Studio: Sony/Columbia Pictures
Uncharted docks to shore but sinks in its glory.
This film certainly looks like another Jumanji sequel or next chapter of The Jungle Cruise film with Dwayne Johnson in it. Maybe it’s like Pirates of the Caribbean all over again if you comment on that. Uncharted is one of those films most people got really excited about this month and is heavily based on the hit Playstation series of games, produced by Naughty Dog. Ruben Fleischer has another directing gig onboard that offers the viewers and video game buffs a thrill of the lifetime on the adventures of Uncharted in the exact live-action obstacle, featuring the main stars of Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg.
Uncharted focuses on a young adventurer and hunter Nathan Drake who teams up with his wisecracking gold-digging partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan to embark on a perilous quest to find the greatest treasure that has never been found before while also searching for Nathan's long-lost brother Samuel Drake.
Spider-Man star Tom Holland stars as Nathan Drake, an orphan-turned-hunter who is out to search for the treasure while finding his long-lost brother along the way while Oscar-nominee Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) scoops behind his back as Nathan’s reluctant partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan who happens to be close to his brother Samuel “Sam” Drake in the film. Those two youngsters are great in their acting roles, but Wahlberg’s performance in some scenes are dull and somewhat boring and it looks like his acting skills really need work in order to get his character in shape without messing around. Despite this, the two are just as excited to work on this film and they both know they’re having as much fun as they can throughout the set.
Thanks to the direction coming from Fleischer himself, this film contains lots of references and elements from Tomb Raider, the National Treasure films, and Indiana Jones films (particularly the Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade) in terms of making a film that focuses on any dangerous quests that involves finding ancient treasures and something that is worth a ton of money mixed with action sequences being included. Fleischer can picture himself doing an Indiana Jones movie on his own kind of level while crafting a story to share. But the key event for this is to get everything organized in a simpler form of context without screwing the video game franchise up. The strong focus is not on plot development itself or any character development but considering how the film is accurately based on a video game, it does a good job with the source material regardless of what time period it is shown in the both the film and the video game franchise.
While the references are hilarious and outstanding, the story is dry and boring while the characters and villains are so weak in some parts. There's just no real action scattered across the film, mainly in the second half. The CGI and the visual effects are average but ended up getting lazy, uneventful, and full of nautical nonsense. There's not much real adult action and much violence on the climaxes as the director, the cast, and the crew have filmed the fight scenes that are less exciting and non violent due to awful editing and missing their cues. Even the villains Chloe Frazer and Jo Braddock, shown in the film, are so unbelievable in their roles and aren't really helping in the film. As many movies feature female villains like those two, they can be so cool, hot, and sexy villains but for Chloe Frazer and Jo Braddock, they are rather dashing but end up getting weaker and less complex at the very end.
The supportive cast are also great in the film, despite being given some weak character/villainy traits, but they still need work. Here we have Oscar-nominated actor Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory) as the ruthless treasure hunter Santiago Moncada, Sophia Ali (Grey’s Anatomy) as another treasure hunter Chloe Frazer whom Nathan shares his love interest with, and Tati Gabrelle (The Owl House) as Jo Braddock, a hidden antagonist and a mercenary working with Moncada who is set out to find the treasure and destroy Nathan and Sully as they search for the treasure as well.
Regardless of how fun it is to watch, Uncharted is an average flick but a fun two-hour movie being fifty-percent good and fifty-percent bad at the same time. While Tom Holland is the only one who makes this film exquisite to watch, all the ingredients in the film make it sound like it's actually a movie targeted for kids and teenagers. It’s just a lack of many adult-oriented video game atmospheres the director and the crew have put in. If you’re planning on choosing this film, think carefully before you do so. And if you don’t like the film, I suggest you go back and watch the Jumanji films all over to make up for those two hours of your life. Also, just one more thing, if you’re watching this, please stick around at the post-credit scenes as they offer you a little cliffhanger that provides some great possibilities for future sequels that will feature newer adventures and more thrill-riding excitement for your own roller-coaster ride of entertainment.
GRADE: D-
(Review by Henry Pham)
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