As a universal truth in the movie industry, the surest way to predetermine the quality of a film is to look and see if a producer is heavily advertised within the trailer.
Generally, this is done to compensate for an otherwise poor movie.
Such is the case with Sanctum, in which “James Cameron,” “Titanic” and “Avatar” are some of the first things to appear during advertisements.
Unfortunately, the only thing “Sanctum” shares with these significantly better films is the use of the color blue.
In what is undeniably another quick cash into the infectious 3-D craze, “Sanctum” follows the descent of five uninteresting characters into a massive underground cave in New Guinea. Only as a colossal storm begins to flood and displace the oxygen within the cave is the film’s uninspired conflict created.
There is some side drama, like the father-son tension between protagonists Frank (Richard Roxburgh) and Josh (Rhys Wakefield), but overall these minor storylines fail to deliver any emotional impact.
Unlike the projections coming from the screen, the characters prove to be dreary and one-dimensional.
The copious amounts of yelling from the cast are annoying, to say the least, and become mindless background noise after a short while.
Riddled with cheesy one-liners and simpleminded dialogue, the poor script proves how little of a foundation the film’s premise initially had.
Although the idea of “Sanctum” plays well to Cameron’s strengths, he should have taken only one look at the screenplay and left it to drown.
