Review: ‘Uncharted,’ Just Play the Games!
“I’m literally in a Papa John’s right now…”
Way back in middle school, I saved a year’s worth of earnings just so I could buy a Playstation 3 and play a game called Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. As a fan of the Jak and Daxter series on the PS2, I was keenly interested in playing game developer Naughty Dog’s newest IP that looked like the closest thing to playing a movie one could get. It featured a ruggedly handsome and quippy treasure hunter named Nathan Drake who is on the search for El Dorado alongside his veteran partner, Victor Sullivan. Shooting your way through ancient and colonial ruins in South American, exploring abandoned Nazi outposts for gold, and bearing the levity of an action summer blockbuster, it played as every bit an Indiana Jones game as one would hope — the months spent mowing lawns were well, well worth it.
It wasn’t until Uncharted 2: Among Thieves where the series truly grew into its ambition. The game was not only a notable step up from its predecessor, but it was also a seminal game in the seventh generation of consoles that propelled narrative storytelling in video games forward. Bigger set pieces, a deeper story, and fully realized game design made it in every sense of the word cinematic, and there was nothing that came close it in 2009. Naughty Dog would go on to become a premier talent in the industry, releasing Uncharted 3 & 4 plus launching their masterpiece with The Last of Us. In these releases, Naughty Dog perfected the “movie as a video game” experience. It was only a matter of time before the series born out of cinematic influence would come full circle and become a movie itself.
After sitting in development hell for years, we now have an Uncharted movie. If conventional wisdom is to be believed, this film will not fare better than any other video game adaptation — a long line of failures stand before it. That being said, Uncharted as a film is okay, but across the board, I found myself constantly saying, “This could be better.” There is an observable effort to make this adaptation as every bit exciting as the video game, but in multiple departments there are lacking elements that can’t compare to the production of games.
It starts with casting. I had doubts Tom Holland could assume the mantle (or in this case, gun holster) of Nathan Drake, particularly because he looks rather young. To the contrary, Holland works in the role because of his demeanor matches the character. Drake is a quick witted adventurer who cracks one liners in the face of peril. Holland leans into this aspect of the character more than anything, and quickly alleviates any major concerns about his ability to play Nathan Drake.
Who doesn’t work is Mark Walhberg who plays Victor Sullivan. Long ago, Wahlberg was tapped to play Drake, but somewhere along the line he was bumped to the supporting role. For the record, Sullivan is markedly older in the games, featuring grey hair, a full mustache, and a Hawaiian shirt accompanied with a Cuban cigar. While no adaptation should feel obligated to its source material, letting Wahlberg play the role with no changes to his overall look is highly questionable, especially when Holland and Wahlberg look comically homogenous on screen — virtually interchangeable when they share a shot. Why someone else wasn’t cast in the role to better contrast the young gun and grizzled veteran is unknown.
When it comes to visuals, the Uncharted movie has the most ground to make up. Third person action-adventure gameplay doesn’t translate to the screen, so it falls on the cinematography to conjure the same sense of swashbuckling adventure from the games. On-site locations are used for filming, which is commendable in this era of green screen shortcuts, but it’s rendered mute by the film’s stale camera work and flat lighting. Park Chan-wook’s long time DP, Jeong Jeong-hun, shoots the film and he gives it a very digital look that can feel clean to a fault and, at worst, uninspired.
Then comes the narrative. With so much rich source material to work off of, this would seem like a slam dunk. After all, when the games are plotted around the structure of a film, it should be easy pickings. Uncharted pulls narrative beats from across the series, but backbones itself to Uncharted 3 and 4. Drake and Sullivan meet for the first time in this adaptation, pulling notes from Uncharted 3, and Drake is given the fraternal backstory treatment of Uncharted 4. Like the games, and like Indiana Jones, Drake and Sullivan follow a series of clues that lead them across the globe until they eventually reach the treasure, all the while a competing party (usually a wealthy megalomaniac with hired mercenaries) try to hunt down the same treasure. Certain scenes are lifted straight from the game — like the jawdropping cargo plane set piece from Uncharted 3 or the narratively tense antique auction from Uncharted 4. Though not to be outdone, the film mashes the finales of Uncharted 1 and 4 to at least try and earn its keep with its own unique set piece. No one scene conjures up the same thrills of the games, and Ruben Fleischer’s (Venom, Zombieland, Gangster Squad) direction is largely to blame here.
Watching this film, you can tell the creatives are trying to capture the magic of Uncharted. The characters are there. The set pieces are pulled right from the games. And the plot is tuned for a globetrotting adventure. The problem is there’s a discount quality to all of it. From its casting to its visuals to its direction, it feels like a film that could have been so much more had there been some more inspired choices, some real camera work, and a proper director at the helm. All things considered, you’re better off just playing the games themselves. They’re much better at being a movie anyway.
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