UNCHARTED is big, loud, good old fashioned fun

“Lost- not gone. If something is lost, it can still be found.”

This past weekend saw the long-awaited release of the UNCHARTED film, an adaptation of the flagship PlayStation game franchise following treasure-hunter Nathan Drake and his mentor Victor “Sully” Sullivan as they embark on dangerous quests around the globe seeking fame and fortune.

The treasure hunt to bring Uncharted to the big screen has last almost as long as the franchise itself since debuting in 2008 on the PlayStation 3, going on over 10 years. Long enough that the original plan for this film had a much younger Mark Wahlberg playing the protagonist, only now to step aside at the “Hollywood old” age of 50 to play the mentor figure.

Fresh off his billion-dollar success headlining SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME this past December, Tom Holland plays Nathan Drake, a street-wise orphan and history buff who moonlights as a wise-talking bartender, lifting bracelets and wallets from unsuspecting patrons until he’s made by another thief by the name of Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a criminal who offers Nate a chance at riches...and to find out what happened to his long-lost older brother Sam.

The target is Ferdinand Magellan’s long-lost fortune from his “trip around the world”, funded by the House of Moncada. But to get to this lost legacy, the two partners in crime have to contend with not only a descendant of the House of Moncada- the wealthy and driven Santiago (Antonio Banderas)- but his hired killer Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) and her goons as well as a shady street-rat from Sully’s past, Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali).

Sony Pictures tossed the keys to this baby over to Ruben Fleischer, no doubt due to his expertise in wrangling the similarly production-plagued VENOM into production, to deliver a product that is as fun to look at is as it is, no doubt, to see that it came in on-time and on-budget.

UNCHARTED hearkens back to a lost era of swashbuckling adventure films where breezy quips and extravagant action scenes were done with a few scuffed up guys playing fisticuffs at exotic locales and not CGI super heroes superimposed over city skylines. Think films like SAHARA, INDIANA JONES, THE MUMMY, NATIONAL TREASURE, etc. and it justifies its existence based almost entirely off the chemistry between leads Wahlberg and Holland.

Marky Mark is a staple of American action movies, and his charisma is palpable as it is played off of Holland’s own, which earned him America’s love from his first appearance in the Marvel universe back in 2016 as a plucky Peter Parker in Captain America: CIVIL WAR. The two make playful jabs back and forth when Drake isn’t questioning Sully’s motivations, and of course, this is necessary to set up just how close these characters become by the time the story line to the games happens.

The action here is extremely fun, with a climax consisting of high-speed midair pirate ship battles as two ancient ships are fastened to choppers and whizzed through the towering islands of the pacific ocean while our heroes flail and jump around. It’s so goofy and fun that it is impossible not to smile at.

There are no world-ending stakes here, there’s no insane drama or heavy character development. UNCHARTED is simply a film that exists to be fun junk-food. It’s the empty calories of cinema, in the most endearing way, just as the PlayStation games themselves serve to entertain with little else to prove.

By the time the film’s credit scene hits and we see Mark Wahlberg’s Sully sporting his iconic mustache as well as Nate wearing the iconic dual-pistol shoulder holsters, these feel like absolutely earned moments and beg for the audience to stay with them for some more adventure.

I’ve seen several people complain that the film is too different from the videogame, but since the start of the film’s production Sony has made it clear this was never going to be a “1:1” adaptation of the games but rather an adventure film franchise that is “Uncharted-coded” which, IMO, is a better option. We’ve already played the games, give us something new and fun.

UNCHARTED grossed over $51 million this 4-day weekend, which is way over the projected $30-35 million estimated by several outlets. Not to mention the film is already soaring overseas with a Chinese release penciled in for March.

It’s safe to say that Tom Holland now has two big-name franchises under his belt, and I think we can place our bets that in a few years we’ll have our asses in the theater seats waiting to see where UNCHARTED 2 will be taking us.

UNCHARTED is now playing at The Hub in Tonkawa and in Ark City.