REVIEW #144 Uncharted (2022)

Uncharted is the latest video game adaptation to hit cinemas and it is directed by Ruben Fleischer. Nathan Drake teams up with Victor ‘Scully’ Sullivan to find the largest treasure never found. Sully is in it for the gold but Drake hopes to find his long lost older brother.

CAST & THE ACTING 

The best part of the film for me is definitely the chemistry between Tom Holland, who plays Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg, who plays Scully. They are constantly bouncing off each other throughout the entire film and portray a strong brother like bond which injects a lot of humour into the storyline. I must also credit Holland’s acrobatic skill, just like Spider-Man, his versatility makes the action sequences very exciting to watch. However beyond the humour and impressive action sequences, the acting itself is pretty average. There are a few scenes where Holland has to show emotion but for the most part it’s just your typical action film performances. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, you would expect that from a film like this so I can’t really criticise it for that. Antonio Banderas plays a rather cliche antagonist, easily forgettable and a performance we’ve seen so many times before. 

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

I have never played the Uncharted games so I went into it with a clean slate, without expectations of it living up to its game counterpart. This meant that it was pretty easy to just sit back and enjoy a classic ‘hunt for the lost treasure’ plot. Surprisingly Holland’s character Drake had a lot of character development, the brief flashback scene provided a big insight into his psyche and delivered some much needed context for the character. The relationship between him and Scully was a nice sub plot that the audience could really buy into and that was helped by the great chemistry between the two actors. There is a lot of things in the film that questions the laws of physics and is a bit laughable at times but it didn’t quite reach Fast and Furious 9 stupid, so you can look past that! Overall it was just a fun storyline that you don’t have to put any thought into, which was nice. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

With a budget of £120 million I would say the special effects were pretty average, pretty noticeable at times. They made the falling out of the plane scene one of the centrepieces of the film but the blue screen was pretty obvious. Other than that the director wanted to use old style sets and on location shoots, which really paid off! There was a lot of nice locations used, from Barcelona to the Philippines and if you’ve read a lot of my reviews you should know by now I love a good bit of organic cinematography!  The action choreography was filmed really nicely which helped build up the excitement, Tom Holland’s acrobatic skill certainly helped with that too. So overall Uncharted performed pretty well in this category.

OVERALL (7/10)

I had a great time watching Uncharted, it was a perfectly enjoyable and fun film. The chemistry between Holland and Wahlberg was the best aspect and I hope we get a sequel to see the two work together again. The storyline was that of a classic Hollywood adventure film, perhaps that doesn’t allow for great acting performances but it certainly puts on a show for the audience. That being said, there are moments that get a bit silly but that’s what I expected going into it. I can’t compare it to the games because I haven’t played them but from a neutral perspective, I had fun! Would certainly recommend it and I don’t think it deserves the 48% rating on Rotten tomatoes at all. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan