Cleveronix
A different way of telling a story
Voxitype
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Emily Apricot
The beginning of the movie shows a lot of promise. You see a group of modern ecology surveyors with believable high tech equipment and friendship, exploring beautiful places. Also, the cast contains some top notch TV stars. Also, you can feel their explorers passion about their work when they talk about being the first to chart places or see creatures never studied before. This calls back memories of the excavators in Titanic or the tornado chasers in Twister. However, once they get lost in the cave, the movie attempts a scare tactic with shaking the camera around, so you only see bits and pieces of the action - a rock here, a splash there, and you have to see the characters talk about it afterward to find out what happened. I guess this form of camera shooting is designed to make the viewer feel like they, too, are a victim flailing around in the water. This effect works in low budget films like the Blair Witch Project and Cloverfied, because you can believe it was filmed by the characters, and the camera went crazy during traumatic events, leaving the viewer mystified and horrified. It doesn't really work in a big budget thriller like this, because after all the georgous setup, when things get scary, you want to see what's going on.Also, it is dissapointing they went the horror movie route by showing these people desparate against the creatures. The characters freak out, attack eachother, and frequently get lost or separated for no apparent reason. I would have liked to see this group of brave young explorers put up a better fight to share the cave with the outside world.It picks up toward the end, though, and the end twist is some sci fi goodness.
hongkong666
As easy it would be to hate on this movie I really have to admit that I enjoyed it a lot. Of course, it is nothing heaven sent and there are way better movies even within the Cave Horror genre such as The Descent, just to name one. But it is an easy watch in between and I kinda liked the way it was shot. A cave movie where you actually can see something doesn't always have to be a bad thing. The acting appeared a little genereric and as the group discovered the origin of the creatures I saw that coming from a mile ahead. But surprisingly it didn't ruin the fun for me. This movie was pretty much what I expected and I was just in the perfect mood for this one. The right time, the right place. If they come up with a sequel though, that might ruin it guaranteed! But seriously, a nice monster flick in between and if you are looking simply for something to watch you haven't seen before, The Cave is not the worst choice to do so.
Jane Doe
This is one weird combination of movie factors. The Cave features a stunning cast of high-profile actors like Lena Headey and Cole Hauser, yet manages to drag them through a rather narrow (no pun intended) script of a horror movie.I've read it in other reviews before and, after watching it, I have to agree: The Cave boasts some incredibly detailed and believable sceneries, but doesn't give the audience the time to take it all in. The cave system is huge and very intimidating, but the fast action cuts make it hard to feel the claustrophobia.The one thing that really bothered me is the daylight illumination of some scenes. A couple of flashlights simply cannot do this, as shown very well in The Descent. It wouldn't be so bad if they stayed with it throughout the movie, but one scene that seems like they're standing in daylight is suddenly darkened to an appropriate level the moment the camera perspective changes.It is still a very enjoyable movie, if only to see the later Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones and Johns from Pitch Black fight for their lives in skintight diving suits.
Leofwine_draca
Oh dear. Back in 2005, two potholing horrors came out at the same time. Both involved teams descending into underground cave networks and discovering previously unknown creatures with a penchant for human flesh. THE DESCENT, a British film helmed by Neil Marshall, was a film I enjoyed very much and would probably watch again. THE CAVE, on the other hand, is a typical US horror that does everything wrong. Not only does it have a child-friendly rating, meaning it lacks the viciousness a movie like this cries out for, but it's happy to tread the same old ground without making any effort, delivering a film that's heavily inspired by creature classics like ALIENS and even PITCH BLACK and being instantly forgettable in the same breath.Right from the start I knew this was going to be bad, thanks to the jerky, frenetic camera-work that takes place during the action sequences. Now, ALL of these take place in dimly-lit caverns which are hard enough to see in as it is, so why did the director feel the need to make things harder to watch with his jerky camera-work? Another cliché that doesn't work. Sadly, though, the bad camera-work doesn't stop us seeing the APPALLING creatures, which are CGI monstrosities for the most part, with the occasional use of a model head that looks just like an ALIEN. No thought or imagination seems to have gone into these beasts at all.The script is dire, the cast boring. Even Cole Hauser, who has the most interesting role of a guy gradually transforming into a beast, comes off the worse as his sub-plot goes nowhere (I guess the filmmakers were trying to inject some menace). Eddie Cibrian has the right macho hero look about him, but he comes across as wooden, and the only cast-member I liked at all was Lena Headey (300), who actually has a little integrity (until the stupid twist ending, that is). Watch out for the gratuitous cleavage shot the director threw in in an attempt to draw the male audience. Morris Chestnut and Daniel Dae Kim are the ethnic types thrown into the mix for no good reason and totally underused.I'm not even angry enough to care about this film. THE CAVE is one of those ones where your attention keeps wandering despite your best efforts and the end result is that I had no emotion about it whatsoever. Just a bland, cookie-cutter horror outing for the masses, and one that misses the point totally.
