Summit Fever

The writers, producers, and directors put a lot of love into this movie. The actors were excellent and the climbers were superb. The story line was actually great... a lot of characters you really feel for in the end. The shots were amazing, really took my breath away. For any climbers out there, they actually had real climbers doing crazy stuff; awesome to see. In most climbing movies, the story lines are cheesy and just TOO fictional; they also usually have non-climbers trying to act out climbing scenes and it just looks BAD. Definitely NOT the case in Summit Fever. You can tell the actors actually trained in the sport before climbing, and the stunt doubles were real pros. Plus the stories of love and friendship were genuine and real. Icing on the cake was the super 8 film video at the end. Overall the movie was beautiful and acting was phenomenal!

Half of Summit Fever is watching people climb. I know that may not seem like a criticism when that's what the movie is about. But you need more than that for it to feel like a real movie. I might as well watch a documentary or real footage of climbers.

The other half of Summit Fever is the most basic and useless character development and story setup. They throw in a love story that actually works but isn't necessary and doesn't make up for the rest of the movie.

I don't have much else to say. This movie is extremely boring with almost no intrigue. The main part of the story, the biggest mountain they will climb, doesn't happen until 70 minutes into the movie. By then I was mostly checked out. (1 viewing, 3/27/2023)

As others have said, the plot to Summit Fever is pretty thin. There's actually nothing wrong with that for an action/survival genre film. The problem is, they tried to flesh it out with drama instead of focusing on the action.

The main character, Michael, is a bit mopey and weak-willed, always being talked into one more mountain by his enthusiastic friend, Jean Pierre. I mean, he has to hem and haw and be convinced to climb Every Single Time.

Then, there's the little romance side plot which is utterly boring, adds nothing to the movie and should have been cut. It causes Summit Fever to lose momentum. Once a character has become dreadfully boring, why should I be invested in their survival?

The drone scenery shots are nice, but the cinematography is disappointing considering the location. It's very generic. The climbing scenes are shot too close and when something does happen, it's over in an instant. Several people actually die, but there's no fanfare around it. They're on a mountain, so some of these people just come sliding by from above and then are gone forever all in 3 seconds. It's like, ok... bye? I'd rather watch this dude struggle and fight and maybe eventually die for at least a few minutes than stare at the French chick's pouty face for 5 straight minutes for no flippin reason. I bet the director had a crush on her.

Summit Fever is disappointing. It tries too hard to stir emotion and doesn't try hard enough to generate adrenaline fueled excitement by proxy. It ultimately fails on both fronts.

In my opinion, the most glaring part of this movie is the one black character, Rudi, that appears in the beginning of the movie as part of the group, but then suddenly disappears, appearing only in the background until the last half of the film, and then disappears again. He's the only character whose story never gets fleshed out in any way, and never gets an official ending. Sad to see tokenism is still alive and well.

Other than that, it's an engaging film, the climbing scenes are done very well, and I found the lead actor particularly talented. However, one other oddity of this film were the touches of old school nods such as the disposable camera, the film camera, the 1950s looking radio, etc.. If you enjoy films about climbing and climbers, you'll probably enjoy this film.

There was a good film in in here somewhere, however, I feel that poor execution, casting, and weak writing (specifically the first half) let the entire concept down. If you can manage to get past the first 45min the film does become significantly more eventful and entertaining.....aided by lower reliance on the character "background" stories and any actual acting.

That being said, it's the first time since The Avengers (1998) that I kept looking at my watch praying for the agony to stop.

In terms of redemption, the climbing scenes were well executed and there are some beautiful cinematic sequences of the mountains.

Probably not the worst film I've ever seen, and I've likely been harsh with my rating so take with a pinch of salt.