‘Sanctum 3D’ Review

Screen Rant’s Ben Kendrick reviews Sanctum

Sanctum, the new underground action-thriller from executive producer James Cameron is working with a lot of different marketing angles: it’s inspired by true-life events, filmed with the same 3D cameras as Avatar, and shot on-location in one of the most breathtaking and dangerous places on Earth.

But do the various talking points come together for a cohesive and compelling cinematic thriller?

In case you’re unfamiliar with Sanctum, here’s the official synopsis:

The 3-D action-thriller Sanctum, from executive producer James Cameron, follows a team of underwater cave divers on a treacherous expedition to the largest, most beautiful and least accessible cave system on Earth. When a tropical storm forces them deep into the caverns, they must fight raging water, deadly terrain and creeping panic as they search for an unknown escape route to the sea.

Master diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) has explored the South Pacific’s Esa-ala Caves for months.  But when his exit is cut off in a flash flood, Frank’s team—including 17-year-old son Josh (Rhys Wakefield) and financier Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd)—are forced to radically alter plans. With dwindling supplies, the crew must navigate an underwater labyrinth to make it out. Soon, they are confronted with the unavoidable question: Can they survive, or will they be trapped forever?

It’s no surprise that the buzz for Sanctum is most commonly associated with Cameron’s influence as executive producer rather than the film’s actual director, Alister Grierson – especially considering Grierson has only one other feature film to his name (Kokoda). But Cameron’s shadow looms large over Grierson’s movie – resulting in an extremely uneven final product: For every remarkable 3D shot or terrifying moment of real-life horror there’s a flat line of dialogue or cheesy plot device that drowns any chance the film will reach the emotional complexity either filmmaker intended.

Fans hoping for something more philosophical, like The Abyss 3D, will probably be disappointed. In general, Sanctum is a precautionary action tale that follows the same structure (and message) as every man vs. nature thriller pic that ever screened before it – except with better and more immersive visuals.

The characters are mostly caricatures: the brilliant adventurer/disconnected father Frank, the angry and impulsive son Josh, and the well-to-do/in-over-his-head financier, Carl. In some cases, despite being mostly one-note, the characters serve their basic purpose: the principles, Josh and Frank, have a likable dynamic and Crazy George, Frank’s right-hand-man (played by Dan Wyllie), provides the film with some much-needed yet subtle humor. Unfortunately, Gruffudd’s Carl is unforgivably flat and poorly written -- his lines represent some of the most generic and unintentionally laughable dialogue moviegoers will see in a film this year.

As a result, the majority of the characters in Sanctum serve as meat for the figurative -- and at one point literal -- grinder. Their roles are established early on, with zero room for character growth – and audiences will not be surprised by who does and does not make it out of the cave in one piece.

Similarly, deaths are somewhat easy to foresee, lowering the effectiveness of well-crafted tension. In terms of character focus, Sanctum follows a horror-film structure to some extent: picking one person off at a time and forecasting the death with bad choices, overly insensitive behavior, or a callback to an earlier problem. How a character will meet their demise manages, at times, to still surprise (some of the deaths are pretty disturbing) but who is next to die is usually pretty clear ahead of time.

That said, what Sanctum is lacking in dynamic character development, it almost makes up for with chilling anxiety. The confines of the underground, and at times underwater, ratchet up the tension in even the most straightforward of scenes. The ever-present danger of the environment as well as the subsequent rules for survival are established early on -- even before the freak storm sends the characters on a desperate life and death journey. Overall, Sanctum does a good job of riding this tension to the conclusion -- while never breaking the rules that were established at the onset.

Mixed in with flat characters and tense action is an incredible 3D visual component – which is where Cameron’s interest in the project is most apparent. The 3D adds little to the more frantic action scenes, but the effect is beautifully showcased in many of the film’s incredible cave shots. Whether showcasing a grandiose underwater cathedral or looking down through a slim and jagged crack in a cave wall, the added depth is impressive. While there are certainly some CGI shots in Sanctum, it’s clear that Cameron’s 3D tech holds up in the real world as well as computer-generated ones, and lends further credibility to his claim that the format is here to stay.

Moviegoers who aren’t turned-off by limited character development will certainly enjoy Sanctum and the film rightly earns its place as a tense and engaging pre-spring thrill ride. However, there’s no doubt that a combination of poor dialogue, flat characters, and cheesy story mechanics will see many moviegoers laughing at inappropriate times, and overall the ending falls somewhat short of the emotional peak that Grierson was clearly working toward.

