Movie Reaction: Uncharted

Formula: Raiders of the Lost Ark ^ Tomb Raider

 

The dirty little secret about a lot of blockbusters is that they are pretty generic on paper. Raiders of the Lost Ark could easily have been a forgotten adventure movie. The things that make it special are easy to say and staggeringly difficult to pull off. It has characters with clear and engaging personalities who are simple enough to immediately understand. It’s packed with set pieces that are edited, blocked, and executed perfectly. The music is iconic and fills in all the holes of the editing. Often, a similar movie will fail and the only explanation really is that Raiders just did it better. I imagine that must be maddening for a filmmaker. It also makes it damn near impossible to review a movie like Uncharted without some hindsight. People will openly call it derivative when it’s released, not appreciating that many of the movies they rewatch for years are derivative too. That ends up being a strength, not a weakness. Raiders is derivative. That’s why I like it.

 

I liked Uncharted. I know nothing about the games. I don’t care to. Something tells me that if I realized how many winks to the game there were in the movie, I’d be annoyed. This movie is like many, many movies I’ve seen before. Movies I enjoyed more, but – here’s the key – movies I did enjoy. It’s a $120 million movie that looks like it cost that much. It has a mix of stars, familiar faces, and new faces that takes advantage of the effect of each.

 

The story is a little convoluted and definitely silly. Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is an orphan treasure hunter who moonlights as a bartender and pickpocket. Fellow treasure hunter, Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), lures Nathan to join him on the hunt for Magellan’s lost treasure on the promise of reuniting Nathan with his long-lost brother. They pick up a loose-ally in Chloe Frazer (another treasure hunter). Some billionaire (Antonio Banderes) is also looking for the gold and hires a hunter/assassin (Tati Gabrielle) to get to the treasure first or kill Nathan and co. if she gets there second. With that setup, the movie is just following everyone as they solve puzzles while travelling all over the world. It’s fun.

 

The cast is about 80% there. Holland and Wahlberg are a nice pair but it’s a little clunky. Holland works really well with mentor/mentee relationships. He’s not as good at being chummy yet. And I can’t wait for him to lose some of the boyishness in his face. Also, I can’t be the only one who Holland and Wahlberg look too similar. They have similar hair and builds. Their personas are different, but they read visually as very similar. I’m curious to see Sophia Ali in more things. She fits nicely in an adventure movie. Kind of like an off-brand Lara Croft, which I mean as a compliment. While she is striking, I’m not sitting there wondering who put the model into this action movie. She’s only a year older than Holland but she plays her role like someone who has been in this business for a long time. Banderas doesn’t do a whole lot but I love Tati Gabrielle as the villain. She carries herself like a video game bad ass. Not a hair out of place. Poise at all times. She kind of terrifies me. Everything you want in an adventure movie villain. Part of the problem overall is that the cast is out of balance age-wise. Holland, Ali, and Gabrielle are less than a year apart in age. Then there’s Wahlberg a quarter century older than all of them. Yet, the movie treats Wahlberg, Ali, and Gabrielle like the contemporaries. It feels weird when Wahlberg’s nickname for Holland is ‘kid’ when Holland is the same age as all the other central characters they are dealing with, who he treats like old chums.

 

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s not perfect and there’s room to make sequels much more fun. It’s a competent adventure movie, and adventure movies don’t need to be much more than competent. As much as anything, it’s nice to see Tom Holland succeed as a leading man not in spandex.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend