Sanctum (2011)
Directed by Alister Grierson
Written by Andrew Wright
Starring Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd
Release Date February 4th, 2011
Published February 4th, 2011
A group of angry, bitter and hateful characters stock the foreground of “Sanctum,” the James Cameron produced 3D thriller about cave diving that while visually impressive is too ugly and stupid in character and plot to succeed in any way even if the visuals are stunning and inventive.
Richard Roxburgh is Frank, the driven and angry leader of a cave diving team somewhere in New Guinea. With his benefactor, Carl (Ioan Gruffaud) soon to arrive, Frank has a new discovery to show off, a possible link between an ancient cave and the ocean, a sight no one may have ever seen before.
Unfortunately, Carl's arrival is met with the accidental death of one of the divers. With a storm coming and a body that needs to be moved, the exploration should be on hold but Frank refuses. Carl is his willing accomplice, admonishing any worry warts that with speed the expedition can be done before the storm arrives.
Oh, how wrong he was. Carl, with his new girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson) and Frank's son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) arrives in the cave just in time for the storm to hit, stranding them all thousands of feet below the surface. With the caves filling with rain water, the only escape may be Frank's theoretical passage to the ocean but to get there will require remarkable diving skills, something Victoria does not have.
Naturally, the crew is as short on supplies as Frank is short on patience. They move forward into the water but not before idiot characters make idiot decisions based on stupid notions. I don't want to spoil things for those determined to see “Sanctum” but one character makes a decision so wholly idiotic that the groans from the audience lasted almost until the character's inevitable fate.
”Sanctum” is based on the real life experience of producer and co-writer Andrew Wight, a protégée of James Cameron and an experienced diver and underwater filmmaker who had a very similar experience trapped in an underwater cave during a storm. Wight and his party survived and he felt there was a good idea for a movie in the experience.
Wight is right, there is a good movie to be made of his experience but “Sanctum” is not it. Rather, this plodding exercise in thriller genre clichés reveals the true intent behind “Sanctum” which is merely an excuse to show off the 3D technology that Cameron has been pushing as the future of movies.
Stupid, ugly, moronic characters with vague and even moronic motivations stumble through “Sanctum” merely as clotheslines to carry us from one awesome visual to the next. Unfortunately, so execrable and irritating are these characters that even the stunning 3D technology on display cannot distract wholly from how awful they are.
The only reason “Sanctum” is not a documentary featuring real divers exploring real caves in search of visuals never before seen is that the viewing public tends to see such documentaries as boring or too much like going to school. A documentary simply doesn't draw an audience the way any boring old mainstream thriller does.
James Cameron was looking for a way to demonstrate his technology and its potential outside his own work and a documentary playing on the IMAX screen simply wouldn't cut it. He needed to show 3D working in a genre movie to demonstrate how it could be the future of movies going as he sees it.
Boy, did he hook his wagon to the wrong horse. “Sanctum” may be a triumph of 3D technology but the thriller stuff, the characters, they are so bad that this reviewer, and indeed many others simply cannot recommend it. Better luck next time King of the World.
