Uncharted Review

With Uncharted being yet another movie based off a video game (The Uncharted series of games by Naughty Dog for Sony's Playstations consoles), we went into the theatre slightly apprehensive. The result was the smallest possible degree of pleasant surprise.

If you're wondering why the very first paragraph was a succinct summary, it's because we tried to follow the path set by the video game series, which wears its heart on its sleeves and throws the most ludicrous of events at the player with a passion that makes it all feel real and enjoyable. The aforementioned pleasant surprise is that the Uncharted movie largely manages to capture that essence.

Paying tribute to Indiana Jones, with Raiders Of The Lost Ark being his favourite film of all time, director Ruben Flesicher deploys every trick in the book of treasure-hunting action adventures to bring this ambitious video game adaptation to life.

Young orphan Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is separated from his big brother Samuel at the Saint Francis' Boy's Home, after the latter gets caught in a heist and escapes, and the only contact between them are postcards that the elder brother posts. Ten years later, Nate is a bartender/pickpocket who gets approached by Victor "Sully" Sullivan, an experienced treasure seeker and an old associate of Sam, who makes him an "offer of a lifetime", with chances of being reunited with his brother.

He is joined by Sully's contact in Barcelona and gets in touch with Sully's contact Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) as they work to outrun the ambitious heir to the Moncada fortune, Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas). A battle of wits ensues, as Drake and his associates try to stay one step ahead of Moncada and Sully's old colleague, ruthless mercenary Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle).

Uncharted is chock full of every trope-y setup, has a fairly predictable plot, and offers little in terms of innovation from standard Hollywood fare. But by God, it is entertaining stuff - fast-paced and all action! The film is not directly an adaptation of any single game from the Uncharted series, but it has the plot points of quite a few of them.

The movie doesn't take itself seriously, in a good way, and makes plenty of references to the games and to other past films in this genre. The casting is also a part of the positive surprise, with the chemistry between the lead characters being unexpectedly good. The camera looks lush and colourful, going to breathtaking locales such as Barcelona, Valencia and scenic islands in the Philippines. The stunt team is fantastic, with the much-touted opening sequence being every bit as fun as advertised - Drake fights his way out astride jettisoned cargo crates and sports cars from a cargo plane!

It does lose the charm a bit due to modern CGI, we must concede, because everything feels effortless, and we preemptively know that the stakes were never high to begin with. Don't get us wrong - the CGI is perfectly polished and believable. But that's the issue in itself (and due to no fault of the movie, it's just a general trend) - it is almost too perfect. Everything falls into place a bit too easily, as Drake and co fight, hide and run their way to the most impressive treasure ever found.

Finally, Uncharted sets up for a sequel, another consistent feature in modern movies, and is symbolic of larger scale issues regarding the direction the film industry is going and of how we, as an audience, consume cinema.

Tom Holland deserves high praise, making you forget that this was the 'Spiderman guy'. While Holland is a younger Nathan Drake than most video game fans expected, the script lets him do his thing and showcases everything while at it. Mark Wahlberg was apparently recruited to play Drake almost a decade ago when the film was first conceptualised, and feels a bit plastic as the wisecracking mentor Sully. However, the back-and-forth chemistry of the duo more than makes us for it.

Sophia Ali is sadly only rarely meant to be anything other than being easy on the eyes - but she plays the badass female lead with aplomb (whenever the script allows her to). Antonio Banderas' character is the one surprise of the film, though he doesn't have much to do as the villain. Tati Gabrielle unfortunately doesn't look as menacing as the movie may have hoped she would be, with her crew and her feeling a bit farcical.

Ramin Djawadi's music is upbeat and fun, and a perfect accompaniment to the frenetic action. The Game Of Thrones composer handles a more laidback score than the epic notes you would normally associate him with, with equal ease.

Uncharted expects a certain suspension of disbelief as things always go according to plan. But it is spectacular fun while at it, and at no point does it drag on. An easy recommend, especially to people that don't expect high cinema.