The inner Sanctum

Warning: if you've ever thought of cave-diving, do not see this movie, as Sanctum does for cave-diving what Jaws did for the beach. It opens with surly teenager Josh (Rhys Wakefield) greeting the Richard Branson-esque American billionaire Carl (Ioan Gruffudd) and his girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson) to their base in Papua New Guinea or, as Carl likes to call it, the ``last primeval wilderness'' . Josh and his Justin Bieber hair are being dragged along on a cave-diving expedition led by his estranged father, the ``most respected adventurer of our time'' and the underwhelmingly named Frank (Richard Roxburgh). Like Bear Grylls with gils, Frank is leading a team of nine through the world's largest cave system which is coincidentally unexplored.

But everything starts to go down river when a powerful cyclone collapses the cave entrance, trapping the explorers in a quickly flooding cave system. Their only survival option is to make the treacherous journey deeper into the caves in the hope of finding a route that leads them out through the ocean.The 3D underwater action film is produced by `the King of the world' himself James Cameron and was filmed largely on the Gold Coast at Warner Roadshow Studios. Local director Alister Grierson has made a colossal leap from his debut Kokoda, a $3 million war film, to this lavish and technologically advanced $30 million blockbuster. Sure, $30 million is practically an indie film by Hollywood standards, but Grierson and his crew have stretched that moolah further than Cher's forehead and proved just how economically savvy Aussie crews can be.

The completely CGI-constructed cave entrance is gobsmacking, as is the majestic footage of the divers deep within the cave system. But it's the claustrophobic moments as a character tries to squeeze through a tunnel or when a torrent rages towards us that the 3D visuals really work their magic. In fact, the film's A-grade the whole time it's inside the cave. It's the opening 20 minutes or so that let Sanctum down. With lines like ``life's not a dress rehearsal Josh, seize the day'' and ``what could possibly go wrong?'' it's not just the dialogue that's overly cheesy; much of the character set-up is too contrived (with the exception of a delightful cameo from The Chaser's Andrew Hansen). Yet as soon as the explorers start dropping like, well, explorers in an unexplored cave filling with water, you forget all of the eye-roll inducing moments prior. Sanctum is relentless in not only trimming the number of heroes, but doing so in such a tense, emotional and sometimes gruesome way, that this reviewer was plagued by their memory in the days following. Overall, Sanctum falls into the category of survival films like Cliffhanger, The River Wild and Vertical Limit, which are rich in action, adventure and adrenaline, as well as general corniness.

Sanctum is out Thursday, February 3. Stay posted for my exclusive interview with director Alister Grierson next week. Oh, and random fact about Alister, he reads this blog. I know, right! Geek-out aside, for my previous stories on Sanctum (including chats with Grierson and James – eeeek – Cameron) click here, here, here, here, here and here.