For fans of the video game franchise, Uncharted is as close to a modern day, interactive Indiana Jones there’s ever been. You’ve got the loveable, roguish hero, his assortment of side-kicks, high-stakes adventures, big macguffins and bucket loads of fun. So it is with high hopes that, finally, a film adaptation of a video game might actually stand a chance.
Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is a bar-tending thief plying his trade when he encounters Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) who needs Nathan to help him find lost treasure. Treasure of which Nathan has an obsessive knowledge of because it is the same treasure his brother Sam went missing trying to find. As the pair set off on their globe trotting treasure hunt they are joined by Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) and pursued by a maniacal billionaire (Antonia Banderas) and his lieutenant Braddock (Tati Gabrielle).
The biggest issue the film of Uncharted faces is managing to capture the same energy and enjoyment Naughty Dog’s original game did. Because the game is as close to an interactive action movie as there’s ever been. As such, the film’s biggest drawback is that more often than not it feels like you’re watching a game, which leaves you wanting to take control.
Where it does work is in its set-pieces. Yes, they are all horribly infused with CGI that never fully convinces, but they are smile-inducingly over the top fun. Don’t expect Dr. Jones levels of practical effects realism here, instead you’re asked to strap-in for more Fast & Furious style idiocy, but done with just enough of a wink to make it acceptable.
The film rattles along, never outstaying its welcome but it never really gets its hooks into you on an emotional level. The games are born of their chemistry between characters but the film decides to go for more of an ‘origin’ of their relationship rather than just throwing us into the deep end. Indeed the ending certainly implies this is the hopeful first in a franchise which might answer the question about some of the casting.
Tom Holland is fine as Drake, fans will argue a little too young but he certainly has the charm if not quite the presence to pull off this archetypal action man. The issue is Mark Wahlberg, usually very adept at this sort of film here he feels miscast. It is telling that at one point during the film’s development Wahlberg was meant to play Drake, much closer in age to the video game character, with Robert De Niro in the Sully role. In its current guise though there is less of a buddy dynamic between the leads and more, meh. They just never quite click the way the film needs them to. This is not necessarily the fault of the actors but more a script that struggles to know how to get its teeth into the two’s relationship.
A fun but ultimately forgettable and a little misguided adventure film that in the age of quips aplenty in Marvel and beyond feels lacking.
