With the recent success of video game adaptations to film, such as “Rampage” (2018), “Detective Pikachu” (2019) and “Sonic the Hedgehog” (2020), it makes sense that we would get an adaptation of a series famous for action sequences that have been said to rival those of film: the “Uncharted” series.
To those unfamiliar, the “Uncharted” series is a collection of four games developed by Naughty Dog for PlayStation consoles. These games follow avid adventurer and treasure hunter Nathan Drake and his mentor Sully as they embark on quests to find various historical treasures.
The new “Uncharted” film, directed by Ruben Fleischer (known for “Zombieland” and “Venom”), follows the same sort of basic premise, although it also acts as a sort of origin story, as it shows the first meeting and adventure of Drake (Tom Holland) and Sully (Mark Wahlberg). They also have to face a number of different people that also want their hands on the treasure, played by Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali and Tati Gabrielle.
While I can definitely buy Wahlberg filling the role of Sully, I’m still not the biggest fan of the choice to cast Holland as Nathan Drake. Drake is in his early 30s at the start of the games, with his age only going up as the series goes on. Holland is only 25 years old, and even with the context of this film as an origin story, Hollywood has been passing Holland off as a teenager for pretty much his entire career. Even this film has characters referring to him as “kid,” which can be a bit distracting to those familiar with the games.
Still, the reason that many people will be going to see this film is the high-octane action sequences. One example is the sequence with Drake dangling out of a cargo plane mid-flight used in all of the marketing material, which comes straight from a sequence in “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.”
The action scenes are definitely fun, and the film is nice enough to have more than just this singular creative action set piece to satisfy the audience. There is a similarly engaging action sequence at the film’s end, which, while original, still has the same spirit as others from the franchise.
The action isn’t the only thing adapted from the games. The other main staple of the series, the ancient ruin puzzle-solving, also plays a good part in how the characters go from one clue to the next in order to find the ancient treasure. These sequences are also in good faith to the originals and break up the action in an interesting way.
The film definitely draws a lot of inspiration from other treasure hunting action movies, such as “Indiana Jones” and the first few “Pirates of the Caribbean” films. I wouldn’t say that this film is anywhere near the level of those, as few films that attempt to replicate their magic are.
I think the sad part is, despite this film’s attempts, it’s facing the incredible uphill battle of trying to take the high-paced action sequences of the games, which are so beloved because the player gets to play through the action, and adapting it to a medium that doesn’t have the control that comes with video games.
Compared to the video game movies of the past, however, “Uncharted” is still a definite improvement. Although I personally wouldn’t put this on the same level as some recent video game movies, they’re definitely setting this up to be a major franchise, so there is an opportunity for Sony and Ruben Fleischer to improve upon this groundwork and make something truly great.
