Uncharted Review

 

Certificate: 12A

Running time: 116 minutes 

Starring: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Tati Gabrielle, Sophia Ali, Antonio Banderas

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer

The story: Young, street smart Nathan Drake is drawn into a quest to search for fabled treasure in the hopes that it will lead him to his lost brother.

The verdict: Naturally with any type of adaptation, cinema goers are going to fall into one of two categories - you are either familiar with the source material or not. In this case, Uncharted is based on the popular PlayStation game and fans of the game will undoubtedly receive this film completely differently from those unfamiliar with it. For example, there is a certain cameo in the film that was obviously supposed to be quite a significant moment but was lost on me until I looked it up later. This aside, Uncharted is very accessible for the uninitiated and isn’t hard to follow for newcomers.

Uncharted is immediately engaging and this is largely thanks to Tom Holland who couldn’t be a more likeable screen presence if he tried. He is soon joined by Mark Wahlberg and Sophia Ali in the proceedings, the treasure hunting team is formed and the quest begins. Films such as National Treasure, Indiana Jones and The Goonies set the tone here and there is definitely fun to be had as the film provides clues and booby traps aplenty. 

As can be expected, Uncharted is a big action CGI fest. Though the action sequences are enjoyable for the most part, they’re let down by two elements. Firstly, the use of a stunt double is pretty easy to spot, which isn’t necessarily a massive issue (we don’t really expect Holland to have to perform all his own stunts), but similarly it felt like it shouldn’t be quite so obvious in a big budget film. The other problem with the big action sequences is that I did feel like I’d already seen them - the perhaps ‘main’ big sequence is not only repeated twice in the film but was also in the trailer. Therein lies another problem - Uncharted does unfortunately suffer a bit from trailer syndrome and the audience has seen a lot of the best moments already.

Uncharted is also let down slightly by its villains. More cookie cutter than contemptible, it doesn’t feel like there is much more to them than a caveman like mentality of “shiny stuff good so we bad.” Though Tati Gabrielle kicks plenty of ass, it all feels a bit surface level.

With all that being said, Uncharted does deliver in a lot of ways. It’s engaging throughout, never boring and funnier than I was expecting. Though it has its issues, somehow they never irk so much as to spoil the enjoyment. Uncharted is exactly the sort of film that will get audiences into cinemas - it’s full of action with a loveable lead and a wide appeal. There are not really any barriers to enjoying Uncharted and I suspect that those who take the most umbridge with it, will be those who feel that it is not loyal enough to its source material. 

Uncharted may not be a film to rave about, but I would be lying if I wasn’t entertained and engaged throughout. By the end, I felt that I would actually quite like to watch a sequel and certainly there is the material for one (not least with two teaser mid-credit scenes).

The rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half