Originally published in Cinema Knife Fight, February
8, 2011
SANCTUM (2011) is loosely based on the true
story of Andrew Wright (SANCTUM’s co-writer, with John Garvin) being
trapped while cave-diving (exploring underground lakes and rivers) with
fourteen others for two days when the main entrance collapsed, forcing them to
find a different way out. Very loosely-based, I assume,
since I pray what happened in real life wasn’t as bad as what happens to folks
in the film. Important note: SANCTUM is not a
James Cameron-directed movie. He produced it (along with
about six other producers… film producers are like bank vice presidents, you
can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one). However, Cameron being the
best-financed pioneer of REAL 3D (in which this film
was shot), you know you’re in for a visual treat if nothing else, regardless of
who directed (in this case, Alister Grierson, known mostly for short films).
Let’s talk about the 3D effects first – they were quite
good, even excellent at times. Is it worth the extra money the theaters are
taking from you? Well, that depends—probably not—in this case not because of
the 3D wasn’t good, it was, but the story itself was weak. Unlike AVATAR (2009),
where the story, coupled with the 3D effects, made it such a perfect
combination, paying a little extra for the experience was well worth it.
In SANCTUM, the combination of story and visuals is not nearly as
strong to warrant, for most viewers I assume, the extra cost. But I’m getting
ahead of myself.
There were some amazing things to see in SANCTUM.
The opening scene of a helicopter flying over the massive hole in a South
African rain forest, the entrance to the Esa-ala caves,
was thrilling. I’m not sure if this is a real location or not. It could have
been a uber-cool special effect, but I don’t think so. The carpet of rain
forest broken by this deep, deep cave, in 3D, offers such depth on the screen that
it almost takes your breath away. There were a couple
of other moments in the film where this happens. For example, after newly
discovering a massive cavern deep in the film’s elaborate cave system, the main
character free-floats in deep, deep water off an underwater cliff. It’s
beautiful. When he looks up, far, far above him is the underside of a surface,
leading to a new cave… well, it’s simply an amazing thing to see, and feels
like you’re there. Although there are other moments like this in the film—and
here is an important point to make, especially when doing the inevitable
comparison to Cameron’s visual masterpiece AVATAR—although the
entire movie SANCTUM is in 3D, there are only moments when
the audience will go “oooohhh” or “aaaahhhh.” The rest of the scenes,
underwater or in a fresh air cave with our actors doing their acting-thing,
simply have added depth. AVATAR had an advantage, in that more
than half the film was a CGI-rendered world, and computer-generated images are
much easier to monkey with and render for 3D than real-life action films. So,
overall, SANCTUM was rich and deep, though I wasn’t constantly
lifting my jaw to chew my popcorn as I had done watching AVATAR. In fact, I
found myself comparing what I was seeing to my innocent, youthful days as a
child, staring through my View Master 3D toy, looking
at 3D-rendered scenes of PETER PAN (1953) or SPACE:
1999 (1975).
Truth in lending time: if I can digress for a second. When I
was a kid, I was never too wowed by the View
Master. It did not look very 3D to me. Until one day, in my teens, when
my brother noticed I had one eye closed. I did that because I had trouble
lining up both eyes at the same time. He explained that it’s not 3D without
using both eyes. So I managed to line my eyeballs up and, well, wow.
Those View Master images really were in
3D. So there’s an experience that would never be recaptured from my lost youth.
I suppose if that’s the worst thing to lose from my youth, aside from my teddy
bear, Teddy, who died of strepp throat, I did alright.
Before I get into the Story part of the review, one last
thing about the overall experience of SANCTUM. Although there was a
plot, and there was acting—mostly good—I couldn’t shake the feeling that Linda
and I were sitting in an IMAX theater watching one of those
nature documentaries. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those, but IMAX theaters have
the added experience of starship-sized screens, and seats raised so high if a
booger falls out of your nose it’ll land on the head of a person two rows down.
Showcase Cinemas mostly have regular-sized screens. So if you see this movie,
maybe try to watch it at an IMAX for the full effect. They’ll probably charge
even more for a ticket, though. So, SANCTUM:
there is a plot, and a story and fictional characters, like a real movie,
so it has that going for it over the IMAX films. Sort of. To wit:
The basic plot of SANCTUM is that there is
a labyrinthine series of caves snaking though a mountain in Papua, New Guinea.
An expedition has been mapping these for months, trying to find a spelunking
route, from the massive opening in the rainforest up top, to the water/river’s
exit point at the base, where it flows into the Solomon Sea. Exploring and
mapping these caves requires an expert combination of mountain climbing, cave
spelunking, and deep-sea diving skills. The explorers repel into the bowels of
the mountain, work their way through tight cave passages, then suit up and swim
into deep waters of underground lakes and rivers, looking for the next open-air
pocket cave from which to continue their explorations. In this manner, they
work their way closer to the other end of the system. As the film opens,
they’ve made it a good distance, hitting dead ends, returning to the base camp
mid-way down, trying new pathways. Fortunately for our cast of characters, they
make an important pathway discovery just before all soggy-hell breaks loose. If
they hadn’t, well, we wouldn’t have much of a movie.
