Movie Review: Uncharted (2022)

Based on the PlayStation game series of the same name, Uncharted was a fun action adventure movie that surprisingly nailed the essence of the games through its tone and storyline while not directly adapting one of the game’s plots. They borrowed story elements from the third and fourth games and a character from the second but it didn’t play like a greatest hits as I expected it to when I saw the plane scene in the trailer.

I do think both leads were miscast for how they’re portrayed in the games but once I got used to them I feel like they work well for this version. Tom Holland was still a bit too much Peter Parker and Mark Wahlberg was just too much Mark Wahlberg. Once you get past that, though, it’s a real fun time that emulates a lot of the gameplay elements from the games such as climbing and puzzle solving but not the gunplay. I guess they can’t have Spider-Man gunning down hundred of henchmen like Nate does in the games. I also would’ve appreciated a scene where Nate runs back and forth for several minutes trying to figure out a puzzle before eventually googling the solution. Maybe in an extended cut.

This was also a well made origin story with a plot that easily could have been one of the games as most of them are relatively formulaic. I did appreciate that one cameo, but not as much the blatant product placement in that one scene. Still, this was a really fun time and the 3 other people in the theatre also sounded like they had fun (even at the end when I heard someone say “yes that is Spider-Man).

The cinematography was fine but there were hardly any shot that stood out to me. The action choreography was quite good especially the bonkers third act (which is a staple of the series in my opinion). I thought the music by Ramin Djawadi was decent and I appreciate the couple times he used the theme from the game, but that also confused me why it wasn’t worked in as the main theme of the movie itself. It felt more like a subtle reference than anything else. The visual effects were good enough, though I felt like one could directly compare some parts to something like Mission Impossible and it just doesn’t look as good as seeing a crazy man actually do a halo jump out of a plane.

In addition to the movie, there was that PlayStation intro which showed some of their other franchises that I guess are potential movies. I’ll just say this, if they adapt Horizon Zero Dawn I really hope they do it Justice.

I’d give Uncharted a solid 8/10. Some aspects were above average but I really appreciate how much they got right the spirit of the source material.