If you’re still trying to make up your mind, check out the trailer for Sanctum below:

Sanctum is now playing in wide release in Real 3D and IMAX 3D.

Follow us on Twitter @iambenkendrick and @screenrant and let us know what you thought of the film.

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‘Sanctum’: The Psychology Of Survival

Several years ago, while scuba diving in cold and murky waters, I came up against a circumstance that I had been prepared for and yet did not imagine was a legitimate possibility: my respirator failed. After multiple attempts at a correction, I did the one thing you should never do in that circumstance — I panicked, and tried to swim to the surface.

Just as I was launching myself up, I felt a firm grip on my arm stopping me in my ascent. A master diver had come over to me to prevent me from either making a dangerously rapid rise, or from taking in a lungful of water in an attempt to catch a breath.

He forced me to look at him and make my climb at an advisable pace, and buddy breath with him so that I was able to do so.

He was what a master diver should be — calm, assured, steadfast to ruthless in terms of what he knows to be right and safe. He was also a grain-fed, grade a, A-hole. He was gruff, and rude, and arrogant, but this A-hole had just prevented me from doing something incredibly stupid and dangerous.

He was a man not unlike actor Richard Roxburgh’s character, Frank, in the 3D underwater, cave-diving thriller Sanctum. In describing his character, Roxburgh says that:

Frank is characteristic of the guys that do this stuff. There is almost a military quality to them, a steely quality. It requires a zen self-discipline, and also the ability, which you kind of see Frank doing, to let practical reality be the terms that dictate things – so if someone is going to weigh you down, then you have to let them go.

The aforementioned “stuff” that Roxburgh is referring to is one of the most dangerous leisure activities a person can engage in: cave diving. Cave divers use specialized scuba equipment to explore cave systems that are, at least in part, submerged underwater. The restrictions, specialized equipment, and the element of the unknown make this an especially perilous pursuit.

Sanctum, the film, is based on an experience that producer/co-writer Andrew Wight had when he was leading a cave diving expedition in Australia when, as he explains, “on the last day a storm flooded the entrance, and fifteen of us were trapped below ground. It took nearly two days to get everyone out, myself included. So, it was in the course of those events, and really staring death in the face and watching how everyone responded that inspired what came to be the ‘Sanctum’ story.”

Take a look at the behind-the-scenes feature below in which Wight describes his harrowing ordeal:

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In Wight’s real-world experience all fifteen were, thankfully, able to make it through alive. The film, however, heightens the stakes both for the sake of the drama, as well as to impart the sense of life’s true fragility. In keeping with a sense of reality, executive producer James Cameron assures viewers that “Everything you see (in the film) happened to somebody, somewhere, (though) not all in the same expedition.”

Cameron is no stranger to both high-risk adventuring (he and Wight have done a series of deep sea expeditions together, including exploring both the Titanic and Bismarck ship wrecks) and envelope pushing, and he wanted to accomplish two things with the creation of Sanctum: One, to illustrate that it is possible to shoot 3D effectively and on a reasonable budget; and two, to explore “the psychology of survival.”

How do we react in a life or death situations, what would we do, and what do our responses say about who we are as people?

According to actress Alice Parkinson, who plays Victoria, a character who makes consistently ill-advised choices in the film: “I think often what we think we would do, is not necessarily what we would do…all kinds of decisions are made in high stress situations.”

In speaking with the press about the film, Cameron stressed that the filmmakers:

Wanted to get into that thing that happens inside people where they have to adjust to a situation where it appears completely hopeless. Some people are able to make that adjustment, others aren’t, some people become more heroic than they could have imagined was possible for themselves, while other people who you think of as leaders can become quite cowardly or could implode. Everyone reacts differently. And I think the appeal of this kind of a movie for audiences in general is to test themselves against the circumstances of the film and think: ‘Wow, what would I do if I was in that situation, I can barely breath watching this, let alone actually doing it. Could I hold my breath that long?’ I think that’s why we have nightmares. Our brain is running simulations to put us in jeopardy – to see what we’ll do. Or to acclimatize us to that idea that something bad could happen.

Following my brief moment of breathless claustrophobia while scuba diving, I had a series of nightmares over a period of several days. The dreams were likely an attempt on the part of my subconscious to come to terms with the sense of powerlessness that is inherent in being physically trapped, and confronted with one’s own limitations.

Each of the dreams brought me face to face with another potential outcome, another aspect of my fear, and another facet of my inner life, my nature, which is perhaps the most challenging thing to confront.

