He is, in fact, only an executive producer -- clearly employed for his extra-special hallucinatory blue-people-coming-out-of-the-screen 3D usage in 2009's "Avatar," and not for his notable skills in actual filmmaking. But no matter how much they advertise "Sanctum" by bragging of Cameron’s money-teasing namesake, they ain't gonna make it any better of a movie.
Yes, this is another three-dimensional, extra-price-for-admission genre film clinging on to the wearing-glasses-at-the-cinema craze that's currently in full force. Shot in Mr. Cameron's very own filming brand, namely his Fusion Camera System, this is a cave-diving disaster flick which aims to get audience members' hearts racing and adrenaline surging. If only it wasn't so tedious in delivery.
Said to be "inspired by a true story," "Sanctum" tells a tale of a group of cave divers who become trapped inside a big ol' hole in the ground in Papua New Guinea. This gigantic underwater cave system is yet to be explored by a human being, enticing a team of adventurers' desire to shine their torches where no torch has shone before. I've got somewhere they can shine it.
They enter what looks to be planet Earth's anus, hard work having already begun on the expedition, and continue searching through the waters below. All seems fine (well, aside from one of the team unexpectedly drowning) until a cyclone brews heavily above the surface, causing a massive amount of water to flood the camp that has been set up by the group.
The divers find themselves stuck underground and in a fight for survival, taking their equipment with them as they go deeper into the cave system to try and escape the invading water that will soon drown them if they're not safe. Along the way, people die, people fall, people bash their heads, people cough up blood, people go nuts, people drown each other, and people set each other on fire.
"What could possibly go wrong, diving in caves?" asks naive Victoria (Alice Parkinson, "Where the Wild Things Are") before everything goes wrong. Indeed, so many things can go horribly askew while battling the elements -- such as surviving and becoming a writer and producer of a vapid retelling of the events you went through, as Andrew Wight has regrettably done.
The script by Wight and co-scriber John Garvin is friggin' abysmal, the kind of stuff that sounds like it was hurriedly scribbled down on a piece of already-used toilet paper. It stinks more than a dumpster-dwelling tramp who can't find any cans of deodorant in nearby wheelie bins. Dialogue is so stiff and cringe-worthy that it makes Jackie Stallone look like a glamour girl on the cover of Maxim Magazine. It's so laughable that "Monty Python's Life of Brian" looks like a drama in comparison. To sum up, the script sucks.
To be fair, "Sanctum" does conjure up some suspenseful set-pieces, though this is inevitable given the claustrophobic premise. As the divers pull themselves along cave walls, swim through deep waters with ever-decreasing oxygen levels, and get their hair caught in life-sustaining ropes, the film is admittedly quite fun and rather hooking.
Still, with performances that are out-acted by the boulders of the setting, it's a little hard to care. Welshman Ioan Gruffudd ("Fantastic Four") adopts an American accent once again as a detestable, self-centred playboy named Carl. Richard Roxburgh ("Moulin Rouge!") plays Frank, an overly ambitious Aussie professional of the cave-exploring profession. And Rhys Wakefield ("Home and Away") is Frank's son, Josh, who's unenthusiastic about the thought of exploring rocks. I can connect.
The dynamic between this father and son duo is arguably the film's strongest factor. While both irritating characters at first, their shaky relationship improves as they go through the grisly ordeal together, bonding and the such. It's sweet and, while the dialogue is badly written, manages to be touching. What can I say, this got me.
Nonetheless, "Sanctum" is a disaster in all the wrong ways. While watchable for the set-pieces and lovely cinematography, its script forces its head underneath the water and drowns it until its lungs are filled with H20. I think Mr. Cameron should be glad he didn't write or direct this like the marketing would have you believe.
5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment