Very little expectation going in to seeing The Cave. On the one hand I was quite excited about seeing Piper Perabo again (oh my goodess that’s an attractive woman)… but other than that… there wasn’t much in the way of marketing to get me excited. It ended up being a little better than I thought… but even that’s not saying much. Here’s a synopsis of the film:
Jack (Cole Hauser) and his brother Tyler (Eddie Cibrian) are thrill-seeking professional cave explorers who run a team of the top divers in the world. They arrive in Romania with all the latest equipment, including a new type of scuba tank allowing a diver to remain submerged for up to 24 hours. The crack unit, which also includes Charlie (Piper Perabo) and Buchanen (Morris Chestnut), immediately begins their exploration. But what they find deep inside the cave is not just a new eco-system, but an entirely new species altogether…
If you’re thinking to yourself “that doesn’t sound like much”… then you’d be right.
THE GOOD:
This film is actually really neat to look at. The cave and underwater shots all look fantastic. Also, it’s given me a whole new appreciation for cave divers. That is some exciting and insane stuff they do. The film made me really feel a sense of claustrophobia (which is what they were trying to do) as the team dove in and out of tight little spots in caves and crevasses. It actually freaked me out a little bit.
I should also mention that Cole Hauser was pretty strong as the lead in the film.
THE BAD:
The film was too long. What started out as interesting visuals of cave and diving… got tired. Oh look… they’re running through more caves. Oh look, they’re still running through caves. Oh look the monsters are still chasing them.
The creatures in the movie also disappointed. It’s not only that they didn’t look very good… but you really didn’t get to see them much. The cameras never stayed on them for more than 2 seconds and so you never get a feel for them.
Nothing really happens in the movie. The team finds monster in the cave… the monsters chase them. That’s it. They tried to get us to care about some parasite that infects people… but that didn’t really go anywhere or have any impact in the film whatsoever. Not to mention, the very ending made no sense whatsoever.
OVERALL:
There’s just not much to say. It was a movie. It didn’t really do anything horrible… but it didn’t do anything exceptional either. Not a total waste of time… but I wouldn’t recommend it either. Maybe for a Matinee or something. I give The Cave a 5/10.
