Review of Sanctum (2011) by Benarden — 10 Feb 2011

Although " Sanctum " ( 3-D / IMAX ) has lovely scenes of back light divers, and huge blue-light caves, the film's dialogue collapses in the very first sentences, with the audience laughing at all the wrong parts ;.

A -la " Catwoman .".

Added to this sloppiness are a non-stop series of gruesome close up, drawn out, right-in-your-face deaths. The sheer volume and intensity of these moves this film from a simple "Divers Underwater" movie into the " Rebreather Snuff film " category. In addition, "Sanctum" was filmed it on the cheap. True, the cave set is good, but, I believe the base camp shots within the cave should have used stronger lighting, using a smaller "f-Stop" resulting in everything being in sharp focus for better 3-D effect.

Finally, if your shooting in 3-D, you use it, redlining its capacities. As an example, In the film, there is a distant shot of someone base jumping off a cliff. In 3-D, Anything like this should be seen from "his" viewpoint; standing on the cliff edge, turning away from his smiling friends, then slowllly tilting down, giving a little jump and falling off into space.

Alas, they messed this up too.

Despite the dialogue, I was rooting for this film; maybe they could turn it around but, as the body count mounted I realized they'd just lost it. Leaving the theater, I pondered " why did they made the film" ? True, it's " Based On A Real Event" but so what? Who wants to see this & have it rubbed in their face; whatever possessed them ? A divers " Angela's Ashes?" - Then Why IMAX? Why 3-D ?

Seeing " The Kings Speech next, that gets great reviews . .