Uncharted (2022) - Film Review

Tom Holland is beginning to spread his webs outside of the Spider-Man franchise, ironically taking on another iconic character – this time in the video game industry. As some of you may already know, the Uncharted film adaptation has been in development hell for so long that Wahlberg (who was initially set to play Drake) is now playing a different character. Holland is attached to play a much younger version of Nathan Drake.

In this adaptation, Nathan Drake (Holland) and his wisecracking partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Wahlberg) embark on a dangerous quest to find the greatest treasure never found while also tracking clues that may lead to Nate's long-lost brother.

No, I went into this film with an open mind, especially since I only played a few games in the uncharted series. So I wasn’t as familiar with the characters as other moviegoers are. Yet, I couldn’t enjoy this film as much as I wanted to.

I don’t think Tom Holland was a good fit to play Nathan Drake, for starters. Holland still has a very innocent persona, and this role required a maturity that he couldn’t bring in his performance. Despite playing a character who is closer in age to him, Holland lacked the Artful Dodger charm they were trying to go for with this younger version of Nathan. I couldn’t buy Holland playing hustler who bartends on the side. Maybe this is because I can’t separate him from Peter Parker just yet, but I don’t think this was the right part for him even with that in mind.

The same can be said for Mark Wahlberg and how he played Sully’s character. He lacked any real stage presence and was really one-dimensional in playing this character. He lacked the chemistry with Holland, especially as their relationship was critical to this film in particular.

Director Ruben Fleischer does provide some truly lovely visuals, and the style is stunning. More so than the two leads, the problem with this production was the writing.

During the opening credits, I noticed three writers wrote the screenplay, which would explain the lack of direction plot-wise. Despite having a fountain of source material to work off with the games, the screenwriters produced a very generic, one-note screenplay full of tropes.

There was an uncomfortable level of Hollywood action vibes, as in they were thriving to hit dramatic beats expected within this genre. There were even moments where the dialogue came across as unnatural, and like the characters knew, there was an audience watching them.

This, coupled with the casting choice of the two leads, made the film an uneventful viewing experience. There were some good aspects of this film, especially with Sophia Ali as Chloe Frazer and Tati Gabrielle as Jo Braddock - both actresses gave strong performances throughout.

As Santiago Moncada, the ruthless treasure hunter was Antonio Banderas was one of the most cliche characters I’ve seen on screen. His evil mastermind villain character was very cliche. He had all the familiar angst that was to be expected from that role.

The result, this was a very vapid and shallow film. which is a shame because there was so much potential that could be explored with this character and universe from a cinematic perspective.

However, this came across as a popcorn flick more than a cinematic franchise that I could see expanding across multiple films. Casting Holland and watching his character grow and mature had the potential for several films if only the writing met fans’ expectations.

With this film now, I will be genuinely surprised if a sequel gets confirmed.

My rating for Uncharted is ★★½.