SANCTUM 3-D ✮✮✮ Directed by Alister Grierson scripted by John Gavin, Andrew Wight. But as effective as it was, I couldn’t help feeling that the added element will cause many to shrug this off as a “novelty attraction.” It’s clearly more than that ‒ a full-throttle cliffhanger that doubles as crash course in the most hazardous of Scuba specialties.įull 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. I saw “Sanctum” in regular 3D (not IMAX 3D) and enjoyed the full-immersion experience. What do you bet as the water rises and the body count mounts some serious bonding takes place? Frank thinks Josh is a wanker John knows his father is a heartless s.o.b. On a more human scale, there’s the long simmering feud between father and son. Of course more than a few hurdles loom, such as panic (“the vulture that sits on your shoulder”), cowardice, rookie mistakes (“I am not wearing the wet suit of a dead person”), the bends (“makes your blood fizz up like a dropped can of beer”) … and that monster storm brewing off the coast. They’ve been at it more than a month and have found a promising passage. The goal of the expedition is to chart the maze of tunnels and find the one that exits onto the sea. “There are no rescues down here - only body recoveries,” Frank reminds those who want to stay put and await help. “He’s like the most respected explorer of our time ‒ like Columbus, Neil Armstrong,” a diver tells Josh. Still, you can’t help wincing at the comic-book balloons passing for dialogue, some of it describing Frank, the rest delivered by him. Much of this we’ve experience before, only wrapped in sci-fi clichés.
Waiting at the bottom are Frank (Richard Roxburgh), the hard-ass team leader as well as Josh’s father, and a four-member crew, nearing exhaustion and already making stupid mistakes. You have your choice of ways down ‒ rappel or, like hotdog Carl, parachute in. Once there, we’re not disappointed: Esa’ala is a gargantuan sinkhole, the mother of all bathtub drains. A U.S.-Australian co-production ‒ which explains all those Aussie accents ‒ “Sanctum” opens at full tilt like “Jurassic Park.” A whooshing helicopter ferries Carl (Ioan Gruffudd), the corporate head of the expedition, Carl’s girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson), and a teenager named Josh (Rhys Wakefield) to base camp.
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