Explorer: The Last Tepui (2022) User Reviews

Frustratingly Anticlimactic

[bboothmedia · 6/10 · 4 May 2022]

Beautifully shot, but disappointing outcome. I am both a climber and nature lover, but this doc didn't really satisfy either of those interests.

They supposedly collected new species, but where was the elaboration? They got the FA of this cliff, but we only see one brief clip of Alex climbing.

To viewers it also seemed like they failed at both of their goals; not getting Bruce up the tepui, and giving up finding new wildlife after what seemed like only a couple hours. They settled for a tadpole, but we never learn anything about this creature and they didn't bother discuss anything about the other flora or fauna on the tepui.

honestly good, could have been a bit better

[happy_quadruped · 7/10 · 22 May 2022]

I found this show interesting and inspiring. Could they have gone into further detail and fleshed things out a bit more? Yes. Would I recommend this to somebody on a rainy Saturday? Sure.

Free Solo in the Amazonas with an interesting side topic

[DLochner · 7/10 · 25 April 2022]

An exciting but unfortunately superficial documentary, with two interesting protagonists - The eighty-year-old biologist Bruce Means brings the world-famous climber Alex Honold into his research team to climb a mountain in the Amazon to discover undiscovered nature there.

It's a pity that the documentary is so short and therefore remains quite superficial. Alex Honold, as always, seems relaxed and purposeful, seems a bit apathetic in the documentary abee - which sometimes takes the tension a little. All in all, an exciting topic and worth seeing.

Free Solo: Jungle Edition

[stylss · 6/10 · 25 April 2022]

This was a quick, exciting, and entertaining documentary filled with beautiful scenery and lots of jungle trekking. I could probably watch Alex Honnold climb anything at this point but I would have loved to see more of the Tepui.

Should have been longer

[joegoldberg-80709 · 9/10 · 23 April 2022]

Really really liked it but but only a fraction was the wall climb and like 5 minutes was on top of the tapui. Not enough. Should have been a 2 hour documentary or cut out all the focus on Bruce. He's not the most interesting part of the expedition. I'd argue Alex Honnold is!

Modern explorers.

[klausmartti · 9/10 · 22 April 2022]

One of the most interesting and visual documentary i have seen, it's a really good documentary about modern day explorers which includes a 80 year old biologist and my big favourite Alex! Definitely recommend do see it.

First Ascent??

[jverde-74309 · 8/10 · 24 April 2022]

It was a great film and Alex H is amazing. That being said, was it really a first ascent? There were many climbing shots with ropes hanging from above and camera angles from above. It also looked like there were bolts above the climbers.

So Many Missed Opportunities...

[transientdreams · 4/10 · 14 May 2022]

A once in a lifetime opportunity with the brilliance and daring of such great men at the top of their game can NOT be crammed into 55 minutes. NatGeo has become a corner cutting 'Hack' when it comes to exploring the many visual wonders that are deserving of far more time needed to show them properly, and with the richness they deserve. Instead of really showing us just WHAT was on top of the Tepui, which I am sure is what most people were waiting for, they attempted mainly to involve us in the emotional human drama that concerned mainly the assent, and lament of it being Bruce's last opportunity to do what he was no longer capable of doing. I know that distributors of videos prefer the 90 minute-or-less variety, but NatGeo totally wasted what could have been one of the most epic documentaries ever put on the screen. It was a hack-job of almost useless visual cliff notes put together by talented, but jaded amateurs. Such a criminal waste of so many VAST opportunities is both shameful and contemptible.

NatGeo needs to put together their own distribution standards for their own channel(s) and for export, and stop following the Hollywood's superficial playbook. This should have been at least 2, to 2 and a half hours long, and that still wouldn't have scratched much of the surface, but at least it wouldn't have been an insultingly short, disappointing mess that missed its mark right out of the gate. Anyway, maybe next time...

Walking! Talking! Climbing?

[loeschhendrik · 3/10 · 14 July 2022]

The scenery is great and when it comes to climbing I got a bit of what I expected.

The rest is quite strange and feels faked. If the real goal was to bring an old guy on a mountain, they failed. Especially because they never answered the question why they simply don't use a helicopter...

