UNCHARTED:
NOT A VERY GOOD UNCHARTED MOVIE, BUT A MODERATELY ENJOYABLE AND SILLY, IF NOT EXTREMELY BARE-BONES ADVENTURE!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4
COLUMBIA PICTURES
Tom Holland (The Impossible, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Onward) goes from friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man to bartender turned adventurer, Nathan Drake in Uncharted, the highly anticipated film based on the beloved PlayStation video game series and the second feature film based on a PlayStation franchise after Ratchet & Clank in 2016. The film is directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland 1 and 2, Gangster Squad, Venom) and is one of many projects released under the newly formed, PlayStation Productions.
Let me put this out there, while I have played some of the games (Most notably the ones released on PS3), I wouldn’t call myself a know-it-all Uncharted fan who came into this movie ready to nitpick it and acknowledge the things they do right. The games are incredibly fun, don’t get me wrong but I don’t hold them nearly as close to my heart compared to other video game franchises (One in particular is getting a second movie in a couple of months!), I do see the appeal and whenever I do pop one of Nathan Drake’s adventures into my PlayStation consoles, I always have a good time with them.
Now, we have this movie with Holland, hot off Spider-Man: No Way Home as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, The Fighter, All the Money in the World) as Sully, which had people both interested and scratching their heads when the project was first announced. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect with this movie especially after the critical and box-office failure of the Ratchet & Clank movie, I guess to this movie’s credit it’s being distributed by a major studio (Sony/Columbia Pictures) and not a lesser-known subsidiary and it has two enormously successful and popular actors as the leads.
As charming and charismatic as Holland and Wahlberg are, their casting choices did raise some eyebrows. The Nathan Drake character in the game looks a lor older and more like Nathan Fillion (Who coincidentally portrayed the character in an Uncharted fan film) than Tom Holland and the in-game version Sully doesn’t resemble Mark Wahlberg in the slightest and is more like an old man than the dude from The Happening.
Not dissing Holland or Wahlberg, at this point it should be established that I have mad respect for both of them and even when I see something with them that doesn’t 100% work, I’ll see them in something else afterwards that does. Okay, enough buildup let’s finally dive into the film!
Now that I’ve seen the movie, I can gladly say that Uncharted is…fine! Fans of the games will appreciate how it pays homage to them and seeing them recreate iconic moments from the games in live-action, Holland and Wahlberg have a likable charm whenever they’re together, and the action sequences are quite exciting, but the film doesn’t really do anything new with the story and instead rehashes various adventure movie tropes and dialogue, ever seen Indiana Jones, the Tomb Raider movies, or National Treasure? Then you’ve seen Uncharted without even knowing it!
The film follows part-time bartender and full-time street-smart thief, Nathan Drake (Holland), who was separated from his brother at a young age, being recruited by treasure hunter, Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Wahlberg) to embark on an adventure to locate the fabled fortune of the Magellan expedition from 500 years ago. However, what starts off as a simple heist suddenly explodes into a race against time as the ruthless, Moncada (Antonio Banderas-Desperado/Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Mask of Zorro, Shrek franchise), who claims to be the rightful heir to the treasure is hot on their tail and will stop at nothing to reach the treasure before them.
The film also stars Sophia Ali (Faking It, Grey’s Anatomy, The Wilds) as Chloe Frazer, Tati Gabrielle (The 100, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Owl House) as Jo Braddock, and Rudy Pankow (Outer Banks) as Nathan’s long-lost brother, Sam Drake.
Overall, Uncharted offers exactly what it advertises, a standard run-of-the-mill adventure with charming leads, imaginative, if not implausible action sequences, and a very bare-bones and familiar narrative. For some, that’ll be what they’re looking for, but for those looking for more substance in their cheesy adventure film, you should probably look somewhere else.
It’s hard to say whether or not this is a good Uncharted movie as it is filled with various references and homages to the games and it at least visually captures what an Uncharted movie should feel like, but the casting of Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg and Nathan and Sully stick out unfortunately. Honestly, you could have taken the Uncharted name off this movie and it could have been its own franchise, but if it has to carry the Uncharted I.P., I’m glad the filmmakers at least tried to make it resemble the game.
I think the most glaring problems with this movie are the repetitiveness of the script and underdeveloped characters, a lot of adventure and heist movies involve certain characters backstabbing one-another in order to accomplish their own deeds, but literally every single character that isn’t Nathan Drake backstabs left and right, sometimes in only the course of a couple of scenes, I didn’t mind it the first couple of times, but as it kept happening I didn’t feel like I was in suspense, I was just irritated by it, and even by the end you don’t feel much growth between the characters, I mean, what if they betray each other all over again in Uncharted 2 if it ever gets made?
For what the film lacks in substance, it more than makes up for in the action department with the highlights being the sequence where Tom Holland is falling out of a plane and jumping from crate to crate to get back inside, which is ripped straight from the games and a delightfully ridiculous climax involving two pirate ships being suspended by helicopters and flying in the air while Holland fends off the bad guys in a sequence that honestly puts every Pirates of the Caribbean action sequence to shame. This is the kind of mindless cheese I look for in a silly blockbuster like this and it did not disappoint.
Uncharted is what it is, a standard adventure movie with the charismatic, Tom Holland Mark Wahlberg as your guides and a lot of over-the-top action, corny dialogue, and familiar storytelling. If you’re looking for a fun, dumb movie to turn your brain off for, this might be your movie, but if you’re looking for something with more meat, then I’d suggest watching Spider-Man: No Way Home again, then watch either The Departed or The Fighter, and just pop in one of the Uncharted video games into your PlayStation.
From the blog www.moviewatchinpsychopath.blogspot.com
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