Uncharted Movie Adaptation Review

Another video game franchise has now been turned into a live-action film and this time it’s Uncharted.

The film was based on the video game series with the same name by game studios Naughty Dog. The Uncharted film stars Tom Holland (Nathan Drake), Mark Wahlberg (Victor “Sully” Sullivan), Antonio Banderas (Santiago Moncada), Sophia Ali (Chloe Frazer), and Tati Gabrielle (Braddock).

The Uncharted film was just released in the Philippines last Ferbruary 23. So if you’re currently thinking about watching the movie, maybe this review can help you decide if you should.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Storyline

Unfortunately for fans of the game, the movie had its own thing. You’ll be following Tom Holland’s Nate as he searches for Ferdinand Magellan’s treasure with Mark Wahlberg’s significantly younger-looking Sully. Their treasure rivals? Santiago Moncada played by Antonio Banderas.

Without spoiling much of the movie, Uncharted had a typical treasure hunting storyline. It had lost artifacts, auctions, booby traps, traveling, and more. We’ve seen those tropes before so one can say that the movie isn’t really dealing with uncharted territory here.

Winks At The Source Material

The movie tried to emulate the games despite not following their stories. It had epic parkour sequences, puzzle-solving, and even three factions fighting over the same treasure. The action sequences were also a thrill to watch just like how it usually plays out in the game. They definitely tried their best to give homage to what made the Uncharted games iconic.

As for cameos, maybe you’ve heard about a guy named Nolan North? Yeah, he’s in the movie. Super hard not to miss. Also, if you stuck out to the post-credits, you’ll also see a golden pistol. Remember golden guns?

Unfortunate Casting

Here’s the thing, when I watched the movie all I can think of is this: I’m watching a Spiderman film that also featured whoever Mark Wahlberg was portraying in the Transformer movies with Zoro as the bad guy. Sure they all casted good actors in Tom Holland, Wahlberg, and Antonio Banderas but that’s exactly the problem with casting notable celebrities with iconic portfolios. You just can’t unsee them as their respective titular characters (Cade Yeager isn’t Wahlberg’s titular character but it’s also definitely not Max Payne). It also didn’t help that Spider-Man: No Way Home was just recently released in the Philippines last January and Holland’s action sequences reminded me of that.

Pinoybaiting

I know, pinoybaiting by foreign films or media is considered bad practice by some. Arguments about cultural appropriation and more. However, if the premise of the movie itself revolves around a facet of Filipino history, shouldn’t it feature more of the Philippines? I don’t even think they shot anything with the actors in the Philippines. Spoilers: they didn’t. They only took some shots of Palawan and digitally recreated something. Oh well.

Final Verdict

So should you watch Uncharted? Well, if you’d like to see Tom Holland do fanservice then it’d be sweet like Bubblicious. If you’re a fan of the original games, you can lower your expectations. Was it better than Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider adaptations? Maybe. It’s a great movie but not too great. If I were to describe it, Uncharted was a Disneyfied Indiana Jones-esque adaptation of the game which also happens to star Spiderman. I had fun though so maybe you could too.

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