Moreover they talk most of the time as if they just started to hike and never developed any plan. - We need to get to the wall and then we will decide how to get him up the mountain. - Why guys? Why?

The whole journey seemed stupid from the beginning. You want to tell me for real, that you guys planed to pull this 70 year old man 600 meters up the wall so he could watch down on the valley? How did you plan to get him down from there?

After that they got a drawing of a frog, my 10year old could draw, as an excuse for their tour to continue. They want to show how important it is to preserve nature. While doing so, they cut their path trough the jungle mostlikely killing lots and lots of animals. They show how beautiful the mountain is and use bolts they drill into the wall?

Everything seems so faked. At one time Alex is allowed to play the monkey and impress with his skills. After that they tell us that it was necessary to open the route but why on earth is the camera man then on the side of the route Alex is climbing to and films with a perspective that lets you assume he just used a simpler route?

At the and they just lost interest because it was harder to find an animal than expected and went back don't mentioning the frog again. Instead they took the first tadpole they found and called their expedition a success.

It felt the whole time as if they want to show the beauty of nature just as an excuse. They actually wanted to climb that wall and needed someone to finance it.

It could have been a good movie if they had just put more effort into it. So it feels improvised and inflated.

Failed Attempt

[sam-21104 · 4/10 · 19 June 2022]

The overall idea was very intriguing, but quickly dissolved as you realize the main goal is truly unattainable. As the viewer, it felt like they only completed the documentary because they had put so much effort up to that point. We learn very little at all about the species discovered on this expedition and we are left with a very broad concern for the area. The final disappoint was the climbing portion. They recruited one of the most well known climbers, Alex Honnold, but we learn very little about the climbing and only hear him speak a few times throughout the hour. Overall, I really wanted to like this documentary, but everything just felt rushed and finished before it started.

Intriguing

[noahsabb-33285 · 5/10 · 19 April 2022]

Interesting documentary, worth a watch though. Despite its slow start this documentary very quickly becomes immersive and exciting for viewers. If you have Disney + and you are a documentary fanatic, it's worth a watch.

interesting

[kardbored · 4/10 · 23 April 2022]

These people have never heard of a helicopter? Old guy did good. Interesting show. Beautiful scenery and footage. I enjoyed watching. Would recommend.

Great pictures, beautiful!, ....

[viruslove-02163 · 2/10 · 14 May 2022]

... but absolutely forgetting... no, downrightely pushing away the actual theme: nature and LIFE preserving, including climate change, the way of nutrition the humanity and all the problems of overuse/overstretch the ressources... and so on... That's pitty, giving away the chance to remember us what we should do to give our children a planet that's not 'fu**ed up' from our greed!

Popcorn and Hamburger watching, no thinker, nothing changer, only the usual Hollywoodish deflection/distraction, ... 'till the next bag of Popcorns, nothing changing than just making the audience a few ounces FATTER and even dumber... poor humanity...

Mixed feelings

[prawphet · 4/10 · 31 March 2024]

Love Alex Honnold. Love climbing documentaries. Love wildlife and exploration of never before seen places. Love conservation and discovering new species. So when all of these combine, you know you are in for a treat. I felt the same, but this documentary seems a bit off.

First, you don't see the need to lug an 80 year old man with a team of helpers through virgin Venezuelan rain forests, trampling through tons of vegetation, destroying habitats, all to get to a tepui and climb it up when you can helicopter him there or even use drones.

Then, you show the biologist capture live specimen and put them in plastic bags to suffocate and die, for him to carry on his research. Surely we must have progressed to better ways of researching species.

Halfway in the hike they realise the dude won't be able to go up the mountain, so they send Alex and his sidekick up, to collect an never before seen frog. They go halfway up the tepui, trample on some more printine vegetation, stick their hands in a puddle and grab a tadpole and bring it down.

Everyone seems happy by the end, except perhaps the viewer. Because we didn't get a proper hike, nor a proper climb, and even didn't get to see if the tadpole they retrieved was a new species. Looks like everyone was tired and wanted to wrap up this documentary. And the documentary itself felt like an excuse to climb up an unclimbed tepui but needing a biologist to finance it.

Gave 4 stars for Alex Honnold and the Venezuelan rain forests.