I was told that James Cameron produced this sorry excuse for a movie, and that sort of raised my expectations a bit even though I wasn’t a huge fan of his own movies. I mean with such a big name backing the movie, it must have its merits right? I can tell you straight up – no.
Sanctum fits in the same category of movies I wished I never wasted 2 hours of my life watching. If you’ve seen The Last Airbender and Hisss, this movie would belong in the same pile. There is nothing, absolutely nothing redeeming about this movie. I went in with an open mind (I really had no idea what to expect besides the cave exploration I saw in the vague trailer) and was prepared for anything. I guess I was wrong. I wasn’t prepared for this.
Sanctum tells the story of a bunch of underwater cave divers who want to explore the largest, unexplored cave in the world. A tropical storm causes the cave to flood, and the explorers are trapped inside, looking for an alternative route to freedom. Predictably, they start dying one by one to accidents and one crazed man against the rest of them.
The movie is forced, the characters didn’t show a single shred of emotion, and it was terribly paced. By the end of the movie, I didn’t feel a single connection at all to the protagonist and I wish he’d died along with the rest of them instead so the movie would end sooner. I don’t even remember a single name of any character in the movie. In fact the only character that comes to mind is the tanned skinned dude that had to be euthanized to put him out of his misery near the beginning of the movie. The cast were truly that unmemorable.
Writing this review has infuriated me, and now I’m even annoyed at myself for writing the last three paragraphs when the first one alone would have sufficed. Avoid Sanctum like the plague. I wouldn’t watch again even if I was held at gunpoint. Sanctum gets 1/10.