Film Review: Uncharted

 Genre: Action / adveture

Cert: 12A

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Screenwriter: (written by) Rafe Judkins, (screenplay by) Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Starring: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Steven Waddington, Pingi Moli, Tiernan Jones, Rudy Pankow, Jesús Evita, Georgia Goodman, Diarmaid Murtagh, Joseph Balderrama, Serena Posadino, Alana Boden, Jonathan Failla, Anthony Thomas, Peter Seaton-Clark 

Running time: 1h 56m

Parents advised reading before viewing the film as some scenes may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity: None

Violence & Gore: Few people fell to the death, few fight scene

Profanity: One use of the F word, most mild on others

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: There was a few time the main character was drinking

Frightening/Intense Scenes: None

Story: Street-smart Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs. If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world's oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate's long-lost brother...but only if they can learn to work together.

Likes: Uncharted Movie is it any good? Not really, especially if you're a gamer that has actually played all the uncharted games, you will recognize that this film is absolutely nothing like the games. Yes, the film does have one moment that is actually taken from uncharted 3 which I have no idea why it was put in the first film but ok. With a film being in development hell, after watching this film, I can see key issues that let this film down a lot.

As a non-gamer like someone that knows nothing about the story of the game or ever played the game I would say yes, you might enjoy the film for what it is, but for gamers, I do feel that they will walk away from it a little disappointed.

There are elements of casting that are Questionable, where there is good cast casting like Sophia Ali playing Chloe Frazer who actually looks like the character from the game, Tati Gabrielle playing Braddock which again is close to her game character, while I say Tom Holland as Nathon drake, I will admit for a young drake he can pull it off quite well, but he needs to have more Scarcasm in his portal despite the first game drake was a little older.  

Mark Wahlberg as sully, I'm sorry he is a good actor, but he is really bad casting in this film, whoever wrote his the character for this character needs to go play the games because this portrayal of sully just wasn't victor sully at all, Sully character is an old man very laid back with sarcastic humor, Mark portrayal in the film was more of an asshole throughout the whole movie which isn't sully at all.  

Antonio Banderas is the Antagonist villain of the film playing Santiago Moncada who would have been a great villain for Nathon drake to battle at the end, but I feel this film did his character dirty by a very questionable direction choice. 

So at best I found this film very mediocre but watchable. 

Dislikes: WAtching this film, I noticed with a 2hr film, this film started off great but then went downhill by the second and third act, with questionable choice direction changes which I feel ruin this film. 

1. The main antagonist Santiago Moncada ( Antonio Banderas) would have been a great villain throughout the whole film and could've given the audience a great game scene Battle with a duel fight in the pirate ships, instead of the direction of the film toward the 2nd half changes this for a very stupid choice change which I feel ruin the films ending.

2. Casting for Sully despite Mark Walhberg being a good actor was just bad casting, this role should have gone to steven lang or someone like him, the role of victor sully would have come across better on screen.

3. The film was very painted by numbers like it was too easy to find the gold paint by numbers, like they found two clues and found the direct route the gold, instead of having a goonies style adventure of having to solve puzzle and death trap to get to the gold, which real pirates would have done. Saying that would have been able to fit that in the film would be lazying thinking. 

4. The film felt way too short for this type of story, it lacked the adventure side of it which was sad because the film could've been a lot better. 

5. I did Feel that Tom holland was ok as a younger Drake but it lacked the sarcasm Nathon drake has in the game.

6. They kind of woke the film a bit towards the second and third act, which was a bad direction move to make because it ruin the flow of the film, which is down to many cooks in the kitchen writing.

7. The fight scene we're bad, too many cuts like it was fight cut, fight cut, and fight cut, it just made the fight scene look bad. 


This alone is why this Uncharted movie is Mediocre and could have been ten times better written, to give us a film close to the game, at best this was put down to bad direction decisions, bad casting, and bad direction in the film. 

Overall: Non-gamers might like this film, but gamers might walk away disappointed. 

Rating: 3 out of 5 Entertainment / 7 out of 10 for game adaption, could've been better.