There were a kaleidoscope of alternating scenarios. In some, I was left alone, unable to breathe, far below the surface and left with no option but to rush towards an exterior that was too far away to reach. Alternatively, I would be literally bound, as if something was holding me down, forcing me to remain immobile, submerged in my own fear.

Each of these visions was an attempt for my mind to surrender – to reconcile itself to the reality of succumbing to something larger than myself, as all of us ultimately will.

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Continue reading about the nature of sacrifice and survival…

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‘Sanctum’ Producer James Cameron Talks Schwarzenegger & The Future of 3D

We had the opportunity to attend the “Sanctum mobile 3D experience” at which, the 3D trailer and several scenes from the film were screened. In attendance were the film’s director Alister Grierson, writer Andrew Wight, and executive producer James Cameron.

Sanctum tells the story of::

An underwater cave diving team experiencing a life-threatening crisis during an expedition to the unexplored and least accessible cave system in the world.

The creators spoke with us after the screening about some of the difficulties inherent in the process of shooting a 3D film on a project that was already rife with challenging physical exigencies, as well as the genesis of the story. We have video below with some excerpts of what James Cameron and the team had to say about the use of 3D in this film; the future of 3D in general, and what they feel makes Sanctum a compelling tale outside of its technological and visual appeal.

We have to thank our good friend Eric Eisenberg from Cinemablend for providing the raw footage for us to edit with after we had technical fail on not one, but two flip cams, while attempting to film James Cameron. Which some may call ironic.

Executive Producer James Cameron, Writer Andrew Wight, And Director Alister Grierson.

The most dynamic scenes that were screened had to do with the characters’ near-silent, underwater, battle to save their lives. It is difficult to correctly ascertain the strength of the story outside of the “event.” The opening sequence that did include a fair amount of dialogue did not feel terribly fresh; and the characters read a bit like broad sketches. Again, it is challenging to make a thorough assessment without having seen the full film -- but our best surmising would be that Sanctum is exactly the kind of film that you would imagine it would be: A visually engaging adventure, that has a brief, and perhaps somewhat thin character/relationship set-up before it brings you into a perilous situation in a visceral way. The relationship that seems to have the most meat is between the leader of the expedition, Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh), and his son, Josh ( Rhys Wakefield).

Take a look at the trailer below, and note the final moments, as Josh seeks even the smallest air pockets as he clings to life; this was the most effective scene that we were able to see.

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As to the physical production, Sanctum, literally, used the same cameras that were utilized on Avatar, so they were working with 2007 technology. The team had visited the set of Avatar and were aware of some of the challenges inherent in working with 3D, and as such, they built their sets specifically to work around said challenges.

They shot most of the film on a stage, with the underwater work done in a tank, as it was impractical for them to attempt shooting an ambitious 3D production on locations where control is limited. As mentioned, they found the physical needs of the story — working with actors on cables in dangerous situations, the heat, the cold, and of course working in and around (literally) tons of water, to be the most difficult aspect of physical production. Having any camera near that much water is problematic, the particular issue that comes up when recording 3D, stereo space, is that the water may splash one lens, but not the other.

Cameron was attracted to the project in that it was an attempt to create high quality 3D on a “modest budget”; though he quips, “compared to Avatar, everything is a low-budget.” He also feels that 3D is completely appropriate for a claustrophobic survival tale such as this one; it brings you into the experience, and technically speaking, 3D is more effective in tight, confined, close shots. In fact, he tells us that anything more than about 20 feet away does not really read as 3D (even to the human eye), so it is the close, intimate scenes that the medium is actually most useful for.

Take a look at the video below where the team discuss’ the use of 3D in Sanctum specifically:

The story of Sanctum was inspired by a real-life near death experience in a cave that writer Andrew Wight lived through. The team wanted to take that experience and create a film about survival, and the dynamics that come into play as a group of people are forced to either “push forward, or die.”

Take a look below where Wight tells his tale, and James Cameron talks about what he feels this film, and its action sequences, are really expressing about human nature:

Of course, there was some general discussion as to the future of 3D technology, and a brief spanking for those who create cheap, quick and otherwise poorly done post-conversions. The team compared 3D to any of the other cinematic advances over time – sound, color, widescreen -- and believe that television programing, like sporting events, will collapse the timetable for a widespread shift to the everyday use of the medium.

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Take a look at James Cameron talking about the future of 3D:

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Finally, when Cameron was asked about his plans to work with his longtime friend Arnold Schwarzenegger -- now that the governator is no longer governating -- this is what the director had to say:

Sanctum opens February 4th.

Follow me on twitter @jrothc and Screen Rant @screenrant

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