There's a lot to be said for the complex storyline here. And the structure of the house was amazing, and the ending was interesting to watch. I guess you just had to pay a lot of attention to the details to understand it. The director seems so impressed with this visual playground, he makes sure we see every room and hallway at least twice, for no good reason. Also, since a series of famous experiments in the early 60's into the nature of people's capacities to inflict pain on one another, psychological experiments have had to have been approved by an ethics committee.
Every university has one.
Subjects are not allowed to be placed in situations that cause them physical or emotional distress. Liam Neeson's character would not only be refused permission for his experiment, he would most likely be severely chastised for bringing the experiment before the committee when it breaks these rules. It's the difference between a lousy movie like this, and Silence of the Lambs, which took Thomas Harris 7 years to write. The overused CGI effects will surely add to the public's growing impatience with such high-tech wizardry at expense of plot and characterization. Catherine Zeta Jones is there for no other reason as a masturbation aid for all the lonely horny teenaged guys, who figure even spotty twerps like them stand a chance with her if she's letting wheezy chubby old Mike Douglas climb on for a pump.