With far too many background stories and explanations, Uncharted’s film adaptation fails to capture the magic of the original game, but its final third manages to make up for quite a few problems.
There are quite a few games that while you are playing them, you say “wow this could be a great movie”, such as Bioshock, The Last Of Us, Half Life, God Of War and Borderlands. But then there are games that are just already a movie, that has become a game, that can become a movie. Such is the exemplary Uncharted series of games that is all about a celebration of exaggerated stunts, adventures, stunning landscapes and entertaining characters. So as early as 2007 fans of the Naughty Dog series were waiting for someone to pick up the gauntlet, creating the film that would bring the adventures of treasure thief, Nathan Drake, directly to the mainstream. Just take the script of the first game, have fun with some proper editing, and you have a perfect blockbuster action movie with a taste of yesteryear.
But it is precisely Uncharted’s film, like most of the treasures that Drake finds in games, that feels cursed. During 14 (!!) years of film development, 8 (!) Different directors have been replaced, dozens of scripts have been shelved and only one Mark Wahlberg has stuck to his 2010 contract as epoxy glue. Now, in 2022, after the series of games is over, Uncharted is finally out. Was it worth waiting more than a decade?
Not familiar with the original games? It’s better that way
As much as Uncharted is a great and beloved game series, I believe 95% of those who go to see the new movie have never heard of the games, and it comes in completely clean. So let’s start with you: Uncharted actually begins the story of Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), a young bartender (I think at least that’s all he does) and a professional pickpocket who receives a tempting offer from Sally (Mark Wahlberg), an aging antiquities hunter with a mysterious connection Towards Nathan’s missing brother, Sam. Together they set out in search of a 500-year-old treasure worth billions, while at the same time, an evil wealthy collector (Antonio Banderas) wants to lay his hands on the treasure for his own reasons.
Even if we put aside the whole impression of the game series, Uncharted is not a “good” movie. Is an “almost good” movie and there are quite a few reasons for that: Uncharted violates one of the most important rules in the content world: Show, Don’t Tell. And this movie very, very much likes to tell everything. Characters like to point out the obvious here, and sometimes even describe things that will be seen in one whip as soon as the camera opens – word for word. Everyone says what they think, and nothing here remains for your imagination or interpretation – and that simply means that Uncharted is trying to reach the lowest common denominator, and make sure that even the last of the babies in the audience can understand everything that happened.
The other problem with the film, which is related to the same disease of the show, Don’t Tell, lies in the fact that Nathan Drake, as cute as Tom Holland is because he is Tom Holland, is simply completely impersonal. He has no charisma, he has no mischief, he does not even have any special voice or ambition. To fix this problem, Uncharted feels the need to tell us Nathan’s original story even though it has almost no relevance to the plot and he tells us nothing about the character.
Think for a moment about the first Indiana Jones (and yes, it’s clear that this is where the impact of the game series comes from). Did you have to hear Indi’s Origin Story in the premiere movie? No. Have you ever wondered why he became an antiquities researcher and really wanted to see the relationship with his family? No. And you know why? Because the rest of the movie was interesting enough to hold the movie. Indie’s personality jumps out of every scene because the film takes the trouble to show us his personality, rather than tell us details about it so that maybe something will catch us.
To some extent, Nathan’s personality is passed on to Sally for no apparent reason, that following contractual commitments, we’ll all be stuck with Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg has never been a good or graceful actor, but here he just feels like the wrong skin worn on a completely different character. Many of Sally and Nathan’s jokes suffer from old age that simply does not dress Wahlberg. I do not know how to tell you this, but Wahlberg is 50 years old, and although with the help of Hollywood charms he looks just as good and young as he did 10 years ago, the film treats him like he’s in his third year – and it just does not work here. The reason Wahlberg is here despite the blatant mismatch lies in the fact that he was cast more than a decade ago for the role of Drake – so it certainly could have been worse, but I would have liked to see an older, likable and mostly more successful actor than Wahlberg who would have stitched the story better and more interesting .
photo by: Clay Enos
The one who does a great job here is Sophia Eli as Chloe Fraser. Frazier is a young thief who hooks up with Sally and Drake and goes out with them for most of the journey. Wonder and wonder, the reason she’s an intriguing and interesting character more or less every moment she’s on screen, is that we do not waste time on her background story, but on the development of her character (to Azal, “Uncharted”. Why do you think I should hear and see the The background story of the generic evil of this movie?).
