Alister Grierson
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The buzz: The new 3D thriller from James Cameron! Except this is no big budget, heavily hyped project like "Avatar"—Cameron is only an executive producer, not the director.
Using the cameras Cameron designed for Avatar, the underwater images explode with vibrant color.
Though his name is all over the advertising as the film's executive producer, it's not clear how much creative input James Cameron actually had on "Sanctum" beyond lending out his "Avatar" 3D technology.
Photographed with the same image-acquisition technology James Cameron used on "Avatar," the movie on which we can blame most of the cruddy 3-D films since, the new suspense thriller "Sanctum," executive-produced by Cameron, presents images (underwater, generally) of pristine digital clarity, without the aggravating dimness of a movie shot in 2-D and then converted in postproduction.
While no one’s claiming Sanctum 3D is a subterranean version of Avatar , is it too much to hope the $30 million movie will offer fully-fleshed out characters, sharp dialogue and a coherent plot in addition to several gory/shocking scenes of death and suffering?
The 3-D film is executive produced by James Cameron (the technologically advanced, otherwise derivative “Avatar”) and “inspired by a true story,” though the plot of "Sanctum" is so thin that the reality could have been: A dad and his son once went swimming and got lost.
Of course, all these concerns come second (or third, or fourth) to the technology at work behind the scenes—the Cameron/Pace Fusion 3D Camera System which was developed and refined for "Avatar" and Cameron's underwater docs "Aliens of the Deep" and "Ghosts of the Abyss."
The abundance of watery mayhem recalls "The Abyss"; the deep dives and 3D visuals bring to mind his documentaries "Ghosts of the Abyss" and "Aliens of the Deep" (both also produced by Wight); and like "Titanic," "Sanctum" kicks off with a nifty computer graphic that provides a visual and scientific context for the thrills and spills to come.
Along with his fans, Cameron (one of six producers attached to the film) apparently recognized the similarities between Sanctum's script (penned by Andrew Wight, Cameron's producer on Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep) and his own deep-diving melodrama, The Abyss.
No accident that Wight, prior to making his unpremeditated jump into feature screenwriting, served as producer of the Cameron-directed 3-D underwater documentaries Ghosts of the Abyss (about the Titanic ) and Aliens of the Deep (about the Abyss ).
He gets huge assists from producer James Cameron, through both the 3D process Cameron developed for Avatar and the aquatic shooting techniques he honed on his lovely underwater documentaries Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss , and there’s a sense that the team of divers exploring this cave, whom we meet as the film opens, are akin in their seriousness and dedication to their work to Cameron’s colonial marines of Aliens or his deep-sea roughnecks of The Abyss.
James Cameron certainly has a fascination with underwater photography, from The Abyss < to his documentaries Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss.
The abundance of watery mayhem recalls "The Abyss"; the deep dives and 3D visuals bring to mind his documentaries "Ghosts of the Abyss" and "Aliens of the Deep" (both also produced by Wight); and like "Titanic," "Sanctum" kicks off with a nifty computer graphic that provides a visual and scientific context for the thrills and spills to come.
Along with his fans, Cameron (one of six producers attached to the film) apparently recognized the similarities between Sanctum's script (penned by Andrew Wight, Cameron's producer on Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep) and his own deep-diving melodrama, The Abyss.
No accident that Wight, prior to making his unpremeditated jump into feature screenwriting, served as producer of the Cameron-directed 3-D underwater documentaries Ghosts of the Abyss (about the Titanic ) and Aliens of the Deep (about the Abyss ).
Written by producer Andrew Wight, Cameron’s longtime collaborator on such nonfiction films as “Aliens of the Deep,” and John Garvin, “Sanctum” is a series of uninspired adventure-movie set pieces in which another member of the expedition gets snuffed, while the survivors struggle on, repeating cliches to one another such as, “Never, ever give up,” or believe it or not, “Have you no decency?”
Director Alistir Grierson has seen Cameron’s earliest underwater thriller, “The Abyss.”
James Cameron certainly has a fascination with underwater photography, from The Abyss < to his documentaries Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss.
The abundance of watery mayhem recalls "The Abyss"; the deep dives and 3D visuals bring to mind his documentaries "Ghosts of the Abyss" and "Aliens of the Deep" (both also produced by Wight); and like "Titanic," "Sanctum" kicks off with a nifty computer graphic that provides a visual and scientific context for the thrills and spills to come.
Along with his fans, Cameron (one of six producers attached to the film) apparently recognized the similarities between Sanctum's script (penned by Andrew Wight, Cameron's producer on Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep) and his own deep-diving melodrama, The Abyss.
Cribbing plot points and characters from Cameron's work, The Abyss in particular, Sanctum aims for a kind of stern-jawed, gobsmacking action adventure, but gets hopelessly tangled in its own silliness and ineptitude instead.
“Sanctum” will remind you how much Cameron’s trend-setting 1989 thriller “The Abyss” owes to its excellent cast.
With nowhere to go but into the submerged portions of the cave system, our clutch of disposable characters make stupid mistakes and die one at a time, slasher-style, though the film's obvious debt is owed rather to the disaster films typified by the work of producer Irwin Allen in the 1970s (the sheer quantity of water particularly reminded me of The Poseidon Adventure ), especially given the incredibly expected way that Josh and Frank patch their torn relationship as a direct result of their shared danger.
The abundance of watery mayhem recalls "The Abyss"; the deep dives and 3D visuals bring to mind his documentaries "Ghosts of the Abyss" and "Aliens of the Deep" (both also produced by Wight); and like "Titanic," "Sanctum" kicks off with a nifty computer graphic that provides a visual and scientific context for the thrills and spills to come.
