Sanctum
Before you go into this adventure thriller with overly high expectations, keep one thing in mind: James Cameron is only “Executive Producer” on this film. What that essentially means is that he had a few ideas on how to shoot the film (naturally 3D, baby), put together some of the cast, and then let director Alister Grierson and writers John Garvin and Andrew Wight make the film. The result is visually thrilling but dramatically in peril, which is also a way to distinguish it as having been “produced” by Cameron.
The film is inspired by the true story of a scuba-diving team exploring the Esa-ala caves in Papua New Guinea, which one of the people on the expedition calls “the last place on Earth unexplored by man.” Naturally this means instant celebrity to playboy millionaire Carl (Ioan Gruffudd, who honestly had more dignity in the “Fantastic Four” debacles) funding the expedition. To caver Frank (Richard Roxburgh), however, this is the only way he can feel alive; Lord knows his relationship with his son, Josh (Rhys Wakefield), isn’t helped by this obsession. When a storm rages up above, however, threatening to flood the caves, Frank, Josh, Carl, and a handful of others (who are still in the caves) must explore unfamiliar territory in hopes of making it out alive.
This is an exciting and suspenseful story, and if Cameron were actually in the director’s chair, I don’t doubt that it would be a great movie as well. But Grierson isn’t Cameron, which means we get a by-the-numbers disaster movie that plays less like “Titanic” and more like “Volcano.” The film is superbly shot and rendered in 3D (yes, I like the 3D here), and it hits all the story beats along the way. Hell, I even cared a little bit as to whether these characters lived or died, but that was probably because I know they were based on real people. Had this been a strictly fictional film, I would much rather have been watching “Cliffhanger” or “Deep Impact.”
