Uncharted Movie Review: Tom Holland & Mark Wahlberg's Action Adventure Comedy Lacks In All Three Elements

Available In: Theatres
Duration: 117 Minutes
Language: English

Plot: Based on an action-adventure game series of the same name, Uncharted follows street-smart Nathan Drake being recruited by seasoned treasure hunter, Victor "Sully" Sullivan. The two collaborate to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada.

Review: Uncharted helmed by Ruben Fleischer is a cinematic prequel to Nathan Drake's story from the video game series of the same name. The film explores how Nathan aka Nate played by Tom Holland, was involved in the world of thievery and treasure hunting. Ruben is known for action comedies like the Zombieland and Venom series, both of which were highly praised by vastly different groups of audiences, but Uncharted doesn't fit in either of them.

Uncharted dwells more on the actions than the screenplay or the dialogues, which could have saved the film from becoming hollow and bland. Even with actors like Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas leading, the film remains a mere shell of a story.

The opening scene begins with Nathan aka Tom Holland falling out of the place in the long sequence, which has already been released in the number of trailers released previously. A quick flashback then introduces us to Nathan and his brother Sam, who lost their parents at a young age. The treasure obsessed kids get caught while stealing a map and Sam runs away alone and never turns back. Nathan continues to grow up into a not so law-abiding citizen who does not want any trouble but will run towards it the first chance he gets.

Markers didn't take long to set the story since the characters haven't been fleshed out. One night working at a bar, Nathan is visited by treasure hunter Victor Sully Sullivan played by Mark Wahlberg. He ends up becoming the narrative plot device for the film that drives the story forward, explains the plan and still, someone remains off-screen most of the time. Mark even makes a remark saying he has a "bad back" and can't be caught running after people.

Sully and his actor Mark play safe for most of the film, leaving Tom to do all the hard work. Unfortunately, Tom just comes off as an unmasked version of Spider-Man. He just plays himself and the script gives him very little to explore.

Their plan is to complete Nathan's brother Sam's incomplete expedition to find "the biggest treasure that's never been found" which in this case is a lot of gold tucked away in some corner of the world on a lost ship. For action-adventure films like National Treasure and now Uncharted the part where the actors actually figure out the puzzles and riddles is the exciting part for the audience, but the most excitement Uncharted gives is when the water begins to fill up the tunnel and Sully can't find the right keyhole to open the door.

For an action-comedy, the film misses on the comedy with a few attempts that don't lane. And if put in the action-adventure genre, Uncharted still lacks on the adventure part. Writers Rafe Judkins, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway give bare minimum dialogues to all the male characters let alone the female ones, who showed up to be the back guys and to help Nathan establish his humanity, set him apart from every other evil treasure hunter. Clearly, the picturesque background and CGI flying ships are not enough to keep audience engaged for long.

Surprising the film's prop has more personality than any of the characters or the plot. From Nathan's lighter, ring to the cat that makes two appearances in the film ends up being more interesting thing in 117 minutes run time.

Overall, Uncharted is a hit and miss, just another attempt at a franchise chasing its predecessor's success like the 2000s films- National Treasure, Tomb Raider. Instead, something like Netflix's Red Notice may turn out to be a better watch- or even a better re-watch than Uncharted.