"Sanctum" is an unusual project for Cameron, who rarely plays patron on other filmmakers' work and has long talked about making a smaller feature but somehow keeps getting pulled back to "Titanic"-size films.
No accident that Wight, prior to making his unpremeditated jump into feature screenwriting, served as producer of the Cameron-directed 3-D underwater documentaries Ghosts of the Abyss (about the Titanic ) and Aliens of the Deep (about the Abyss ).
Not to mention characters and a plot that make Titanic read like Shakespeare.
If you recall Cameron’s " Titanic ," its helpful early animation briefed us on the entire story of how the great ship sank.
To make it more cinematic, his longtime colleague, James Cameron of Avatar (2009) and Titanic (1997), and writer John Garvin wrote a coming-of-age story about the difficult relationship between father Richard and son Jack and how it�s affected by the life-or-death struggle to survive.
Built around an animated performance by Ben O'Toole, who isn't hampered by spending most of the film suspended from rope handcuffs in a dank basement, the pic musters just enough dark-comic energy to recall early Sam Raimi — albeit without the frenzied camerawork that helped make Evil Dead a classic.
The Evil Dead influences are obvious, but this is no retread.
Mr. Fantastic, manages a degree of smug smarminess without overdoing it, not quite rising to Paul Reiser's level in Aliens .
Though based on a true story of a daring escape from a collapsed cave, Sanctum seems preposterous from the very beginning, as a typical early America (Ioan Gruffudd, channeling Paul Reiser in Aliens) crows "I have control!" while entering the heart of Papua New Guinea's wilderness, and reminds other characters, "Life's not a dress rehearsal."
He gets huge assists from producer James Cameron, through both the 3D process Cameron developed for Avatar and the aquatic shooting techniques he honed on his lovely underwater documentaries Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss , and there’s a sense that the team of divers exploring this cave, whom we meet as the film opens, are akin in their seriousness and dedication to their work to Cameron’s colonial marines of Aliens or his deep-sea roughnecks of The Abyss.
Although the main characters — gung-ho hero and weaselly capitalist — seem to have wandered in from “Aliens” or “Avatar,” unfortunately they haven’t been followed by any aliens.
Cameron is credited merely as producer (and apparently, as a corporation; the opening credits begin "JAMES CAMERON / UNIVERSAL PICTURES / WAYFARE ENTERTAINMENT present", just like that), and some would theorise that he "produced" Sanctum rather like Steven Spielberg allegedly "produced" Poltergeist , but I'm not having it: if Cameron was indeed calling the shots, then he just made the worst film of his career since Piranha II: The Spawning , and that seems kind of unlikely to me.
At times, I was reminded of 2019’s terrific Ready or Not , which also focused on the idea of someone being unwittingly captured and forced to fight their way free.
The Australian drama follows the blueprint of almost every other disaster movie, from "The Towering Inferno" to "The Poseidon Adventure" to Sylvester Stallone's tunnel-set "Daylight."
Grimmer than "127 Hours," this movie is like a remake of "And Then There Were None" directed by Jacques Cousteau.
Full disclosure: I’m an advanced Scuba diver and am drawn to anything photographed underwater, from the recent “Descent” to the Amazon-set “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” which pioneered underwater 3-D in Silver Springs, Florida.
“Sanctum,” a 3-D film about cave diving (Isn’t that what you’d expect from the title?), begins with what sounds like music from “The Lion King,” a caption that reads, “inspired by a true story,” and a character who says, “What could possibly go wrong?”
On the upside, this may be no "The Wages of Fear," but most of the action is compelling, even during the flood scenes, where it's tough to piece together exactly who is where and what's happening to whom.
Sure to remind some viewers of "The Descent," though it mostly bears the thrill-seeking, 3D-loving fingerprints of exec producer James Cameron, this often squirmingly visceral thriller offers aquaphobes and claustrophobes one more reason, as if they needed it, to steer clear of Australia's treacherous Esa'ala Caves.
Director Alister Grierson, taking a page from the skillfully orchestrated anxiety brought to 2006's " The Descent ," earns a lot of mileage out of expertly milking the riveting, at times unbearably taut predicaments his characters face; a stunning underwater set-piece where a diver is left to drown after their oxygen is compromised is especially frightening.
The soggy human drama, however, pales next to that of Neil Marshall’s gripping, low-budget The Descent.
“The Descent” was so much better than this.
Alister Grierson ’s Sanctum will no doubt remind some viewers of The Descent , what with all its spelunking, claustrophobic tendencies, and the struggle for survival, so already it’s starting off on the wrong foot.
Doesn't matter whether the other elements of the movie are good (The Descent) or mediocre (The Cave).
The enthusiasm he and cinematographer Jules O'Loughlin (2011's " Sanctum ") exhibit proves infectious, helping to smooth over the occasional rough patches.
Wight also assembled a talented, if not especially renowned, cast, including Richard Roxburgh (the sneering count who preys on Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!) as Frank, the dive leader, and Ioan Gruffudd (the crusading abolitionist in Amazing Grace and Tony Blair in Oliver Stone's W.) as Carl, the expedition's American financier.
The 3-D movie " Journey to the Center of the Earth " (2008) did a much better job of placing its actors in its spaces.
Once more ... into the abyss A U.S.-Australian co-production ‒ which explains all those Aussie accents ‒ “Sanctum” opens at full tilt like “Jurassic Park.”
A U.S.-Australian co-production ‒ which explains all those Aussie accents ‒ “Sanctum” opens at full tilt like “Jurassic Park.”
“Sanctum” opens at full tilt like “Jurassic Park.”