directed by Ruben Fleischer
written by Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
When it comes to film adaptations from other media, video games as a source material are pretty much at the very bottom of the proverbial totem pole. As marginalized as comic book-based movies are among critics and the "experts" they are royalty compared to video game movies. Heck, Johnny Depp got nominated for an Oscar for a character he played in a movie based on a theme park ride. Long story short, video game movies don't get any respect.
Making a passable video game movie, therefore, is an embarrassingly low bar to clear, and yet so many major film studios have failed at it over the years. If nothing else, the film adaptation of Naughty Dog's wildly successful Uncharted game at least manages to clear this bar.
Following over a decade and a half in development hell, Sony Pictures have finally managed to churn out the long-gestating adaptation of Uncharted, with Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer pulling directing duties from a script by Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. White-hot Tom Holland, whose other movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home is still in theaters, making considerable amounts of money for a three-month old film, stars as bartender-turned-treasure-hunter Nathan Drake, while Mark Wahlberg, once in the running for the role of Drake, plays his older mentor Victor Sullivan. Tati Gabrielle plays chief henchwoman Braddock, Sophia Ali plays fellow treasure-seeker Chloe Frazier, while Antonio Banderas plays the big bad, Santiago Moncada.
The film starts with a flashback in which young Nathan Drake (Tiernan Jones) and his older brother Sam (Rudy Pankow) sneak out of the orphanage in which they live and break into a museum, with Sam attempting to steal a map. They get caught, and Sam, rather than go to jail, escapes, leaving Nathan to grow up alone in the orphanage with the promise to find him again.
Years later, Nate is grown up and working as a bartender in New York, who also happens to know how to slip valuables off of the wealthier patrons, when he is approached by Sully, who tries to recruit him on a hunt for a treasure that was supposedly found by Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines and brought back to Spain, but which no one can find. They are in a race against time against Santiago Moncada, whose family bankrolled Magellan's trip 500 years ago and who is ready to use deadly force to claim what is his, especially the services of Braddock and her crew of mercenaries. For their part, Nate and Sully have Chloe on their side, but it's unclear if she can be trusted. The hunt is on.
As much as I've enjoyed all four Uncharted games, bearing in mind the "curse" of the video game movie I came into this film with expectations firmly in check. To be fair, the producers did go to some length to recreate the globe-trotting feel of the games, with some decently-staged action sequences in Spain as well as two major action set pieces, one involving a fight in a plane's open cargo bay and the other involving a fight aboard a Spanish galleon being airlifted by a helicopter. So those boxes are firmly ticked. Tom Holland's Jackie-Chan-inspired fight sequences are genuinely fun to watch, especially given how he really lends his physicality to them. Arguably, even more than Spider-Man, this is a role in which his experience in dance and acrobatics will really benefit him.
Unfortunately, though, apart from the brisk action sequences, the movie doesn't really have that much else going for it. Tom Holland still manages to make Nate Drake a likeable guy, but he's a far cry from the rogue we see in the video games, though the producers have repeatedly emphasized that he's still on the journey to get there. Mark Wahlberg's take on the iconic Sully is even wider off the mark (pardon the pun) thanks to a clunky script and Mark Wahlberg basically just playing Mark Wahlberg. Banderas' menacing bad guy Moncada, who does nasty things to his father (Manuel de Blas) for wanting to give away his family's blood-soaked fortune, essentially comes across as a goof ball, and the less said about Sophia Ali's take on Chloe Frazier, basically a South-Asian Lara Croft in the games, the better. Tati Gabrielle's Braddock is vaguely convincing as a bad guy, but that's about it. I also have a problem with a script that basically has its characters act like morons to advance the plot. I know this is true for a vast majority of Hollywood films to one degree or another, but it felt especially prominent here.
The good news, though, is that the bones for a decent franchise are there. Holland can grow (if not necessarily physically) into the Nathan Drake role, which will make more and more sense as he gets older and could potentially be something he could settle into after hanging up Spider-Man's tights, and Wahlberg, who sports Sully's trademark mustache in the film's post-credits scene, could also grow into the character. Between the two of them they could develop the chemistry that makes their interactions in the game so much fun. Also, the filmmakers have shown they can pull of the show-stopping actions sequences, and given how many of those are featured in the games, there is plenty of material left for them to mine.
Speaking as a fan of the games, I think it would be nice if they incorporated some of the game's more interesting puzzle sequences into the movie rather than the fairly pedestrian bits they featured. Also, Nate needs to do way more wall climbing in the next film; this is a staple of the game, for crying out loud. I can understand why they toned down the shoot-em-up nature of the game, but the climbing has to be stepped up for the next movie. I mean, Tom Holland getting ridiculously jacked feels somewhat pointless considering that Nathan Drake was never about shirtless scenes but he was all about scaling virtually any surface.
This certainly could have been better, but it could also so easily have been so much worse.
With my first blockbuster of 2022 now in the rearview mirror, I look forward to checking out Matt Reeves' The Batman.
6.5/10
