The only reason this film gained traction was due to Cameron having his name attached as executive producer. Remove that, and I doubt many would've seen this, proving that a glorified name drop is still a tangible marketing technique. Alas, this cave diving expedition becomes washed up rather rapidly, descending into a spiral of predictable clichés. Based on co-writer Wight's own experience, an expedition exploring an underwater cave system goes awry after an unpredictable cyclone floods the hollow. Transforming what looked like a made-for-TV documentary into a made-for-TV disaster survival film. It's unfortunate that the monotonous acting, dull expendable characters, obvious green screen, predictable plot and impersonal screenplay resulted in a low quality film that has all the aesthetic appeal of a TV release. The cinematic scope is only upheld by the breathtaking underwater sequences, where O'Loughlin's cinematography really shines amidst the murky depths. A few scenes of tension as individuals burrow through tight passageways or attempt to flee the flooding caverns, but it's not enough to overcome the incredibly obvious flaws that have not made the film age well. The disposable crew reek of stupidity. When a renowned cave diving expert commands "you need to wear the wet suit" and you reluctantly reply "I'm not putting it on", well your life expectancy has diminished substantially. "Don't use the knife", she uses the knife. "Don't shine your torch at her", he shines the torch at her. I understand the heightened state of mind, but these lines of advice should've been adhered to and consequently result in characters that you don't relate to. Actions have consequences. Also thrown into the mix is a clichéd collapsed father and son relationship that, whilst provide some emotional moments and is well acted by Roxburgh, feels far too forced. The inevitable character deaths weren't memorable, obvious green screen is obvious (like really obvious) and Grierson's direction was rather lacklustre. The mediocrity kept pouring in.

This movie gets a lot of negative reviews, because i think people expect a wrong kind of movie. Yes the emotional shots linger a bit too long here and some characters you just want to smack in the face for just being a one-dimensional dick but that are honestly the only flaws i can find. Some movies use certain devices to sell a story, like more focus on the action instead of character build up, some use more emotion and less suspensefull scenes, some use it all, and those are mostly classified as a masterpiece. But not every movie has every device covered, and that's ok. This one is propelled by the intense feel of claustophobia, tension, excitement and suspense. Sure it lacks on the other departments a bit but that is not what holds this movie together. What it's not good at, meh, it wasn;t meant to be it;s selling point anyway. But what ths movie does best - it does so with grace, and that is keeping you to the edge of your seat! Highly reccomend people who suffer from claustrophobia or fear of drowning to skip this movie, because every scene only feeds that anxiety. If you don't have these fears yet, believe me, you will get a good taste of it.

I got this on Bluray as somewhat naively I got fooled by the big "James Cameron" marketing and was expecting some interesting underwater camera work ala The Abyss.The director, Alister Grierson, shows good technical ability but no creative inspiration. So we don't feel like we're following the action, the camera work doesn't invite the sense of claustrophobia nor do we get (bar a couple of short examples) much in the way of epic scenery.Still, the camera work and scenery are solid enough to tell us an effective dramatic tale of caught-in-caves. Problem is we have to endure cheesy clichéd dialogue delivered by an amateurish cast, plus we're saddled with a boring father-son emotional dynamic which develops as predictably as the doom of those first few red-shirts.The realistic cave-diving techniques on-show and a couple of nice scenes save this from being awful, but the cast and screenplay do pull this down into below-average.Only really recommended for cavers and divers who are interested in seeing their discipline on-screen.

SANCTUM is quite a predictable film, a would-be disaster outing about a group of cavers who have to escape from a flooding cave system when their expedition is beset by disaster. Produced by James Cameron and made in 3D, this Aussie outing is by-the-numbers for the most part, although it does have a handful of good suspense and action scenes which make it worth a watch.The movie is not without its problems, one of which is the calibre of the cast. Alister Grierson is pretty good at directing the action and death sequences that inevitably arise, when it comes to the dialogue scenes and more human moments then it's a different story. The majority of the cast here give absolutely horrible performances, which is particularly surprising given some of the talent involved.The most notable culprit is Ioan Gruffudd, who was fine back in the day in the HORNBLOWER television series, but whose B-movie acting here is absolutely diabolical. It's a pitiful, pantomime performance and the worst I've ever seen from him. The female cast members are also notably wooden, and the only decent turn comes from the underrated Richard Roxburgh, whose strong central character is pretty much the only reason to stick with this.