Review of Uncharted (2022) by The_Man_Xx — 24 Feb 2022

I'm going to be honest, I didn't know what to expect from this, from the trailers it looked like your typical action-adventure but you never know from video games adaptions given their not-so-good track record but I'm glad to say I enjoyed this for the most part.

The performance from Tom Holland as Nathan Drake was good, really it was never gonna be a spot on reflection from the games but as the feel is concerned Tom Holland put in a good performance that makes you feel he is playing Nathan Drake in this case a younger Nathan Drake from the games, and that's all I wanted cause I was concerned he was gonna simply act as himself or a typecast of Peter Parker (not saying he does this is all his movies as he has proven to be a very good actor, especially from his acting roles from No Way Home, Cherry or Devil All The Time) but that wasn't the case as he goes do a decent job of portraying Nathan's charm, humor, confidence and off-brand witt from the games.

However, although I did enjoy seeing Mark Wahlberg as Sully onscreen I felt like his portrayal of Sully was a mixed bag goes he goes in and out of the role. For example, when he is first introduced in the movie he does do a decent job in playing Sully(a young version of him I keep forgetting lol) and genuinely puts in effort but in some parts of the movie it seems like he just acts as himself(the loud talking, quick witted and often erratic roles Mark Wahlberg is known for) and that might rub some fans the wrong way, I wouldn't say he was miscast but it was jarring to see but his saving grace was the chemistry with him and Tom Holland as Sully and Nathan was charming and very good and captured their banter and mirrored their relationship in the games quite a bit. Antonio Banderas although it is a joy to see him on screen he plays your generic bad guy who has Daddy issues and kills without a thought and that was disappointing so see, also Tati Gabrielle who played another villain showed some signs of being a badass was just another generic bad guy weak motivations. Also, Sophia Ali as Chloe was decent and she worked well with Tom and Mark.

The Story is nothing special as it's your typical adventure/treasure hunt but the games were really never known for their storytelling but its unique characters, set pieces and epic action-adventure and although the movie isn't perfect in hitting all those notes it does do a good job of capturing the set pieces and adventure aspect of the games to a decent amount and you can see Sony did their homework and put some care into this project and it's quite entertaining to watch on screen. Although predictable at times, especially some of the twists and turns that the movie tries but you could see from a mile away it had heart to the story as you follow Nate's journey and his motivation to find treasure and his lost brother. Even though it does hit some of the same notes from adventure movies you've seen before I was entertained still cause of the characters mostly Nathan and Sully, the humor was actually pretty well balanced and not forced and funny for the most part. The visual effects and CGI were spot on I mean Sony rarely disappoints on the visual effects on its high-budget movies. The pacing, for the most part, was decent was well balanced but at times it felt kinda slow but it wasn't a major problem and the action was decent and there were some memorable stunts too especially from Tom Holland's action set-pieces as Nathan Drake, especially in the third act was enjoyable and high energy and some pretty decent nods and references to the games too.

So as I stated Uncharted at the end of the day is not the Perfect video game adaption that will blow everyone's mind but considering the low amount of good video game movies I'm glad this is a decent movie that I rather enjoyed from the performances from Tom Holland and his chemistry with Mark Wahlberg as Nathan and Sully, the humor and mostly entertaining action and set pieces. Although generic at times this is a success for Sony and a step in the right direction for the future of Video Game Movie adaptions.