FILM: SANCTUM 3D
Feb05

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FILM: SANCTUM 3D

Posted by on Feb 5, 2011 in Film, Reviews | 0 comments

Review By Dermot Keogh

Director: Alister Grierson

Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd, Rhys Wakefield, Dan Wyllie and Alice Parkinson

Synopsis: The 3-D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth. When a tropical storm forces them deep into the caverns, they must fight raging water, deadly terrain and creeping panic as they search for an unknown escape route to the sea. Master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) has explored the South Pacific’s Esa-ala Caves for months. But when his exit is cut off in a flash flood, Frank’s team–including 17-year-old son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) and financier Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd)–are forced to radically alter plans. With dwindling supplies, the crew must navigate an underwater labyrinth to make it out. Soon, they are confronted with the unavoidable question: Can they survive, or will they be trapped forever? Shot on location off the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, Sanctum employs 3-D photography techniques Cameron developed to lens Avatar. Designed to operate in extreme environments, the technology used to shoot the action-thriller will bring audiences on a breathless journey across plunging cliffs and into the furthest reaches of our subterranean world.

Review: FIRST things first. I am more than a little dubious of any film whose major selling point is the producer. That producer in this case is James Cameron. In fact Mr. Cameron is one of nine producers involved in this $30 Million underwater adventure. The look and feel of the movie screams TV. Very reminiscent of a SyFy Channel production to be honest. As the movie is based on a “True Story” I was expecting something that would raise my spirits and give me some solid entertainment as somebody obviously found the story compelling enough to make a movie of it. Alas that was not to be. The script is diabolical and the acting is as wooden and flat as a flat wooden table. In short terrible.

The only actors in this that could possibly be happy with what they did are Richard Roxburgh who you may remember from Moulin Rouge, Van Helsing, M:i 2 and Dan Wyllie recently seen in the superb Animal Kingdom. They looked like they were trying. Roxburgh does the heroic leader role and Wyllie tries to be the comic relief to some degree.
The movie plods along under sloppy direction from Alister Grierson who uses every cliche in the book. I can’t make up my mind if he had watched the far superior Descent movies and The Abyss once too often or not enough as his attempt to create genuine thrills is way off the mark.
The movie over here is advertised as James Cameron Presents: Sanctum 3D which is a ploy Universal have already used in the American Pie series example American Pie Presents: Band Camp. This really is shameful marketing and if I was James Cameron I would not like anyone knowing I produced this. I presume the buring question for most people would be is the 3D any good and the answer quite simply is NO. It adds absolutely nothing to the movie. Considering that a big part of the trailers advertised that it used the cameras used to make Avatar this was very disappointing. I actually took my glasses off a few time to watch parts of it.
While Sanctum is generally bad all round it did have some plus points. The main one being that it was not made as a PG 13 but as an R because it could quite easily be turned into a lower cert movie by a bit of word substitutions here and there and a different camera angle in certain spots. That said there are far better movies currently on screens world wide that deserve your hard earned cash much more thatn this. Don’t worry Cameron’s loaded so can easily take a hit on this one. Kudos to Grierson too for making a Hollywood movie Australian, although, I can’t see the actors union over there getting many requests for Australian character actors after this. He could possibly set the industry back years.

SEE HOW IT RATED ON ROTTENTOMATOES.COM HERE