'Uncharted': Fun, mindless videogame adaptation that charts its own course

Mark Wahlberg stars as Victor “Sully” Sullivan and Tom Holland is Nathan Drake in Columbia Pictures' UNCHARTED. Photo by: Clay Enos

Uncharted

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Cast: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle and Antonio Banderas.

Take the fun but illogical treasure hunting of National Treasure, throw in some superhero stardust from Tom Holland, sprinkle some outrageous ludicrosity from the Fast And Furious franchise, and voila! You’ve got Uncharted.

Based on the hit adventure game franchise of the same name by game developers Naughty Boy, Uncharted follows the adventures of Nathan Drake (Holland), who is roped in by treasure hunter Michael ‘Sully’ Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to search for the legendary gold treasure from the expedition led by 16th century explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Along the way, they cross paths with Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), head of a powerful family that believes that treasure belongs to them, and his henchman, mercenary Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle).

Eat your heart out, Jackie Chan!

To paraphrase a quote from Holland’s OTHER big role, with great video games come not-so-great movie adaptations. Until fairly recently, this used to be true of all video game adaptations, and even then, 2020’s Sonic The Hedgehog is arguably the exception rather than the new normal in the genre (We’ve seen patchy adaptations of Mortal Kombat and Monster Hunter released since then).

Uncharted falls somewhere in the middle of it all – a fun, entertaining movie that somehow lacks the adventurous spirit of the game. While it’s great fun watching Holland and co running around dodging bullets, some of the puzzles and riddles seem a little too simplistic and improbable, even with a healthy suspension of belief. Like, really, in this era of modern technology and infrastructure, no one noticed that an open grate in the middle of Barcelona leads into a hidden treasure chamber?

This year's Olympic torch run left a lot to be desired.

Put aside these niggling details, however, and Uncharted is actually not a bad way to spend 116 minutes of your time. It’s fun, mindless entertainment that is elevated by some decent chemistry between Wahlberg and Holland (who tries but can’t quite shake off the schoolboy naivety of Peter Parker), with some genuinely exciting action sequences to boot (that bombastic finale alone should float the boat of fans of the Fast and Furious franchise).

If you’re a fan of the video game, you’ll enjoy the recreation of the game’s iconic airplane crates scene, but will probably wonder why the rest of the movie seems so listless compared to the game. To be fair, however, if you wanted something exactly like the game, you might as well just play the darn game.

Ultimately, it is probably best to approach Uncharted not as a video game movie, but more of an adventure treasure hunting movie in the vein of National Treasure. It may not be anywhere near the likes of Indiana Jones, but at least it manages to chart its own course.