“BWAAAAP!” Like most trailers these days the trailer for Everest starts out with a now obligatory BWAAAAP. For some reason, trailer makers think that this sounds establishes epicness and tension, but all it really does now is create a bit of a parody of itself. Besides the fact that they employ this giant trumpet sound a bit too much, the talent involved in this film is undeniably present. Also, the trailer is beautifully shot. The CGI is amazing, and each actor seems to be bringing their A-game. So, let’s dive into this trailer and do what us nerds to best! *BWAAAAP*
What Worked?
Talent
Right off the bat, we are introduced to the star of the film Jason Clarke, who is becoming more and more of a blockbuster powerhouse. He can really carry a film and bounce off of huge actors very well, as seen in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes between he and Gary Oldman and Andy Serkis. He seems very capable and believable to lead this talent heavy cast and its exciting to seem him alongside other amazing actors.
Next we see Josh Brolin, who his admittedly hit or miss, but I feel like he does best when he is surrounded by other talented actors. He seems to be best served when he has someone else to play off of. I would rather see him as a bit of rougher character, but considering this is based of a true story its understandable why he would have to fit a specific character’s personality.
Then we see John Hawkes and Michael Kelly who have both been involved in plenty of great films and t.v. shows. Both are very solid when around other characters and have proven time and time again that they can hold there own around A-listers. Hopefully this will help show a wider audience their abilities and help land them more starring roles. Also, I must say, Doug Stamper is one of my favorite t.v. characters of the last 10 years, so really anything Michael Kelly does is going to be great in my book.
We get to quickly see Jake Gyllenhaal who seems to disappear into his character. I actually missed him the first time I watched the trailer. It wasn’t until the second time that I even noticed him with his huge beard and glasses. I love to see Gyllenhaal transform and he is a very reliable dramatic actor. I can’t wait to see him be put through this extreme situation of life and death.
Finally, Keira Knightley, who has some brief dialogue with Jason Clarke, seems ok so far. I’m still unsure about her amount of screen time in the film, but she is a solid actress. I feel like her character could be really flat since she will mostly be talking into a phone, but she can exude a lot of emotion with very little physical presence.
Premise
I couldn’t imagine climbing Mt. Everest let alone getting caught in a fucking storm whilst at the top of it. I think I would just accept my death and curl up to die. Luckily, I’m not ever going to be in that situation, and no one is making a movie about me. However, these brave guys had not only the balls enough to climb up, but to try and climb back down during a horrific storm. Honestly, even if the acting was bad, which it won’t be, this would still be pretty amazing to see visualized on the big screen. I think the fact that this is a real story just helps give this film an unneeded edge to be even greater than it most likely will be. Plus, each of these actors are very much so character actors, and since each is playing a real person, it will be interesting to see how true to each person the actors stay.
The Visuals
As I touched on before, these visuals are fucking great. Period. It’s just the time we are living in that allows us to create such stunning and realistic CGI that I seriously can’t tell the difference sometimes. The shot with the storm coming in over the surrounding mountains looked and felt so real that the only thing reminding me that it was CGI was my existing knowledge that it was. If I didn’t already know how such a shot in a movie like this was achieved, I would be fooled into believing that they actually went to a location and risked their lives to film a storm of that magnitude closing in on them. Also, I like the use of very wide establishing shots contradicting with the closeups of each character. It helps makes us aware of how small the human can be in the face of mother nature. It was very nice imagery.
What Didn’t Work?
Character Focus
This is a bit of a minor problem because this movie is obviously an ensemble piece. However, the trailer seems to be heavily focused on Jason Clarke, Keira Knightley, and Josh Brolin. I don’t know the true story behind this film, so perhaps the other characters die early on or something, but the trailer didn’t give me a sense of camaraderie that I’d expect out of a team risking their lives together. I like each character individually, but I want close to equal amounts of focus on each.
Trailer Invariability
Although I liked the trailer overall, I felt like I’d still seen it a million times. All trailers seem to be using the same template these days. The inclusion of the “BWAAAAP,” just cements my feelings on this. Although, I do feel like this is a broader issue, it isn’t necessarily terrible. Really what it is doing is creating a bit of a fatigue with trailers for me. Luckily my interest in this film is pretty high, so I am more capable of looking past this issue, but I wish trailers would start to shake things up a bit.
Overall Assessment
This trailer definitely got me even more excited for this film. It didn’t totally showcase it’s star-studded cast as well as I wish they would have, but it set up the plot very well. It also gave a glimpse of the the eye candy (CGI, not shirtless Gyllenhaal) that is to come. I think this trailer did it’s job, but I hope the second trailer delivers a bit more of the cast and the type of people they will be playing.
Score: 6/10 (Like the actors, the trailer seems to make it to the top of Everest, but things get a
bit turbulent after that.)
