Most of the marketing surrounding the new survival thriller Sanctum focuses on its producer, James Cameron, and the cutting-edge 3D cameras used to film it. There is a very good reason for this; there isn’t much else to promote. Avatar fans looking for more multi-dimensional sensory escapism will be sorely disappointed.
Sanctum is loosely based off the personal experiences of aquatic explorer Andrew Wight (Cameron’s co-producer), who was trapped with his 15 person crew for 2 days in an underwater cave system below Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. Loosely indeed, since Sanctum’s is less an authentic adventure movie and more a generic disaster flick; think The Poseidon Adventure lite. There may be spectacular sights but the script doesn’t remotely hold water and the characters and scenario are soggy before even the halfway mark.
Shot primarily on location in the vast caverns of South Australia—standing in here for the cave system of Esa-asa in Papau New Guinea—Sanctum follows the rulebook for genre thrillers. It assembles a team of obvious and shallow clichés and then sends them off into the dark recesses of the submerged cave system after a cyclone on the surface cuts off their escape route. From here, the team is whittled down one by one, not by strange creatures or supernatural forces, but their own avarice, inexperience and, on occasion, a conveniently placed plot contrivance. Can you say ‘decompression sickness’ or ‘cave madness’?
This would all be terrifically thrilling if only we cared or felt sympathy for a single character. Instead, Sanctum wants us drawn-in by the pure spirit and technical triumph of the endeavor. If we aren’t mouth agape in awe, there’s nothing else for us to feel. Although there is no doubt a village worth of talented people working on this production, none of them imbue it with a survivalist spirit or genuine human sentiment. Interestingly, both of those elements were present in the 1989 documentary Nullarbor Dreaming.
That film chronicled Wight’s actual near-death experience in the caves and it combined natural wonder and awe with an immersive sense of self-preservation and mortal fear. Strangely, Sanctum trades up that more compelling struggle for a multiplex fantasy of unconvincing types orbiting a man who (the film thinks) deserves to be praised because of his unrelenting passion, twisted drive and uncompromising single-mindedness. Richard Roxburgh’s Frank has sacrificed his civilian life, wife and son at the altar of his own personal obsession–in this case, spelunking –and yet the movie reveres him. When characters aren’t spewing unconvincing accusations at him like ‘have you no decency?’ or ‘how many have to die?’ they are elevating his austere isolationism as if it were the wise moderation of a modern Renaissance man. Roxburgh finds some welcome crags and clefts in the character’s decidedly two-dimensional exterior, but Frank and his ethos smell suspiciously like a self-testament to Sanctum’s famous executive producer and his ego.
The entire cast of Sanctum is Australian, save for Welsh actor Ion Gruffaud who irritatingly channels a feckless American playboy. Although they try to acquit themselves admirably—notably Roxburgh as the gruff and demanding leader—the script gives the lot nothing interesting to say. The best bits are terse and predictable lines of dialogue ripped from pulp novels that would have been antiquated in the 1950’s. These at least, offer some unintended camp to the ear-numbing tech banter otherwise provided.
Once Sanctum finally isolates its father and son team of Roxburgh and Rhys Wakefield, it gains some footing and presence. Wakefield—good in the smaller and more engaging Aussie drama Black Balloon—spends the early going like a deer in the headlights, weeping and carping on the sins of his father. When its just he and the older actor alone, he wakes up and starts making that frustrated paternal bond resonate with sting. This can only last so long, as the writers hamstring them by forcing Frank to quote again, for the third time in the film, Samuel Coleridge’s Kubla Kahn. I can think of no more pretentious a scene killer than that poem, reverberating over vast, empty subterranean oceans.
Sanctum only partially works as the popcorn munching 3-D rollercoaster it desires to be. Cinematographer Jules O’Laughlin does a fantastic job of visually capturing Frank’s configuring of the caverns as a reverant and holy place of solace. From the byzantine rooftops of a craggy narthex to the close-quarters of water-drenched confessionals, relgious inconography intersects with the dark damp innards of this earthy womb. The 3-D works well enough, even though it lacks the sophistication and integration of Cameron’s Avatar. What doesn’t work as well is the immediacy of the action sequences and the thriller moments where raging water flooding tiny compartments and the heroes fight for air and survival.
A funny thing happens then. Instead of enclosing the audience within the on-screen entrapment of Frank and his little band, the added third dimension causes the foreground to pull out and expand, grating against the boundaries of the screen, shattering the illusion, and giving the audience more room to distance themselves from the events onscreen. I sat in nail-biting silence, on the verge of spastic terror, during some of the scenes of Neil Marshall’s The Descent but in similar moments in Sanctum I mostly felt restless.
Director Alister Grierson makes his sophmore debut with Sanctum and for the most part he does a good job managing everything. There is a third act moment between Frank and his son that almost earns our empathy and concern. The failure of the script to properly understand and emphasize this moment doesn’t hinder Grierson from making it a harrowing and solemn event. If only more of the feature film had followed that lead.
I keep hearing that this is a James Cameron film which annoys me to no end. If he didn’t direct it than it isn’t his film. His name actually steers me away from things nowadays and I find him irritating and annoying. I think I liked this one better when it had monsters and was called The Descent.
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I keep getting put off by the whole James Cameron film thing. I know what they are trying to do with the marketing campaign but it stinks of a bad film waiting to happen. I’ll wait for it to appear on VHS.
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first time here and I just wanted to stop by to say Hi.
I like this move very much and all James Cameron films,there projects are very big and interesting.
Hi, why this film just got 2 stars in this site? I love Sanctum and already watching 2 two times
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Hi, why this film just got 2 stars in this site? I know what they are trying to do with the marketing campaign but it stinks of a bad film waiting to happen. I like this move very much and all James Cameron films,there projects are very big and interesting.
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