After several years of delays and false starts, the Uncharted movie adaptation is finally in theaters…but is it worth checking out?
Street-smart Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada.
What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs. If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world’s oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate’s long-lost brother…but only if they can learn to work together.
Well, it took many years to happen but the Uncharted movie is finally here. This movie went into development way back in 2008 and has had its ups and downs over the years. When Nathan Fillion said he was a fan of the video game and wanted to play Nathan Drake the fans lost their minds.
I was one of the many that wanted Fillion to play the role but alas it would not be so. The role went to the current Hollywood ” it” boy, Tom Holland. While he’s not exactly the person I’d pick to play the role he did a decent job. Mark Whalberg as Sully just wasn’t cutting it for me.
If you are a fan of the video game franchise you can easily see that a number of scenes are pulled directly from the games with the last game being the main influence behind the movie. A young Nathan with his brother, Sam, at the orphanage (Uncharted: A Thief’s End), The airplane action sequence (Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception), start with an action scene to jump back in time to progress to where it starts (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves).
There are a few more but I’m not gonna go into every one of them. While it may be a bit scattered they are pulling some pretty good parts from the different games.
We do get to see Chole Frazier (Sophia Ali) in the film and she’s the perfect Chloe, one second you love her the next you wanna wring her neck. Tati Gabrielle (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) is the badass mercenary for hire/treasure hunter, Jo Braddock who works for Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) the man who wants to reclaim the treasure his family funded Ferdinand Magellan to find centuries ago. The only person we do not see in the movie is another of Nate’s Love interests, Elena Fisher.
Although it’s a treasure hunt the hints and clues to progress further are not as clever as they did with movies such as National Treasure or Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s pretty much like you are playing the game and it just hits you “OH that’s how you solve it”.
The writing is good, not great. The writing talent behind this is Rafe Judkins (Chuck, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. [2013-2015]), Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man, Punisher War Zone, Transformers: Last Knight, M.I.B. International). The man in the directors’ chair is Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Zombieland Double Tap).
Granted there’s some good stuff early in their resumes but the later stuff is average at best. As I said it’s good, not great. The action scenes are fantastic, the fan service is fantastic, even most of the characters are top-notch. However, the gamer in me that played the major games of the series I tolerate Holland as Nate, Wahlbergs’ Sully is just “MEH”. now if I knew nothing about the video game those last two things would not bother me at all.
