James Smith This film is certainly worth a watch, basically to mainly observe how not to put together a documentary. The Story is extremely compelling but the director chooses to jump the narrative all over the place and even confuse the audience with a story about the first ever climb up K2. Simply it doesn't work. I am quite surprised it got released like this, all the pieces are there - but unfortunately in the wrong order which ultimately makes you care less. Maybe the director/editor producer were trying to be clever but it's just a bit naff. Also there are too many captions and the interviews look a bit ugly. Shame as the story is brilliant.

phillip_harben Interesting documentary, but as others have written, The Summit suffers from a disjointed narrative which impacts it negatively. Largely focusing on the events of two days in 2008, which saw 11 climbers die, it is bizarrely interspersed with K2's first summit attempt back in the fifties. I do not know why Walter Bonatti's tale was woven into this. It had no bearing on the events in 2008 and should have been cut.Also, the narrative jumps between 2008 and an aborted attempt in 2006, but as both attempts feature the same two people in the same geographical area, it is confusing. Also, the film mixes reconstruction with actual footage which adds more confusion.Whoever edited this deserves shooting, as does director Nick Ryan for his blatant bias toward the fellow Irishman Ger McDonnell, who lost his life on K2. Trying to shoehorn a story of heroism into this mess of a film is incongruous at best. If he wanted to tell the story of Ger, he should have set that stall out to begin with, then weave the other narrative around it. Instead, we get some heavy- handed clunkiness about his (possible) heroism, based on supposition and hardly a shred of evidence. Really? The Koreans were further down the mountain than they were? Ger cut their tangled ropes and helped them down? Based on no evidence at all. This is a dog's breakfast of a documentary, lacking in coherent narrative and some bad directorial decisions. Why the high score, then? Despite all of the above, it was gripping in parts, and had some utterly breathtaking cinematography. It also gave the viewer an insight into the harsh, unforgiving "death zone" of K2.

Craig Ashley I've seen this awful film/documentary a few times and each time I feel something so rotten and so wrong resonating at the core of it... everything, from the production values, the 'trying to be slick' typography to the blatant narcissism of the talking heads: it's pretty grotesque.It's a mosaic of mostly selfish, odious '90s' people who, in their quest for that flag waving moment atop the - wait for it - summit, simply couldn't care less who else appears in their way. There's also some pretty transparent agendas here, a thinly-veiled blame culture.Really, really shocking (for the wrong reasons), confusing and, as a work of art, just as botched, giddy and rushed as the tragedy it describes.

Paul Reynolds This movie shows the challenges met by a high altitude mountaineer on K2 and the codes they conform to in order to survive. Its well worth watching to get a great insight into such a dangerous activity and try and portray the enormous risks and challenges people take in conquering the most dangerous mountain in the world. The movie also tells the truth of what really happened on the mountain from reliable witnesses (the surviving climbers themselves). It was also great to see such a great character Ger McDonnell shine through in his personality and character from personal footage on the mountain. It makes me proud to see such a great Irishman accomplishing such a huge challenge. 10 out of 10 for an overall excellent film