The last third is worth the wait
Although a lot of things do not work in it, Uncharted is an entertaining film of sane length (less than two hours! Cheers!), Which my main way of defining is: “A perfect flight film”. It’s from these movies that you’ll forget a minute after you leave the hall, and their more appropriate place is probably on Netflix, or as mentioned, in the airplane entertainment system. It has quite a few jokes that do not work, some jokes that do work, and enough fun action (without the rules of gravity) to keep you entertained. But now, Muggles, it’s time for the real wizards.
Game lovers are about to be shocked, but there is mourning
The reason the game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is so apt to become a movie, is that it’s all kind of a great tribute to the adventure movies we all grew up on. He did not bring an unusual story, but rather successful characters with wonderful lyrics and jaw-dropping action that made me jump off the couch in excitement. And the first Uncharted didn’t have to tell us the story of Drake becoming an antiquities thief, he just dropped us into the heart of the action and gave Nathan interesting enough characters who could play verbal ping-pong with each other to make us fall in love with them. That’s also what makes movies like Indiana Jones so iconic.
To some extent, Naughty Dog did the work here for Sony Studios, and all Sony had to do was take the script of the first game, and convert it to the big screen with some editing work, accurate casting work and enough successful effects. But over the past decade, it’s been pretty clear that no one is letting that happen, and the movie Uncharted feels like one big salad.
Photo by: Clay Enos
Game lovers will find that instead of focusing on one of the 4 successful stories of the previous games, here it was decided to make a smoothie of the best scenes from the last 3 games, with almost none performed well, and the real glue of the 4 games, which is the character of Helena (Drake’s real love ), Completely absent from the film. You have here the auction scene from the 4th game, the in-depth acquaintance with Chloe from the 2nd game, the relationship with Sam from the 4th game and of course the plane scene from the 3rd game – which will make the “Fast and the Furious” series look like a neo-realistic movie Compared to the science fiction that goes on here.
While this film insists on showing us every detail of Nathan’s past instead of throwing us straight into action, the games waited with the background story for Game 3 and 4, splitting the story of getting to know Sally (performed much smarter in the game) and the background story Of Sam (performed in a much smarter way in the game). So it’s true that games have a huge advantage over movies that lies in the fact that they last for a few hours and can tell a much more spacious story, but any salad made in this movie feels like a surrender of its creators who understand that there is almost no chance for sequels, so let’s throw away all the good stuff That this series has to offer for one film. Sometimes the film itself does not seem to believe in Drake’s motto: “Sic Parvis Magna”, or “Success from Small Beginnings”.
The movie’s Nathan Drake does not possess any of the Nathan Drake features you like from the game. He’s not funny, he’s not funny, he’s not charismatic and he’s mostly not cool in any way. There’s not the Wise-Ass Loveable Thief character who made him so beloved, and in fact he even has some almost unbearable moments at the beginning of the film and a lot of irrationality around his character: If you decided to show me every detail about his past, why do not you explain We know why a bartender needs to be so fit, an expert in parkour and also knows how to shoot a weapon – but also not be scared of corpses.
photo by: Clay Enos
The film does contain some pretty satisfying winks for those who played the games that made me smile (under the mask), and yet, in general, it is impossible not to be disappointed by the fact that the original material was so optimal for film adaptation, and that it was the result after so many years.
But, and this is a huge but. Then comes the final act of the film. From the moment the film returns to the airplane scene, pretty much all the background stories stop and we move on to the real thing that feels like what you expected from an Uncharted movie: the action is sweeping and more creative, the characters are more entertaining, the effects are better and even the game’s original melody Chosen for this movie, which sounds like the ninja turtle’s crossing). Once Tom Holland wears the wedding photographer accessory that is so characterized with Drake, it almost becomes what looks like the young Drake’s double. He climbs like him, fights like him, talks like him and just acts like the character we all love.
Even the after-credits scene gives a thousand times more personality and interest to the characters of Sally and Drake than all the first two thirds of the film, and makes you leave the hall with a big smile, but with a feeling of missing the question “Wait, why was it not the whole movie? “. Only when the film really dedicates itself to characters he barely built here and lets their actions define them, rather than their words or their background stories, then it feels like a real film and a reasonable tribute to what made the game series so memorable. I even feel a little more optimistic about the idea of a sequel where the characters are already at the point where we wanted to see them and that they could shine in it, but in resuscitation – just throw Mark Wahlberg and give us a worthy Sally. We deserve more.
A good old age
Born with a joystick in hand. He has far too many gadgets and far too little free time to play with them all. An unexplained hammer holder for calibrating device batteries. When he’s not busy writing about technology, he likes to talk about it, and a lot
