Uncharted (2022) - SPOILER-FREE Review
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© Sony Pictures Releasing
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Written by: Rafe Judkins, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
Starring: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas
Runtime: 116 min
Synopsis: Street-smart thief Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune lost by Ferdinand Magellan 500 years ago. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs. If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world's oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate's long-lost brother...but only if they can learn to work together.
© Sony Pictures Releasing
Uncharted is yet another attempt from Hollywood to contradict the famous curse of videogame film adaptations. The recent past shows improvements, but it hasn't yet been possible to create a work truly acclaimed by all types of spectators. Personally, I think authors of opinion pieces about videogame movie adaptations should clarify if they really have knowledge of the original source material. As such, I confess that, despite Uncharted being constantly on my "list" of games to try, I've never played any of its versions. What I know about the franchise comes from what gamer friends told me, so I had at least a visual idea of what this adaptation by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland: Double Tap) would look like. Therefore, the following opinion has no bias regarding the videogames, not for good or bad.
I believe that addressing the much-debated curse is a reasonable basis for justifying much of the positives and negatives of Uncharted. Why does Hollywood have so much trouble adapting a videogame with tremendous success, praised by critics and the general public alike? There are several reasons for this, but the main one is the inconsistency in narrative decisions about what to translate directly to the big screen and what to leave aside. As in an adaptation from a book, not everything is possible to simply be transported to cinema as if it were a mere copy-paste.
In the case of Uncharted, the biggest problem lies in the feeling that the film would be much more exciting and interesting if the viewers were actually controlling the characters and deciphering the clues left by the story themselves. The first two acts are extremely focused on exposition and "detective work" that quickly becomes tiresome and repetitive while viewing, whereas if there was a joystick and the audience had to think to move the plot forward, everything would be much more captivating and engaging. Thus, the lack of energy and entertainment wears down the viewers who reach the third act with little desire to see the final resolution.
© Sony Pictures Releasing
Subsequently, another negative point emerges: the screenplay suffers immensely due to the lack of surprises. From the narrative itself to the character arcs, everything and everyone follows well-known formulas in which nothing has a real impact, leaving viewers with their mouths open more from yawning than stupefaction. Adding inconsistent secondary characters who don't even get a full arc - poor Antonio Banderas (Dolittle) and Sophia Ali (Truth or Dare) - only further alienates the audience that wants so much to get carried away by the world of Uncharted. The incessant backstabbing on the part of these characters and the constant changes of the main villain also become incredibly frustrating and irritating.
A more divisive reason for the failure of this type of adaptation has to do with the visual effects. For example, Uncharted starts right in the middle of an action sequence - which then continues in the third act, an artistic decision that I admit I was never a big fan of - where the visuals switch between classic CGI and a more "videogamy" rendering. Here, there's always the question of whether the intention to make the actors look like videogame characters is a choice made by the filmmakers and the VFX artists or if the budget wasn't really enough to offer more realism. Given the overall action of the movie, I prefer to believe in the first option.
Honestly, I think it's unfair and too superficial to denigrate a cinematic work due to small moments where the visuals might fail compared to other sequences. Anyone walking into a theater to watch Uncharted anticipating realistic action that complies with the laws of physics and logic is undoubtedly preparing to leave disappointed. There's a lot of entertainment in the last act, but it's a shame that an action-adventure flick saves pretty much all of its action and adventure for the last thirty minutes. In fact, Fleischer delivers a simultaneously extraordinary and absurd set piece in the end that, at least, offers a somewhat rewarding sensation, as if the time spent until then was worth the effort. Unfortunately, it doesn't pay off as much as it should.
© Sony Pictures Releasing
Even so, it's essential to appreciate the stunts performed, the vast majority of which being done by Tom Holland (Spider-Man: No Way Home) himself. Obviously, the actor brings a lot of fans of the superhero genre to the theater, but he continuously demonstrates that he's more than a mere spiderling. I believe Holland has the potential to lead a new action saga over the next decade. His chemistry with Mark Wahlberg (Infinite) is surprising, and their character arcs are the only ones worth the emotional investment on the part of the audience. Once again, I repeat that I hold no previous experience with the videogames, but the references and visual details are so explicit that even theoretically unknown cameos become evident.
One last note about this point. There are more situations in which I find myself on the side where references to the original source make viewings more pleasant than on the other. It has happened before in Tomb Raider and in Sonic the Hedgehog, but by mere chance, Uncharted isn't part of my gaming knowledge. I enjoyed some adaptations more than others, but one thing is certain: it wasn't the little touches that warrant a smile here and there that illuminated the works I enjoyed the most, in the same way that they aren't enough to save eventual disasters.
© Sony Pictures Releasing
Final Thoughts
Uncharted is an action-adventure flick, but despite a more entertaining last act, it fails to break the curse of videogame film adaptations due precisely to the lack of said action and adventure. Even though Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg offer good performances, as well as convincing arcs by the two protagonists, Ruben Fleischer delivers an extremely generic and formulaic narrative based on endless exposition. Additionally, the secondary characters become irrelevant due to the irritatingly repetitive betrayals and constant shifts of the true antagonist. In the end, the general feeling is that it would be much more interesting to be controlling the characters than simply watching them. It may be enough for fans of the franchise, but for the average moviegoer, it's "just one more".
