REVIEW: Uncharted Plays Out Like A Video Game

Based on the hit video game series created by Amy Hennig, Uncharted is one what would describe as a prequel to the game series. Viewers are introduced to young Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) working as a bartender when he is recruited by treasure hunter, Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Walhberg) to help him track down the treasure of the Magellan expedition. An expedition Nathan and his brother, Sam (Rudy Pankow) had studied and dreamed about searching for since they were young boys. With his brother, Sam long gone, Nathan agrees to help. But what starts off as a simple grab and run mission, turns into a world wind adventure that will find Nathan attempting to avoid the bad guys, Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), whilst trying to uncover the treasure before it’s too late.

If there was an easy way to describe this movie, it would be that it plays out exactly like a video game. Each character, and storyline, introduced is used to help Nathan get to the next level of the “game”. That’s it. There isn’t much in the way of elaborate storytelling nor was there any room for relationship development between the characters. The focus was solely on telling the treasure hunt. Which one what hand made for an extremely quick film, but also a shame at the same time. More development between Holland’s Drake and Walberg’s Sully would have been a wonderful things to see. There was so much potential to craft a real bong between the two, but the writers opted to stick with the overall story, Though, even with the lack of relationship development, writers, Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway manage to keep the story entertaining from start to finish.

Holland leads the cast as Nathan Drake and does a great job portraying the charming lead character. He brings a perfect sense of mischief and inexperience to the character, especially when he is going up against the bad guys. It was also particularly entertaining to watch him show off his gymnastic skills in something other than his Spider-Man movies.

Walberg was also a nice addition to the movie as Nathan’s pseudo partner, Sully. The two really worked well together. Whether it be one liners between the two or their nonverbals, their chemistry was much needed in the movie. The two are joined on their treasure hunting adventure by Sophia Ali as fellow treasure hunter, Chloe Frazer. Ali does well alongside Holland and Walhberg, but I didn’t think she needed to be introduced so soon into the series. Her character is one of the only other single player characters in the series, so I wish they had done a tad bit more with her character. Fingers crossed, a sequel will get greenlighted and we can learn more about her character.

Gabrielle and Banderas round out the cast as our villains. I wasn’t a huge fan of Gabrielle’s performance because I felt like I was watching her play her Chilling Adventures of Sabrina character, Prudence, all over again while Banderas wasn’t in enough scenes for me to really make a decision on his performance.

There are two end credit scenes, so make sure to stick around until the end. As someone who has never played the game, I can’t tell you if gamers will enjoy the movie, but I can tell you that if you liked National Treasure of the Indiana Jones series, you will be in for a fun time.

Grade: B+