Popular reviews

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  Review by Sydney🚀 ★★★★ 17

  The Summit of the Gods is worth watching purely as an auditory and visual spectacle. The animation, shot composition, score, and sound design are all phenomenal. It moves a bit like an older Ghibli film, but feels more like it happens in our world without compromising depth or color. There were certain frames I had to pause for just to take it in! I’m really hoping this gets nominated for best animated feature and sound design. 

  And, despite a narrative that can be disjointed at times, this film tells a really powerful story about obsessive behavior and why certain people dedicate their lives to achieving the impossible and testing humanity’s limits. Not impossible like, running a marathon - impossible like…

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  Review by ˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ ★★★½ 4

  major missed opportunity to play miley cyrus’ hit single the climb during the credits

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  Review by 24framesofnick ★★★★½ 4

  I really enjoyed this

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  Review by Austin Burke ★★★★½ 8

  ✅88%
  YouTube review - Click HERE
  2021 list - Click HERE

  A photojournalist's obsessive quest for the truth about the first expedition to Mt. Everest leads him to search for an esteemed climber who went missing.

  In the “mountain-climbing” genre, this film stands at the top (see what I did there). It is amazing because you do not expect an animated movie to put you in the shoes of these characters like it does, but here we are. Not only is the voice work and direction great, but we are dealing with two extremely compelling characters at the center. One character is on a personal mission to prove to himself that he can overcome what has him filled with so much grief.…

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★

  Adapted from Baku Yumemakura’s mid-‘90s manga series of the same name, Patrick Imbert’s “The Summit of the Gods” might reflect the awed and glassy tone of recent French animation (the similarly ethereal “I Lost My Body” comes to mind), but its most formative influence is fittingly Japanese: Studio Ghibli.

  You might sense it in the structure of Imbet, Magali Pouzol, and Jean-Charles Ostorero’s screenplay, which unfolds through a series of nested memories à la Isao Takahata’s “Only Yesterday” — or “Citizen Kane.” More specific is how this meditative, breathless, and occasionally transcendent film rustles with the same melancholic beauty that swirls through every frame of Hayao Miyazaki’s magnum opus “The Wind Rises.” Where that melodrama weighed the creative spirit against…

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  Review by 🎄 Leighton Trent 🎄 ★★★★½ 11

  "Once you get a taste for it, there's no going back. You can't live without it. It's just how it is."

  What has often marred the "mountain-climbing" genre is its inability to put you in the shoes of the characters featured and what is at stake for them. (This is not acknowledging those documentaries that present it as that is what those intend to do.) Very rarely has a live action film been able to mirror the kind of awe and thrill and fear and excitement that I imagine climbing provides for those that love it; the suspension of disbelief is too much of a ask for what live action filmmakers are able to do with these particular settings and…

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  Review by Jack Moulton ★★★★

  Magnificent. I wouldn't last 10 minutes on a mountain, let alone a full climb. I hope it finds room in the Oscar lineup. Now it's put me in the mood for Free Solo.

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  Review by Dakota Joaquin ★★★★½ 2

  Maybe my new favorite film of the year. Maybe. Goddamn what a beautiful picture.

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  Review by JBird ★★★★½ 2

  Each year there's lots of attempts,
  Which may not make lots of sense.
  They'll see how they fair,
  Into Thin Air,
  At many climber's expense.

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  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★ 6

  The Summit of the Gods is initially about the real life mystery of who summited Everest first. However what it turns into is an examination of a greater mystery, of why people would choose to risk death just for achievements among the mountains. It is a film of extreme struggle, an examination of a dangerous lifestyle. There are scenes here that sit among the most intense of the year, as scary mountaineering circumstances become central to the plot. Part of why these scenes are so tense is that the animation is realistic. With stunning mountainous backgrounds and tactile close-ups, The Summit of the Gods is filled with incredible animation that is littered with detail and transports you to fantastical parts of the world. This is an amazing example of the awe that animation can inspire, and makes The Summit of the Gods one of the year's finest animated films.

  2021 Ranked

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  Review by Matt Neglia ★★★★ 1

  THE SUMMIT OF THE GODS tells the compelling story of a journalist tracking down a mountain climber who is testing his limits in search of greater purpose. Robust animation & detailed sound design captures the majestic feeling of live-action filmmaking in animation. An inspiring achievement with a magnificent score.

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  Review by HOliHells ★★★★

  Ah bah c'est bien Nils, super pour l'appareil photo, génial !
  Il est foutu c'est pas grave hein ?
  T'es vraiment qu'un sale petit con !