Review of Thirteen Lives (2022) by Robomartion — 24 Aug 2022

Basically a by the numbers retread of the documentary with better cameras but none of the insight or clarity. Didn't tell us about the lives of the divers or soccer team before hand. Even though the British accents from Viggo and Colin were basically half Australian, they seemed good enough for the job but they were not directed enough to give an impactful performance and all the interactions between the divers fell flat. The underwater and cave diving footage was quite well done but still even that could have been done with more precision as there was never enough context given as to the situation inside and out of the cave and there was not enough clarity of which diver you were watching or the ultimate goal of what the diver was supposed to be doing.

You also never truly felt the claustrophobia of what the dive would have been like as the water was mostly crystal clear with the scary sections basically amounting to getting stuck, and you never truly felt the fear, even when the Navy seal drowns because the pacing was off and there was no music to accompany it. It also seemed like they got through the cave too quickly the first time which made all subsequent expeditions feel less impactful. The constant heads up display of the location inside the cave didn't do anything to help us understand the distances and time involved, and more than that actually took you out of the realism. The way Nat Geo did this was far more insightful. They could have used aerial shots of the mountains or CGI of the cave to show how far it was for them to go but all they give you is a white line with a red dot. They could easily have fit in showing us the boys go into the cave which would have showed us how big the cave us and given them a chance to introduce them as actual characters.

I will give points that the final sequence had the anxiety levels up, however when the divers come out at the end, two of the three Thai divers come out together and then the last after and it seemed like only two had come out and then everyone was celebrating while you were left without closure, which made it so the most crucial part of the film - the sigh of relief - never comes. After this, the movie abruptly ends with the boys waving to their mothers in the hospital. We don't see Rick Stanton meet his wife or see the divers get knighted or the Australian diver return home.

Overall the movie is a missed opportunity to expand beyond what the documentary told us. None of the characters are fleshed out, there is no main character, no supporting cast. Just a bunch of actors who fill in for real people, all participating in the aimless goal of retelling a story that was already told more succinctly and in far more detail and impact before in the National Geographic documentary. Apparently a film called 'the Cave' was already made in 2019 and by watching the trailer shows the divers lives before hand. I would watch that or the Nat Geo documentary if you want a more detailed and interesting depiction.