As far as video game adaptations go, Uncharted is by no means an awful film. It sticks to the source material well and does the best it can to make watching the movie feel as similar as possible to playing the game. However, it is ultimately let down by the poor casting of Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Sully.
Quite simply, Wahlberg isn’t gruff or wise enough to fit the role of Sully, and though Holland is really trying (with his natural charisma doing much of the heavy lifting), our friendly neighbourhood action hero doesn’t suit the curious and chaotic persona of Nathan Drake.
Uncharted follows Nathan Drake as he goes from street-smart pickpocket to globe-trotting treasure hunter with the help of his newfound mentor, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. The pair begin their hunt with a heist in New York that soon spills over into the lost underworld of Barcelona. Here, their every move is tracked by a secret militia employed by Santiago Moncada, a man who believes the fortune is his birth-right, and winner of the least-threatening-villain award, 30 years running.
Can the pair uncover the 500-year-old treasures of Ferdinand Magellan before Moncada’s crew get their greedy fingers on it? How will Nathan and Sully survive the dangers that come with grave robbing? Will the pair ever learn to trust one another? You probably know the answers to these questions before sitting down to watch.
Yes, while the set-pieces are fun to gawk at and the dialogue is sporadically entertaining, the movie does nought to surprise and, depending on how you criticise the film, that can be frustrating or fine. The games, for instance, do little to truly subvert expectations. Their goal is to mimic the feel of a blockbuster action movie within the interactable space of a video game, which means some crappy plot elements can be overlooked with ease. In movie form, however, these predictable tropes manifest in their ugliest and most derivative form as there’s only plot and spectacle to rely on.
That is not to say there are no good moments. The auction heist at the start is particularly fun as it allows us to get used to the characters working together, even though it is the first of many scenes in which the Holland-Wahlberg chemistry wanes. It is a shame the scene is completely unoriginal, too, being lifted from Uncharted 4 (the video game, that is).
There are other scenes lifted from the games – the plane fight from Uncharted 3 and the finding-the-treasure scene from Uncharted 4 – which overall gives the film an air of unoriginality, and explains why Sony took this approach of mass appeal.
It is a shame because Uncharted very obviously could have been so much more. Generally, it is all just disappointingly safe, which is ironic considering the dangerous white-knuckle ride the film claims to contain.
3/5 stars
Picture Credits: TheMovieDB