama out of the situation. The lack of real characters is a problem - instead we have very wide clichés almost; `dudes', wise old men, ruthless billionaires, sexy mountain chick and clean cut siblings. Aside from the opening sequence, it is hard to feel an emotional connection to any of them and, as the latest disposable actor hangs over a drop awaiting the chop I was more focused on how good it looked rather than nerves over the outcome. O'Donnell is as bland as he often can be and didn't impress me at all; likewise Tunney was a bit `all-American' for my taste. Paxton could have been sending up Richard Branson if he hadn't been playing it so straight. In a similar vein, Glenn would have been better if he'd put his tongue in his cheek and acknowledged how daft his character was! The support cast or `drop monkeys' as I call them are an average enough bunch but the film basically kills them off one by one like a horror movie - to much audience apathy I might add.
Overall this is an OK film if you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the vertigo-inducing effects. However with no good plot, dialogue or characters it will be very difficult for anyone to really get involved in the film beyond this aspect. I can only plea to you to seek out a film with a fraction the budget of this and that's Touching The Void. It is a true story with no digital effects but it is a similar setting but much, much better.
