Cast all dream casting aside for this one, as bankable manchild Tom Holland brings Nathan Drake to life with this adaptation. The film is meant to serve as an origin story, that isn't uncharted territory for the games, also it does play fast and loose with some from the established lore. Such as the games eventually told us, Nate and Sam Drake was raised in St. Francis' Boys Home and spend their nights waxing lyrical over being treasure seekers. After being caught attempting to steal the map Magellan accustomed to chart his course around the globe, Sam leaves after a fleeting farewell along with a promise that he'll come back.
Fifteen years later, the film's Drake, a flamboyant bartender, uses the gig like a cover being a quite literal thief. He's caught in the act by Mark Wahlberg's Victor “Sully” Sullivan, who forces a regularly apt Holland down to his level with a performance that I'd call “better than The Happening, a minimum of.” Wahlberg seems like a stand-in whenever Holland attempts to enhance the emotional stakes, it's just fortunate that his comedic chops make this interpretation of Sully a pleasurable one at least.
From here, the pair concoct a scheme to fulfil Drake's lifelong obsession to finish his brother's work to uncover Magellan's lost treasure which, despite being lost for hundreds of years, may be the present obsession from the film's bloodthirsty, yet colourless, villains. It's all regulated a little silly, but ultimately the core idea wouldn't be unnatural in Uncharted, it's through its utilisation of the characters-the game's absolute strength-that it falls over.
Nathan Drake's identity happens to be ended within the fact that he's a supposed descendant of Sir Francis Drake, a fact that this film mentions once in the prologue. I feel like Nate using that 'lineage' as his ticket into this dangerous, almost self-destructive lifestyle made him an interesting character, while Holland's Drake is just a sad boy bartender whose main interesting character trait is that his brother hasn't written to him in years. Having said that, Holland's charisma is undoubtable even if I still prefer the original in Nolan North.
I always got the sense that Sully was more of a parent figure to Nate within the games. Despite their great on-screen chemistry, and the surprising gulf in their actual ages, Holland and Wahlberg take part in the relationship weight loss of a sibling relationship also it falls kind of flat understanding what we could have had. It came as a surprise to me that Sophia Ali wasn't Australian considering she pretty much nailed the accent and that her presence as Chloe, a real femme fatale within the games, would not feel unnatural on Ramsey St.
That said, a lot of goons would have died for the reason that third act. A lot.
I never was tired of Uncharted and the plot does barrel along at breakneck pace, whether or not the crypt-crawling, puzzle-solving second act felt just a little slower. It mightn't do much else using its source material, however it does look for a nice balance between the heist and adventure genres. With no little bit of base knowledge on who these people are-particularly Drake, Sully, and Chloe-the bevy of betrayals and backstabs is bound to be a bit dizzying, however the twists and turns are unlikely in the future as a surprise to the initiated.
In relation to fan service, the one thing I hoped for prior to seeing the film was for that game's instantly recognisable theme to be present. The two times it may sound throughout the film are suitably hype, I believe fans will be pleased. It stands as proof of the initial score's timelessness, as Ramin Djawadi's score falls flat otherwise.
As a game-to-film adaptation, Uncharted seems like it's at odds with who it's trying to attract. It seems like a large enough departure from what the games did right to push fans away, while it depends on callbacks and references to the point where, without a base understanding of the franchise, you’re going to find it hard to care.
