Starring: Rhys Wakefield, Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd, and Alice Parkinson
Directed by: Alister Grierson
Screenplay by: John Garvin and Andrew Wight
"Where else can you shine a light in a place that no one's ever seen before?" Is it a good idea to explore unexplored parts of a cave right before a storm? Probably not, but for these guys, it's only the beginning.
When a cave diving team faces life threatening circumstances while exploring the least accessible and least explored cave system in the world, how do they get out? As they move through the cave, less and less of them make it out alive. How do they choose who lives and who dies? And what sacrifices are they going to have to make in order to get out of the cave alive? And lastly, will they make it?
The actors do a fine job in their roles. It's interesting to see how they interact with the decisions they have to make in order to move through the cave as it keeps flooding during the storm. My issue with the actors is how little grief they show when one of their fellow team members dies, which happens quite frequently during the film. It seems that they move on much too quickly. This film is like Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" (2007) in that it has a similar scenario. A team of seven or eight people with one common goal when suddenly everything goes straight to hell. The team then decides there isn't enough room for some of the members at certain points along their extreme journeys and must decide who gets left behind. The situations I think are handled rather well in "Sanctum". The difference is that in "Sanctum", the team members don't make it through one stage of the cave when they should be able to make it.
I like "Sanctum" for how it sheds light on the cave diving world. It's something we don't see every day but we hear about sometimes. It's scary to think that similar situations have happened in real life ("Sanctum" is based on a true story as well) and we have no idea these people are in caves exploring places we never knew existed. The film gives a seemingly accurate portrayal of what cave diving is like. While I don't plan to go cave diving any time in the future, "Sanctum" makes it look fun, but with a serious story and tone to it.
The film reinforces something that we hear a lot of, especially whenever a "Jackass" movie is released, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. The film doesn't really have an original story line or original elements, but it has one redeeming value, its 3D effects. Any movie James Cameron works on since "Avatar" has a high expectation of its 3D effects in my mind, and "Sanctum" mostly lives up to my expectations. They seem to have just been put in place mainly so the film would attract a larger audience. While they aren't great, it makes viewers feel like they're a part of the action.
In short, the film isn't great nor worth watching unless cave diving sounds interesting to you. Although the story isn't fantastic, it's interesting to see how characters deal with situations of who lives and who dies, and "Sanctum" does a good job of portraying this dilemma.
2 and a half stars
Directed by: Alister Grierson
Screenplay by: John Garvin and Andrew Wight
"Where else can you shine a light in a place that no one's ever seen before?" Is it a good idea to explore unexplored parts of a cave right before a storm? Probably not, but for these guys, it's only the beginning.
When a cave diving team faces life threatening circumstances while exploring the least accessible and least explored cave system in the world, how do they get out? As they move through the cave, less and less of them make it out alive. How do they choose who lives and who dies? And what sacrifices are they going to have to make in order to get out of the cave alive? And lastly, will they make it?
The actors do a fine job in their roles. It's interesting to see how they interact with the decisions they have to make in order to move through the cave as it keeps flooding during the storm. My issue with the actors is how little grief they show when one of their fellow team members dies, which happens quite frequently during the film. It seems that they move on much too quickly. This film is like Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" (2007) in that it has a similar scenario. A team of seven or eight people with one common goal when suddenly everything goes straight to hell. The team then decides there isn't enough room for some of the members at certain points along their extreme journeys and must decide who gets left behind. The situations I think are handled rather well in "Sanctum". The difference is that in "Sanctum", the team members don't make it through one stage of the cave when they should be able to make it.
I like "Sanctum" for how it sheds light on the cave diving world. It's something we don't see every day but we hear about sometimes. It's scary to think that similar situations have happened in real life ("Sanctum" is based on a true story as well) and we have no idea these people are in caves exploring places we never knew existed. The film gives a seemingly accurate portrayal of what cave diving is like. While I don't plan to go cave diving any time in the future, "Sanctum" makes it look fun, but with a serious story and tone to it.
The film reinforces something that we hear a lot of, especially whenever a "Jackass" movie is released, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. The film doesn't really have an original story line or original elements, but it has one redeeming value, its 3D effects. Any movie James Cameron works on since "Avatar" has a high expectation of its 3D effects in my mind, and "Sanctum" mostly lives up to my expectations. They seem to have just been put in place mainly so the film would attract a larger audience. While they aren't great, it makes viewers feel like they're a part of the action.
In short, the film isn't great nor worth watching unless cave diving sounds interesting to you. Although the story isn't fantastic, it's interesting to see how characters deal with situations of who lives and who dies, and "Sanctum" does a good job of portraying this dilemma.
2 and a half stars
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