It’s only been since the Marvel’s Spider-Man game on Playstation 4 that I’ve owned a Playstation, I was typically more of an Xbox person, however since Spider-Man I have been converted to the ways of Sony. Uncharted is one of those game series I’ve heard plenty about but haven’t got round to playing with myself spending too much time watching things. That being said I’ve always thought it would be a series I could get into at some point, and if there’s something this film does it’s remind me they exist and that I should get round to them at some point.
Uncharted stars Tom Holland as Nathan Drake, a street smart man who gets recruited by Sully (Mark Wahlberg) to recover gold left by pirates hundreds of years ago before a wealthy businessman, Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), gets his hands on the wealth.
Director Ruben Fleischer is an interesting choice to direct this one, he obviously has someone who likes him at Sony after directing Zombieland and Venom. I don’t know what it is about Sony but they seem to be the studio that still aren’t fully aware what makes a good film, they all have the same feeling, a similar tone. When I go into a Sony film, I know exactly what to expect where the story is going to go, what sort of jokes there is going to be, that it’s almost paint by numbers at this point, and I mean it works because they do make money (I’m not including Spider-Man because Marvel Studios have a big hand in that one and I firmly believe they would have spoiled the film if Kevin Feige didn’t step in and stop them). I’m still somewhat confused about the marketing not just for this film but in general, I understand it isn’t Sony themselves that make the trailers but to give them parts of a scene that is the mid credit scene for this film is idiotic, especially after such a hugely successful marketing campaign with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Tom Holland is the draw for this film, that’s not a lie. The power he has over the teenage audience is uncomparable and something we haven’t seen for a while, especially when he is riding of the top of one of the biggest films of all time a couple of months ago, a modern movie star who is nearly singlehandedly saving cinema, getting butts in seats. He was quite self critical about his performance in this film (something he spoke about in this interview with GQ) but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad performance, he does exactly what was needed, he does still feel too young to be playing a character that is at least 10 years older than he is, even if they have aged him down so they can get a franchise going.
Mark Wahlberg was obviously cast in an Uncharted film many years ago but has got slightly too old to play Nathan Drake, so gets the older Sully instead which he doesn’t feel suited towards, as a beefy bloke who seems to favour guns and basically being a spy instead of using his fists. It’s like seeing Dwayne Johnson only use a gun, it feels wrong.
The rest of the cast aren’t particularly anything to rave about, which matches how I feel about the film in general.
Overall, Uncharted is a simple, generic action film that’s okay, it’s not offensive. There’s some fun moments, but some jokes don’t land, some do, some fun action scenes but won’t go down as one of the best. But it will make a nice alternative to the families who try to take their children into The Batman but get turned away as it’s a 15.
What did you think of Uncharted?
Flooders Films 
Leave a comment