Uncharted || Spoiler-Free Movie Review

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Genre:  Action, Adventure, Comedy
Directed by:  Ruben Fleischer
Screenplay by:  Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway  ||  Story by:  Rafe Lee Judkins, Jon Hanley Rosenberg, Mark D. Walker
Starring:  Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas
Score by:  Ramin Djawadi  ||  Cinematography by:  Chung-hoon Chung
RottenTomatoes - 39% from Critics, 90% from Audiences  ||  IMDB Average 6.7 out of 10  ||  Letterboxd Average 3.0 out of 5


Brief Thoughts on the Movie 

"Whereas the game series set a remarkably high bar for videogames in regards to quality & immersive content, Uncharted never evolves beyond a resoundingly average & generic blockbuster - an echo of its source material & other, better adventure films."

What's It About?

Based off of the Playstation video game franchise of the same name, Uncharted tells the story of the young, street-smart Nathan Drake (Tom Holland). Drake is soon recruited by a seasoned treasure hunter, Victory "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover Ferdinand Magellan's lost, 500 year-old treasure. What starts out as a simple heist job for the freshly-formed team quickly becomes a globe-trotting, adventure as they find themselves thrust into a race against the ruthless Santiago Moncado (Antonio Banderas), a wealthy adversary with his own claim to Magellan's treasure.



What Worked?

Hollywood has had a long and storied struggle in its attempt in adapting popular video games into equally successful feature length movies - be that critically or financially. This bumpy road in adaptation began with the baffling fever dream that was 1993's Super Mario Bros. and continues to this very day with properties like Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, and Sonic the Hedgehog still trying to find that magical, winning formula. While several of these properties have recently been embraced by audiences and fans - by any critical or commercial metric, the majority of these releases have been middling at their best and downright insulting at their worst.

With this context sufficiently lowering any expectations on my end - I will freely admit that Uncharted works on a moment to moment basis. Tom Holland continues to be one of the most charismatic and likable actors of his generation. Though he doesn't always ring true to Nathan Drake's character - a character I fell in love with while playing through the videogames -  Holland's approach to the character is a fun interpretation nonetheless. Additionally, Holland and Mark Wahlberg prove to be a perfect pairing - there's a quick and easy rapport between the two that leads to a really entertaining back-and-forth, "buddy" dynamic.

The videogame series sports a lovable cast of characters and I was happy to see several have been brought to the big screen in this adaptation. However, the Uncharted series is just as well known for its bombastic and jaw-dropping set pieces. As much as the audience is here for characters and story, any Uncharted adaptation has to essentially "go big or go home" when it comes to its set pieces. Though some of the later action bits begin incorporating a bit too much CG (for sequences that clearly demanded more from the film's budget), the cargo plane and dueling airship scenes both were able to capture some of the very same, over-the-top thrills found in the videogames...even if only momentarily.



What Didn't Work?

I'll just go ahead and address the Playstation-shaped elephant in the room - Uncharted is an adaptation of a videogame series that adapted Indiana Jones and other adventure movies and serials into a boundary-pushing, interactive experience. The base appeal of Uncharted was that you, the player, were always an active part of these wondrous and fantastical adventures. By removing that same interactivity and any of the agency inherent to playing videogames - what you're left with is a modern, cheaper looking imitation of Indiana Jones, minus the iconic characters, notable dialogue, or memorable set pieces. So that begs the question - who is this Uncharted movie for and what's the point of adapting it in the first place?

This would have been a challenge for the Uncharted movie even if it were firing on all cylinders - which sadly isn't the case. The elements that have been brought over from the videogames seem to have been done so in a thoroughly rushed and unenthusiastic fashion. Even though Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg have this great (and very watchable) chemistry, these are not the Nathan, Sully, or Chloe characters from the videogames. In the transition from videogame-to-movie, the spirit of these characters was largely lost or discarded altogether. Holland is at least doing something that resembles Nathan Drake, though he doesn't seem quite suited for the maturity that's being asked of his character. Holland's acting in Uncharted is unusually restrained, stiff, and the opposite of natural. Again, at least Holland vaguely resembles his character and is trying to do something with Nathan Drake, as opposed to Mark Wahlberg who pretty much just shows up as Mark Wahlberg here.

The rest of the cast doesn't fare much better...no thanks to the thinly written and lacking supporting characters. Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, and Antonio Banderas are all wasted, unable to rise above their one-dimensional characters - characters who are only included to lightly speak on Uncharted's (just barely a) theme of trust/greed. This is an issue that's pervasive throughout every element of Uncharted, extending to the storytelling and direction. Uncharted's narrative has been streamlined to a fault - anything that could've given this movie its own personality or uniqueness has been stripped away, leaving only the bare essentials to get the characters from "Point A" to "Point B".

So the movie's different from the games, the leads are a little stiff, and the story's a bit redundant - but what about Uncharted's action? Well...it's also nothing particularly noteworthy. Take for instance one of the movie's most attention grabbing set pieces - an action sequence that has already been heavily teased in all of the advertising. This set piece has an elaborately laid out fight that takes place in and around a cargo plane in mid-flight. It's an over-the-top sequence that captures the insanely high stakes of the games. It recaptures those stakes so easily because it just so happens to be a sequence lifted directly from the third game, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (released in 2011). Uncharted borrows the setting and several action beats from this well-known videogame set piece, but due to either lack of time, creativity, or vision - what we're given in the Uncharted movie all feels so limp and hollow in comparison. The video games, even over ten years later, still hit harder and are infinitely more visceral and heart-pumping than anything on display in the movie adaptation.

Standout Scene

Though I've put a great deal of thought into this specific category, I'll just come right out and be completely honest with you - it's less than a week since I've seen Uncharted in theaters and there's not a single scene that sticks out to me. None of the action felt especially inventive or memorable and the character-building moments and narrative twists and turns (if you can even call them that) are thoroughly generic and (clearly) forgettable. 

Standout Performance

Mark Wahlberg is the easy standout - but not for doing an outstanding job of blending into the role or anything like that. No, everyone else seems to be acting, whereas Wahlberg is just Wahlberg is just Wahlberg...it's Wahlbergs all the way down!



Behind-the-Scenes Trivia

  • Sony first started development on an Uncharted movie project around 2008 - one year after the release of the first game. Shawn Levy (Free Guy), Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), and David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter, I Heart Huckabees) were some of the directors attached to this movie during its long journey to the big screen.
  • One of the first actors attached to Uncharted during its initial development was Mark Wahlberg who was originally cast as the lead, Nathan Drake. The following is merely conjecture, but it seems like the project stalled for a long enough period of time that Wahlberg aged out of his initial part as Drake, and became much more appropriate for the older, mentor character of Sully.
  • Keep an eye out for several easter eggs alluding to the games, including a Naughty Dog sticker, an auction heist involving a reliquary cross (Uncharted 4), an action set-piece involving a cargo plane (lifted directly from Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception), and a quick cameo from Nolan North (voice actor of Nathan Drake from the games).

Pairs Well With...


Film-FTW Rating  ||  5 Stars
"Mediocre / Mixed Feelings"


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