Sanctum 3D

With James Cameron as executive producer, the 3D underwater thriller Sanctum has a filmmaker on board who knows his way around underwater. Whether in Abyss - Abyss of Death or his documentaries about the diving trips to the Titanic or the Bismarck, Cameron has repeatedly demonstrated his penchant for the fascination of underwater worlds. And Sanctum also captures this fascination with magnificent 3D images. But in almost all other aspects of the production is clearly noticeable that just not a professional like James Cameron, but a fairly inexperienced filmmaker has taken a seat in the director's chair.

Under the guidance of Alister Grierson (Kokoda - The 39. Battalion), Sanctum tells the story of Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) and his team of perfectly trained cave divers who are commissioned by the heavily wealthy adventurer Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd) to explore one of the largest caves yet unvisited by any human on a paradise island. Too bad, though, that just before the big triumph, a storm hits and the sea level inside the cave system rises threateningly. The way out is soon cut off and so the troop must make the dangerous way into the unexplored depths, in the hope to find the underground river, which leads into the sea and thus to the outside. But this path holds deadly dangers that quickly decimate the team.

No question, the 3D technology is used to perfection here. This isn't about fun effects, it's about pulling the viewer right into the action. And that's exactly what makes Sanctum a real hell trip, especially for claustrophobics. Everyone else will be rewarded with some breathtaking shots, which are not only nice to look at, but also contribute a lot to the fact that the movie stays quite exciting until the end. On the other hand, the script becomes more and more shallow exponentially to the rising water level in the caves. Template-like characters, clichéd dialogues and a dramaturgy from the drawing board make the viewer roll his eyes in annoyance.

So in the end you are left with a feeling of total dichotomy. On the one hand, the images are great and the tension level extremely high at times. On the other hand, the story and the characters acting in it is hardly convincing, to which even the trying actors can not change anything. If the great visuals and the constricting cave atmosphere are enough for you and if you don't mind stale dialogues, Sanctum can be absolutely recommended to you. But if you expect something more from an entertaining evening at the cinema, you should quickly go back and explore another film

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp