Uncharted review: Tom Holland’s video game movie double-crosses fans

Uncharted Nathan Drake is the protagonist of the Game Series. He owns a diamond he believes he got from Sir Francis Drake. It’s engraved “Sic Parvis Magna,” or “Greatness from small beginnings.” The game series reflected that motto, with the modest first installment spawning three direct sequels, each better than the last.

But that greatness isn’t reflected in the movie version of Uncharted. It’s a small beginning for a possible Sony film franchise, but yet another dud of a video game adaptation. There is a glimmer for a sequel in a second scene after credits. A sudden surge of chemistry between Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), and Victor Sullivan(Mark Wahlberg), is certain to leave people wondering where these lively line delivery have been the past two hours. It’s a moment when everything feels perfect about these characters, but that is too much.

The film’s entire length is described. Zombieland Venom Ruben Fleischer (helmer) and Rafe Judkins (screenwriter), Art Marcum (screenwriter), and Matt Holloway (screenwriter) ping-pong with as many franchise characters as they can fit into one origin story. The characters in the series are more concise and solid. Before the designers expanded their list and fleshed out their backstory, the Drake-and-Sully pair function as the thieving heart in the first installment. The series’ villains have never been interesting, but there’s some personality behind motives like seeking the Tree of Life to gain eternal youth, or magicians attempting to fracture Nathan and Sully’s deeply established friendship. The film version lacks that same verve.

Filmmaking feels as though different parts of the Uncharted formula were given to the filmmakers: sneaking about, solving puzzles, parkour and taking on larger than life action. It is difficult to alternate between the many characters in this fragmented story. Even without having to introduce so many characters the possibilities are endless. UnchartedStill, there are no stakes, real peril or thrilling twists to history.

Photo: Clay Enos/Sony Pictures

Some sequences of action are straight lifted from games. The most well-known is the cargo-plane fighter from Uncharted 3: Drake’s DeceptionNathan is free to fall into what appears like certain death. Fleischer and the writers find convenient ways to initiate the set piece — which in the games builds from a car chase in which the player jumps into the plane as it’s taking off on the runway — but in live-action it’s done with a blockbuster kitchen-sink method that can’t escalate the tension with so many characters in the mix. It’s admirable that they want to shake up the familiar elements, but there’s no weight or emotional gravitas to anything that happens. (Also, anyone who’s played these games knows nothing should come easy or convenient for Nathan Drake.)

Although the Uncharted films have not focused on real action, some scenes in the movie adaptation do go a little too far. (There’s some business with a sports car that would make Dominic Toretto blush with embarrassment.) It’s as if no one bothered to consider how cartoonish chaos would come across in the context of a two-hour movie that veers between serious and lighthearted. There’s no room for any spectacle to stand out, or for the characters to develop a rapport organically. Multiple fight sequences are cut quickly and placed in front of obvious green screens. That’s a particular disappointment, considering the four mainline Uncharted games consistently pushed the boundaries of what the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 could achieve graphically.

Worst, all the characters are lacking any dimension. In defense of Tom Holland, his basic movements — punching combos, climbing, and positioning behind objects when sneaking — are so carefully calibrated to his video game counterpart that when no one is speaking, and there is a moment of coherence in the action, it’s briefly thrilling to see Drake brought to life so efficiently on the silver screen. Even the way Nathan Drake and Sully disperse upon entering a Barcelona church to look for clues feels like it’s modeled after the games, with the audience in the action, searching alongside the characters.

The line readings seem forced from Sully’s first appearance at a New York bar, where Nathan is selling drinks and pickingpocketing customers. The script rarely gives them anything funny to say, which doesn’t help. Mark Wahlberg doesn’t even seem to be trying to replicate Sully, which makes it even stranger when he changes up his accent for one line to sound like him. The game’s version of the character is more of a sarcastic Bruce Campbell type than Marky Mark’s motormouth effusion. Wahlberg, even though Holland may sometimes seem like Nathan Drake’s decent counterpart, is always in the same frame as Holland to erase the illusion.

Photo: Clay Enos/Sony Pictures

Actors stepping into a video game adaptation don’t need to look or sound exactly like their digital counterparts. It doesn’t matter how they look or sound. UnchartedIt’s a movie about finding gold and likable characters. The problem is that it doesn’t. Sully is an even more greedy and selfish version that Nathan meets. He recruits Nathan for the task of finding lost gold on a doomed Ferdinand Magellan Expedition. Nathan is uninterested, until Sully mentions that he was trying to uncover the mystery with Nathan’s brother Sam, whom Nathan hasn’t seen since Sam ran away from the orphanage where they lived as children.

Nathan keeps some postcards Sam has sent Nathan over the years. This suggests that Sam still loves Nathan. (Besides, it wouldn’t be an Uncharted story without crumpled handwritten visual clues.) Sully claims that the last clue lies in the letters, so if the clues are followed, it could lead to the brothers’ reunion. With his hunger for the gold and Nathan’s for reconciliation intertwined, they join forces.

Nathan comes into their first DIY field mission as a rookie who fumbles his plans and hasn’t gotten down the basics of jumping and swinging yet. That sequence — inspired by Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End — stands out slightly, given the sense that Nathan is actually in danger. However, his faults and the risk of life or death disappear within seconds. His ability to excel at something is what the film demands.

Among the other game characters the film introduces, Sophia Ali manages the film’s best game-character mimicry as Sully’s partner in crime Chloe Frazer. Uncharted 2, Among Thieves implies Chloe and Nathan had a romantic past, but the movie doesn’t fill in any intriguing gaps, beyond how they met and how Nathan crushed on her. Instead, UnchartedAll these characters and clues are used to create a tale about trust. Although backstabbing is the main focus of this story, it serves only to maintain the flow. These thieves cannot trust one another, as is the case in Uncharted stories. However, there may be more betrayals and double-crosses in Uncharted than in the other 12-to-15-hour games.

Photo: Clay Enos/Sony Pictures

Hot on Drake and Sully’s tail is Antonio Banderas’ Santiago Moncada, the son of a wealthy businessman and descendent of the original Magellan expedition. Santiago sees himself as heir to the spoils and will stop at nothing to retrieve the fortune, especially since his father has no intentions of passing the family’s riches down to him. In a move that might be more unbelievable than all the action sequences combined, Santiago’s father is thinking about giving that wealth to the people as a means of taking accountability for the family’s tainted lineage. Santiago is determined to defeat the heroes and treasure and recruits Jo Braddock, a mercenary (Tati Gabrielle puts on a physically intimidating performance), to help him.

The filmmakers have the right idea of what makes an Uncharted action set piece, whether they’re molding a sequence after something from the games, or inventing something entirely new that would fit within one of them, like a bit involving characters battling inside pirate ships hoisted into the air by airplanes. However, the execution of this sequence is inexplicable, boring and inconsequential. It is not even possible to remix the UnchartedTheme during a dramatic shootout is padded with generic action music. This brings joy.

Nathan Drake’s observation that everyone is turning against each other is one of the few laughs in this movie. “Seems like it’s hard to keep a partner for long in this business,” he quips. This sounds like what his video game counterpart would have said. It is possible that some day film adaptations to video games won’t betray us. Instead of recognizing what gamers love, and failing to make the material exciting on the screen, they will put in little effort. Everybody here except Wahlberg wants to light a fire. But, just like the joke about Nathan not properly using his lighter, that spark never dies. Some things just aren’t destined for greatness.

UnchartedFebruary 18th, in theatres