Sanctum :: A 63 Review

Original View Date: February 12th, 2011

Sanctum is a con artist and a pretty good one too. You'll see James Cameron's name everywhere with Sanctum but for the last time: James Cameron did not direct this movie. Sanctum's cast is mediocre and relatively unknown which will go hand in hand with the terribly written screenplay. The movie fails in a lot of aspects. It fails to pass as a drama and it fails to pass as a thriller; it has no genre. The only thing that can be praised is the 3D visuals and the soundtrack.

The movie has a long exposition yet it gives the audience no detail on the situation. All the audience gets is that there are people exploring an underwater cave and then there are guests coming to join them. There is very little character development and I just didn't care. There are so many characters yet I cannot distinguish between them because they are so stale. The main development the movie focuses on is the bad relationship between Josh the son (Wakefield) and Frank the father (Roxburgh). It's obvious that as the movie progresses, they will become friends and learn how to accept each other.

After the dragging start, the movie finally starts it's main plot as the weather becomes a problem for the cave explorers. Water starts gushing into the cave and the people are trapped. It's very unconvincing how dumb the explorers were, going into an underwater cave without making sure the outside people can communicate to them in case of these situations. And the movie cannot just cover up their mistakes by saying "it's inspired by a true event," because that doesn't say anything.

This movie doesn't know how to manage its characters. There are so many and yet so many wasted. Characters are killed at such a random rate with pathetic reasons and then the movie tries to make the death scenes dramatic. This doesn't work if I don't even know who they are. Not to mention I forget them as soon as they're no more. And of course it's the black guy that has to die first. I came up with a list, a prediction if you will, of people that'll die and in which order and I was right all the time. The bad father-son relationship the movie wanted to go with doesn't work either. As soon as the death threatening starts, they become best buddies. No transition here at all. No drama, no character development. Dialogue is terrible and filled with one liners.

Sanctum can be unintentionally funny too. There's one scene where Frank and Josh are crying and embracing. They tell each other it's going to be okay. And then Frank, out of nowhere says "Alright, let's move on." Were they trying to have a dramatic moment or not? The screenwriter can't be serious with all this terrible transitioning.

Not a lot to say about the positives here. I can't help but to admit the 3D visuals are actually good. You'll see a lot of cool scenery; especially with all the underground setting. The soundtrack does its job; it does go well with the mystical atmosphere.

In conclusion, it's a low quality movie you want to avoid watching in the theaters. It's a rental movie at best. It's not entertaining and it's not an artsy film either. Sanctum suffers because of the dumb screenplay that doesn't know what to do with characters. Visuals should never be relied on to redeem a movie. Never.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