You may or may not have played the game, but Uncharted caters to all kinds of audiences, the ones who loved the game, and those who had no clue there was one. It reminds the audience of the time when Indiana Jones had decent adventures, and when reading a map was considered art. With Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg sharing the screen, the film adaptation of the PlayStation game becomes huge, and the execution doesn’t disappoint either.
The film revolves around the young Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) who turned to petty crimes after losing his elder brother Sam at an early age. Both the brothers were fascinated with the lost Magellan treasure, so when a mysterious adventurer Sully (Mark Wahlberg) contacts Nathan to help him find the treasure, he couldn’t resist. The catch for Nathan was a chance to meet his brother, while for Sully, it was a chance to finally score big.
The adventure does take them to different corners of the world, but others also follow them, with their own motives. There is Antonio Banderas’ Santiago Moncada who wants to reclaim the treasure he believes belongs to his family; Tati Gabrielle’s Jo Braddock is his lieutenant and shares a history with Sully; while Sophia Ali’s Chloe Frazer doesn’t trust anyone, and that’s why is on her own to win the race to the finish line. Whoever wins the race, the dynamic duo and the audience will have a face-off with treasure seekers, life-threatening dangers, and friends who might be the enemy, making everyone untrustworthy.
The reason why Uncharted looks better than many of the recently-released films is that it takes the audience on a ride, instead of taking them for granted. The focus is on entertaining the viewers than bringing the game to the screen and that’s what makes it a smartly-directed flick. It begins with a gigantic action sequence, concludes with one, and gives the audience the value of their money. There are enough twists and turns in the movie to keep the cine-goers on the edge of their seat, and they will leave the cinema once the mid-credit sequence is over. (Yes, there is one here as well!)
Although Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg are billed together as the main leads, it’s basically the younger man’s film, who at times give ‘Spider-man vibes’. He is riding high since the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home and with Uncharted, his graph is on the way up. He shows the world that even without superpowers he has the ability to do the unthinkable, and looks every bit the explorer video game enthusiasts imagined him to be. His chemistry with all the other characters is near perfect, for he looks a friend when the other person is reasonable, and unfriendly when the person in front of him isn’t.
As for Mark Wahlberg, most of his films feature him as either a partner in a dynamic duo or as someone on the mission to save the world. Here, he plays the former, and as Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan, confuses the audience who are unable to label him as the good guy, or the bad one. One must remember that before Tom Holland, it was the former New Kids on the Block rapper who was supposed to play Nathan Drake, but continuous delays in the production relegated him to the senior role and Tom Holland to the younger one.
Talking of seniors, Antonio Banderas seems to have been wasted as Santiago Moncada in the movie for he does nothing extraordinary. How can the makers use the man who played Zorro and voiced Puss in Boots and not give him the lines he actually excels at? The scene-stealer here is Sophia Ali who comes across as the female lead and gives both Tom Holland and Mark Walberg a run for their money. The actress of Pakistani descent plays Chloe Frazer, who likes Nathan but doesn’t trust Victor, and is the perfect match for the latter, who is neither on the right side of the law nor on the good side of his friends.
The weirdest character of the film was played by Tati Gabrielle who is Jo Braddock, who likes to taunt his enemies before beating them to death. She reminds of one of the 90s villains who thought that wearing weird would make the weird, but she remained secondary despite her few minutes of fame as the main antagonist. The rest of the actors have nothing else to do, except die on the screen in the grand finale, depending on whose side they were at that point in time.
Lack of tension may be the film’s weakest point, for despite falling into the water from a flying airplane, going through underground secret passages, or running on top of buildings, none of the characters end up injured, bruised, or even tired. Yes, the same thing has happened in Fast & Furious flicks as well, but it isn’t based on a PlayStation game. For an adaptation of a PlayStation game, Uncharted comes up as a happy-go-lucky adventure flick, which could hit the franchise hard in the future. The makers must realize that even Indiana Jones, the character Nathan Drake mentions onscreen, got injured in the line of duty.
