SANCTUM

If the most famous person in your big-budget, high-concept action thriller is Ioan Gruffudd, you might be in trouble.

If your big-budget, high-concept action thriller is also unintentionally cheesy, you should probably hope folks embrace it for its over-the-top dialogue, bad acting and manufactured tension. Otherwise, you and your movie are totally in trouble because the audience will likely shake its collective head at your misguided attempt to create A Dramatic Film.

Unfortunately, Sanctum, which advertises itself as being “from executive producer James Cameron” and “inspired by true events,” wants desperately to be taken seriously but sabotages itself at every stalagmite with all of the above missteps.

The basic gist of the movie is this: a bunch of divers exploring an extensive underground, underwater cave system in Papua New Guinea find themselves trapped a couple of kilometers below ground when a massive storm hits. Before long, all the tunnels and escape routes are flooded and, with more water pouring into the caves by the second, the group is forced to improvise radical exit strategies.

Said group is like a clichéd checklist of stereotypes: the bitter and grizzled veteran (Richard Roxborough), the impetuous financier (Gruffudd, chewing all the scenery), the token woman (a wooden Alice Parkinson), the rebellious youngster (Rhys Wakefield) and the lovable lout (Dan Wyllie). Together, they plumb the depths – literally and figuratively – of laughable dialogue, all of which seems punctuated by exclamation points, and increasingly perilous tight spots.

Soon, their numbers begin to thin, as the film’s villains – namely, caves and water – begin claiming victims in occasionally gruesome ways. After the third casualty, it becomes obvious that Sanctum is devolving into one of those “how many of these people will still be alive by the closing credits?” adventures, and wagering on who’ll survive starts to be fun. If the characters were remotely likable or had any dimension, I might advise you not to get too attached to any of them. But, seeing as they are little more than flat caricatures, they’re quite easily expendable and I doubt you’ll feel anything when any of them gurgle their last breath before sinking.

Despite some pretty cool cinematography and the natural splendor of the Australian caves in which some of the film was shot, Sanctum fails to deliver the “wow” factor. It’s entertaining enough on a purely superficial level. Just don’t look any deeper than the surface.