The Cave


release year: 2005
genre: adventure/horror
viewing setting: home DVD, 1/19/06

synopsis: A team of cavers and scientists enters the world's deepest/biggest cave system, but things go wrong when they get trapped down there and find out that they're not alone.

impressions: Aaaaargh. This was one of those movies that was obviously cut and re-edited and finally released as something different from what was originally conceived. It started out interesting and with good potential...and ended up as a confused mess that had no clear direction. Good points: general concept of cave with monsters, nice scenery, underwater action, rock-climbing action. Bad points: jerky camera work in every monster scene, most of cast was impossible to tell apart, stupid characters, inconsistency of monster attacks (one minute the monster's mauling someone, then his friend pulls him away and they make it to safety...without the monster following! How? Why? This makes NO SENSE.) For once, I don't even want to spend the time and energy required to explain why this movie didn't click with me. I just don't.

something this movie has that no other movie has: underground monsters that are SEAL-capable, meaning they can lurk and hunt equally well in land, in the water, and in the air

acting: Morris Chestnut played the only male character who I could 1) sympathize with, and 2) distinguish from the others. Well, actually, I'm lying - the old professor was easy to tell apart too, as was the Asian-American photographer. There were four other white males who I just couldn't tell apart, and whose personality and function I never was sure of. This changed for Cole Hauser, the leader of the group, only after he got infected and began to act oddly. As for the women, there were two: brunette scientist-chick and blond rock-climbing-woman-of-action-chick. As for the monsters, well...to this day I cannot tell you what they really looked like.

final word: Good start, weak finish. Something went seriously wrong with the making of this one.

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