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| Images courtesy Sony Pictures |
The film which stars Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg and Sophia Ali is just another mark on another long line of poorly conceived video game to film transitions that truly fail to live up to the expectations of gamers and film fans alike. Instead of recreating the highly adventurous spirit of its namesake, this Uncharted film is a soulless endeavor that never lives up to the highlights of the stories it's so inspired by. And to top it off, it doesn't even come close to the writing or spirited nature of the games that have inspired this repetitious, CGI loaded movie that does nothing to advance the franchise.
Serving up an Indiana Jones-lite style script that has zero heart, a bad casting choice in Tom Holland sets the stage for an adventure about lost gold. Holland's Nathan Drake is much too young and far too green to carry the story and is a purely unnatural fit for the script as a whole. Playing the support role is Wahlberg as Victor Sullivan. With Uncharted, Wahlberg is slipping back several notches and just seems bored with the character. This is just another in a string of paycheck parts for the actor that don't push him beyond his limitations, making it another mediocre (at best) portrayal. Picking up the female bit of the team is Ali as Chloe Frazier who just does a poor job overall playing the Bond-girl-esque part of the team.
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Uncharted is a symptom of a studio that really just wanted to cash in on a popular title. Holland is way too young to play Drake. And the story is so very basic, it's hard to latch on to or to feel any attachment to the characters or story. It's baseline storytelling that's been done a million times in other far greater games or adaptations like Tomb Raider, Indiana Jones, or numerous movies about long lost or buried treasure. The real problems lie in a derivative script that has no heartbeat and never feels like the characters have any momentum. So many story beats are borrowed that it becomes old hat within minutes of the opening frame.
Like most movies in this genre, we're expected to leave realism at the door. But in a movie that takes place in the real world, some of the action sequences are just far too implausible and look way too computer generated to believe in the slightest. Unfortunately for Holland, after his latest Spider-Man global hit, Uncharted will leave a negative mark on his career. This is the doldrums of February releases and Uncharted takes the cake for being nothing but passive entertainment at best.
The entire Uncharted mythology is slighted by an underdeveloped film that lacks the heart of the gaming series.
-CG