Directed by Ruben Fleischer and based on the video game series of the same name, Uncharted follows the early life of Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) who is recruited by the mysterious Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) in a race against his rivals Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) to locate the fabled treasure of the Magellan Expedition. The quest is dangerous but Nathan is willing to risk it all in order to find out what happened to his long-lost brother, who searched for the very same treasure long ago, and become an adventurous treasure hunter himself.
Now everyone knows I am a huge gamer and have played many game franchises over the years. But there have been some game franchises that I never played or got into, and Uncharted was one of them. I am aware of how popular the franchise is and I am familiar with some basic information about it but other than that I am not invested enough in Uncharted to know if this adaptation got anything right or wrong. But just like with other adaptations I’ve reviewed that I have had little to no knowledge of, I choose to review what I’m being given from the film itself, whether it be good or bad, without any prior bias.
With that said I can honestly say that I had a great time with Uncharted. It’s not a perfect film by any means and I have no clue whether it did the games any justice but I had a lot of fun. The performances by the cast were great, the story was fine for what it was, and the adventure elements were thrilling all around.
In a way, it kinda reminded me of the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider films, which were also video game adaptations that were honestly very enjoyable to watch because it wasn’t trying to take itself too seriously and everyone involved with making the films (including the cast) focused on giving us great entertainment, regardless if it was accurate to the source material or not. However, these days people take video game adaptations more seriously since a lot of them have evolved over the years, with stronger narratives and characters that get even non-gamers invested.
To be fair, I have been one of these people that takes certain video game adaptations seriously but it always depends on the franchise they adapt and how they choose to adapt it. I do know Uncharted has a layered narrative in some of the games but at the same time it is an adventure series that has a lot of inspiration from Indiana Jones. This film definitely leans more towards the adventure side of Uncharted but it does get you invested in some of the characters, mostly thanks to the performances everyone gives.
I felt Tom Holland was really solid as a young Nathan Drake, giving him a lot of charm and working well as an adventurous lead. He learns a lot of lessons about the treasure hunting game and how incredibly dangerous it can be to trust anyone, especially when there are people willing to kill for gold. And while I know that is something we have seen before in other films I like the fact that Nathan becomes progressively more cunning as the film progresses and actually learns from his mistakes, which is something you don’t often see, and for me that was refreshing.
Mark Wahlberg’s casting as Sully has been a divisive choice, but honestly, I thought he was awesome. He shares excellent chemistry with Tom Holland’s Drake throughout the entire film and every time they were on screen I absolutely loved them. It’s a pairing of two actors from two different generations felt like a match made in heaven and they really ended up being as thick as thieves.
We also get a good performance from Sophia Ali as Chloe Frazer, who if I remember had a romantic history with Drake in the games. They do seem to be building towards that romance in this film when they are together, rather than just having them be in love immediately, which again was something refreshing to see. I could see them becoming an interesting pair in the future with further development.
As for the villains well they are pretty basic as greedy villains. The performances are good from the respective cast members and you can tell they had fun in their roles but that’s pretty much it. Also, without spoiling anything, there is a certain twist that occurs with the villains that was kinda predictable but at the same time matched perfectly with the dangers of treasure hunting.
The story is your typical treasure hunting adventure complete with puzzles, action, and races against time, but to be fair it never felt boring by any means. I was entertained all the way through, and with the help of Ruben Fleischer’s energetic directing we do get a lot of thrills and excitement throughout the film. The pacing felt almost at full throttle so there weren’t too many slow moments for characters to have interactions with each other, but when there are those moments they are done surprisingly well. We understand the motives everyone has so the film doesn’t try to drag anything out and gets to all the fun stuff without hesitation and I was all for it.
And as expected there is some fan service and subtle references littered throughout the film that are bound to catch the attention of fans of the games. I may have not caught them all but I did get a few, including a very fun cameo from the voice actor of Nathan Drake, Nolan North. And in case you’re curious there are two post-credits near the end of the film.
As for the action and technical elements of the film, this is where things ended up being mixed for me. Action wise there are some fun fights and huge scale scenes that do go over the top, kinda like the games, and I thought they were handled great. There were a lot of thrills to be had, including one incredibly well-done take of Nathan falling from the sky. But then some fight scenes get the multi-cut treatment and take me out from the action. Why insert so many cuts when the choreography seems to be really good? It’s by no means Taken 3 levels of bad but it certainly was annoying in certain places.
Aside from some of the fights, the editing was actually damn good, with some excellent transitions that I didn’t expect. That combined with some good cinematography made for a pretty great-looking film for the most part.
When it comes to effects they were 50/50 in this film with some effects looking great and others looking unfinished but not overly horrible. Part of me believes that could have been post-production impacts from the pandemic but I can’t be too sure. As for music, the score is good but nothing stood out apart from subtle uses of Nathan’s theme from the games that were awesome to hear.
Overall, Uncharted is a flawed but fun adventure film and honestly nowhere near as bad as some critics have been labeling it. Whether or not it’s a good adaptation of the games I can’t really answer, but I think people who have little to no knowledge of the games are guaranteed to have a good time with this one. And who doesn’t like a fun treasure hunting film once in a while? I’m going to give Uncharted a B.
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