As videogame adaptations go, Uncharted is exactly what you expect: stereotypical fun punctuates a non-existent plot as action scenes are strung together by even more tiresome fights.
What if Indiana Jones wasn’t a historian trying to stop Nazis from achieving world dominance through holy relics, but rather a pickpocket with a geeky interest in lost treasure? Or what if Lara Croft wasn’t a rich relic hunter but a quippy petty thief, always looking for the next gold-fuelled adventure to fill their pockets?
That’s Nathan Drake, a surface level protagonist that is easy to love as he swings from one mythical landmark to the next, eyes peeled for the pot of gold at the end of the 16th century rainbow. He is the Nicolas Cage of this (Inter) National Treasure, travelling across the globe in the most stereotypical fashion, searching for shiny gold but only ever finding sparse dull nuggets.
Tom Holland is the young and extremely ripped Drake, a barman who makes a few quick extra bucks by lifting the odd wallet or bracelet from unsuspecting customers (but don’t worry, he isn’t evil, he only steals from rich snobs who totally deserve it!). Yet he dreams of a bigger haul, the lost treasure of Ferdinand Magellan that him and his brother could only dream of as kids. Coincidently, Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) is looking for just that, teaming up with the starry-eyed Nate to form one of modern gaming’s most iconic duos.
For the most part, Uncharted’s leap onto the silver screen is unwarranted and unneeded. A reimagining of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End mixed with sub-plots from the other games, the action-driven popcorn flick rarely punches above the mediocre expectations that other videogame adaptations have led us to believe, with a handful of memorable moments tucked away in between the waves of eye-candy fights and chases. These come in many sizes: a funny quip as Nate can’t understand a Scottish thug mid-fight, Nate’s charming innocence leading to his own downfall, Nate driving the action as he hangs onto a cargo plane without a parachute.
Nate is clearly the lead and the only interesting thing here. Holland is the essence of a young Drake, embodying the roguish hero but in a modern-day while Wahlberg struggles to get the ball rolling. On paper, there is a lot of chemistry between the pair as they tease and learn to trust each other, but in practice there is a chasm between the two, Wahlberg barely able to return the volley. Although it may be about the quest for pirate treasure, Uncharted is still a buddy action/comedy, yet the ‘buddy’ factor was left somewhere on the editing floor.
But shouldn’t this be a stand-alone experience, a film that stands apart from its origins? If a book is adapted, then it is unfair to constantly compare it to its source material, but Uncharted makes it extremely difficult to not contrast them. So many of the sequences are sloppily forced into the already bursting non-stop adrenaline rush, most directly lifted from the games, that it is impossible to not juxtapose the two mediums. What happened to the fun, to the writing, to the chemistry that made the franchise so famous? Why would I ever choose to watch an uncreative summary when the games have everything the film has… and everything it doesn’t.