Directed By Ruben Fleischer

Starring – Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas

The Plot – Street-smart Nathan Drake (Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (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 (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.

Rated PG-13 for violence, action, and adult language

UNCHARTED – Official Trailer (HD) – YouTube

POSITIVES

For a film that doesn’t exactly pride itself on emulating the familiar elements about the games that made it an endearing favorite amongst gamers, Fleischer still manages to transfer a few credible accommodations of familiarity that at the very least keep audiences invested throughout the engagement. First and foremost, here are the varying action set pieces, which are not only free from redundancy in the constructs of their designs, but also maintain with them an air of urgency that in the direction that feels the gravity of the stakes pertained. What’s refreshing here is the absence of shaking camera gimmicks and machine-gun editing that have become all the rave contemporarily with action juggernauts, instead exchanged here with a vividly immersive shot photography from cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung who artistically knows how to paint such jaw-dropping canvases with turns recently in “Last Night in Soho” and “The Handmaiden”. Chung seamlessly captures the devastating heights, the crisp fight choreography, and the breathtaking scenery in ways that visually earn their big screen captivity, all the while channeling them to attain the exhilarating intensity in their atmospheric range of a gaming property where anything feels possible. Beyond this, the pacing of the storytelling crisply unravels itself continuously from the opening shot of the introduction and refusing to subdue itself throughout the entirety of the 105-minute run time. This kept the film from ever feeling dull from redundancy, but beyond that encompassed the focus of the objection of the characters at hand, who never feel subdued in their constant quest for the lost treasure. Another contributing factor to said urgency is the thunderous roaring of composer Ramin Djawadi, whose musical score does channel brief instances of familiarity in the realm of the series, but never uses it overwhelmingly for nostalgic pandering. Instead, a majority of Djawadi’s work here are original orchestral accompaniments, with no shortage of 808 drums or triumphant trumpets to make each scene of vulnerability transpire with inescapable epicness, and when combined with the transitions of various geographic influences craft a fun-but-theatrical enveloping that never skimps on the emphasis of its globe-spanning cash caper that many sides play into.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, surprising pleasantries are wasted with a script contrived of mediocrity and mirroring performances to boot. To be fair, the work of Holland, Wahlberg, and Banderas are fine enough from an entertaining perspective, especially the picture-perfect chemistry of the two protagonists leading to more than a few charming interactions, but their performances never undergo the psychology of the characters, and because of such never feel like authentic portrayals of the gaming characters who fans grew up adoring. Worse than this, Wahlberg goes missing for pocketed moments during the film, and isn’t shown in frame with Holland for a majority of such, alluding to production woes and unfulfilled promises that condemns the charm and fun of this engagement almost from the start. Banderas and company are less than one-dimensional, missing detectable motives and valued screen time in ways that could’ve built something devastating for Nathan and Sully off in the distance, but instead revel in the limitations of a screenplay that can be summarized ultimately as reserved. Reserved not only for the performances, but also for the script, which reminds you thematically and creatively of every better action film before it, albeit with half of the results. The twists are heavily predictable, the cliches are abundant, and the resolution left unfulfilled as a mid-credits sequence not only commits the same treason of “Sonic the Hedgehog”, in that it’s continuously sequel-baiting, but also forgets about some characters all together in hopes of affirmation in a sequel we inevitably will never see. Cliches like Hollywood’s current favorite to add to a film, in that the movie starts with “Months earlier” text, with no objective other than to keep audiences awake with the promise that high stakes reside somewhere in the future, so pay attention and stay awake. Then there’s the range of believability, which for a video game does seem a bit silly to complain about, but from a logistics standpoint can’t be subdued in a sequence that would make even the “F9” ensemble cringe. As evidenced in the trailers, pirate ships fly in the air during the key climactic battle, but what we didn’t see is their carrying by small, typical helicopters that maintain their grasp on them without any slight stalling or misdirection in their weight. Instead, it all goes off perfectly, highlighting the single strongest aircrafts known to man, all in favor of a climax that goes through without even any temporary uncertainty, summarizing a complete lack of vulnerability for the characters and their conflict, which because of such feels like literally anyone could’ve come across this treasure with ease.

OVERALL

“Uncharted” is a serviceably safe sampling of another disappointing gaming adaptation that is plagued by inexplicable changes to its characters, and redundancies to its story. With very little original here, the film lacks the capability to ever rid itself of better capers of the genre, and with a duo of charming-but-subdued performances from Holland and Wahlberg, the benefit of alluring high stakes action set pieces isn’t enough to will their worth.

My Grade: 5/10 or D+