Uncharted
A fun, fizzy action-adventure that disperses with an attempt at being anything other than a trashy popcorn flick.
Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is an amateur treasure hunter, who is headhunted by Sully (Mark Whalberg); a more experienced, but evidently ruthless collector of artifacts of historical significance. Turns out they’re both looking for the same thing; a hoard of treasure, rumored to be worth more than $6 billion, amassed by the famous explorer Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada. But they’ve got competition. Firstly, there’s Santiago Moncada himself (Antonio Banderas), who is looking to resurrect his family’s lost fortunes. Then, there’s his lethal assassin Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) and her goons, who have history with Sully. Finally, there’s Chole Frazer (Sophia Ali), an independent treasure hunter who won’t let the fizzing chemistry between her and Drake stand in the way of the gold.
Based on the famous video game series, Uncharted is a film that is all about heightened action, out there visuals, and zippy one-liners in a video game-esque item-item-item-treasure quest structure.
One of the most impressive things going for this movie is it’s ability to avoid many of the pitfalls that historically have befallen video game adaptations. For one, it doesn’t try to cram too much lore into the piece; video games have hundreds of hours in which to develop that history and world-building, but movies have only 2 or 3. Here, Uncharted dives right into the action, and avoids the exposition dumps of some of its ilk. Further, the film fully embraces the absolutely gonzo action of video game series. This isn’t a gritty, dark, realized take - it’s fun, colorful, and energetic.
There is plenty of banter between the two leads, and Wahlberg and Holland make it feel lived in and real. This despite the fact that they don’t really capture the personalities of the video game characters. Nevertheless, you’re likely to still find yourself laughing away throughout, with a number of genuinely funny gags.
Plot wise, the movie doesn’t digress too much with explaining its reasoning, nor the attempting to bring logic to the proceedings. Sometimes, as in National Treasure, the script is painstakingly tracked to real life events, to bring a sense of reality to the treasure hunt. At other times, endless time is spent trying to justify an out there treasure that has no basis in fact, often without success. Here, the creative team just doesn’t bother too much with all of that, and the movie is more fun for it.
To be fair, there are plenty of quibbles to be had with this film. Yes, it doesn’t remotely capture the games characters, or emotional pathos. Yes, the visuals at times are too comic-y, with the gold looking fake as hell. But ultimately, it’s the sort of turn your brain off film that is impossible to not have fun with.
