Video game movies have a decades-long reputation of being less than stellar, to put it nicely. For the most part, it is difficult to translate the active experience of playing a video game to the passive experience of watching a movie. In this way the new film Uncharted, based on the PlayStation game franchise of the same name, does its best to create an immersive experience for the viewer but ultimately sacrifices plot in favor of action sequences.
Uncharted follows seasoned fortune hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), who recruits bartender Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), the younger brother of Sully’s former colleague Sam, on a quest to find the lost treasure of the Magellan expedition. Nathan, who hasn’t heard from his brother in months, agrees to accompany him with the hopes of finding Sam. What begins as a simple heist evolves into a global race to reach the fortune before the ruthless wealthy Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) can get his hands on it. If Nathan and Sully can decipher the clues and track down the gold, they stand to gain over five billion dollars—but only if they can learn to act as a team.
Holland and Wahlberg shine as a dynamic adventure duo, with plenty of quips shot back and forth between death-defying stunts and explosions. Holland, who has proven himself a worthy action star through his role as Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, balances the demands of stunt work and humor for the comedy-action genre. In fact, he even spent time working undercover at a bar in London to prepare for the bartender aspect of the role. His dedication to the project is clear through his layered performance as the petty thief turned global adventurer. Wahlberg also has a prolific action-comedy career to pull from and brings that humor to Sully’s character: a loner who doesn’t trust anyone but is willing to do whatever it takes to gain the treasure. However, the brotherly dynamic the film attempts to build between Sully and Nathan is lost due to the actors’ substantial age gap (Holland has a mere 25 years to Wahlberg’s 50).
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Due to the years of lore established by the video games, the film that assumes these are characters whom the audience already has an emotional attachment to, and it thus spends precious little time with any sort of character development. The supposed plot twists and betrayals have little at stake because there is barely any investment in these characters to begin with, never mind their relationships with one another. Instead, Uncharted chooses to dedicate its runtime to a tired, uninspiring treasure hunt plot that’s been seen on the big screen a million times before. The puzzles and challenges the characters face are probably interesting to solve in a video game, however; watching a movie, it’s pretty boring to have the character simply turn around and notice the main clue right away.
Uncharted does put its 120-million-dollar budget to good use, with plenty of explosions and chase sequences culminating in a mid-air helicopter finale extravaganza. The action sequences overall are fun to watch, but the novelty wears off after the fifth or sixth consecutive sequence with little dialogue.
Overall, Uncharted is an enjoyable big screen experience that put its A-List actors to good use. However, the plot and screenplay are decidedly unoriginal. Due to the multiple post-credits scenes and its impressive opening weekend box office numbers, there is little that doubt a sequel is in the works. The question that remains is, does there need to be?
2.5/5 STARS