Leading the expedition is a rough and tumble explorer named
Frank, played with, well, rough-and-tumbleness by Richard Roxburgh (VAN
HELSING, 2004,MOULIN ROUGE, 2001). Roxburgh’s performance was by far
the glue which held this film together. He played the part naturally, and with
such confidence you believed he was able to lead such a hazardous expedition.
Rhys Wakefield (HOME AND AWAY, 2008), played his angst-ridden teenaged
son, and also had a terrific run in this film. I see some good things in
Wakefield’s acting career, if his turn as son Josh is any indication. Not so
with everyone in this film, however.
The film opens with the corporate director of the
expedition—himself very comfortable with cave-diving and exploring—named Carl
arriving to check on things with his girlfriend Victoria. Victoria is a
mountain climber, too… though as we learn later, diving is not her forte. Ioann
Gruffudd (Mr. Fantastic in the two FANTASTIC FOUR films, 2005,
2007) plays Carl, and though I thought he was great as a stretchy superhero, he
wasn’t too convincing in his role here. In fact, Gruffudd’s performance was
pretty weak. I kept thinking he looked a lot like Paul Reiser in ALIENS (1986),
in many more ways than just physical appearance as the film went on. Still,
Reiser was great in ALIENS, Gruffudd was not in SANCTUM.
His girlfriend, played by Alice Parkinson (X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE,
2009) played her part decently, and was convincing as a stubborn jock itching
for adventure. I want to give kudos to the other major supporting actor, and by
far the best of them: Dan Wyllie as George, Frank’s long-time friend and
exploration partner. Adding a bit of humor to the scenes he was in, he also
came across as a real person, and played the part of George in a natural, easy
manner.
The concept and setting of SANCTUM is
original and interesting, but I have to admit it was a bit predictable overall.
A small band of people caught by nature and using their wits to escape, or
trying to—in this case, it’s a typhoon that hits base camp early and dumps so
much water into the cave system it floods, forcing our heroes to find a new way
out, or die a watery death. SANCTUM is THE POSEIDON
ADVENTURE (1972) played out underground. The world even feels upside
down, an effect common in caves and diving. I assume. People talk, you hear
things. When things get nasty, we have the characters led with calm confidence
by Frank, trying to keep ahead of the water. Some don’t make it, of course.
Without horrible deaths where would the tension come
from? Good question. Let’s talk about that for a moment.
I think this film might have worked better without so many
people dying. Being trapped in a cave, underwater—that’s not tense enough for
you? No, Hollywood needs a cast of potential dead people in disaster films—and
that’s what SANCTUM becomes—a disaster movie, with a strong
hero and some characters who start confident and strong but go to pieces and
cause havoc. Unfortunately, with such a great chance to creep an audience out
simply with this claustrophobic, underground, underwater world, it falls
quickly into a “see who escapes alive” scenario. It’s been done before, and so
there’s less tension, knowing most of the characters will bite the big one
before all is said and done, than if the writers kept them all, or most of
them, alive throughout the film, and working together to get through it all.
A few plot turns did not feel natural, actions the
characters took but which real people, in a situation like this, simply would
not do if their life was at stake. Linda pointed out one specific moment which
bothered her. Victoria refused to wear the wet suit removed from a dead woman,
preferring to risk hypothermia than do something so icky.
This, from an experience mountain climber? No, she would have put the friggin’
thing on. Near the end, an action taken by a character (which I’ll not bother
specifying for “spoiler” reasons) had the effect of “Oh, of course, this is the
point where this person does this because it’s what
they always do in these movies to make trouble for
everyone else,” instead of “Oh, no, what is he doing? Stop!” Does that make
sense? No? Ah, well. I’ll just say that Paul Reiser’s ALIENS character
had a legitimate reason for turning on everyone.
In summary, SANCTUM was a visual treat. Not
as good as other shot-for-3Dfilms like AVATAR,
but far better than other films, like THE LAST AIRBENDER (2010)
which were shot traditionally, then converted. Again, the overall experience
might have been enhanced if we’d watched it in on an IMAX screen, so try that
if you have the extra moolah to see this movie. The story is not the strongest
or most original, so you likely won’t walk out of the theater completely blown
away by SANCTUM. If you have a 3D television and glasses at home,
wait for the Blu Ray version to come out and save some money for a better
movie. Otherwise, if you got your taxes back and have the cash, it’s an
enjoyable film to watch, if not a bit average. Better yet, use your refund to
go to the Museum of Science’s OMNI theater and watch MYSTERIES OF THE
GREAT LAKES (2008). At least then, when you’re done, you can wander
over and look at the cool dinosaurs.