Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg’s is the Saving Grace in a Decent Attempt to Recreate the PlayStation Game’s Magic

Adapting video games into live-action movies is difficult, and there are a lot of examples to support this statement. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, and many more failed to captivate the audiences despite the games being absolutely brilliant. There could be instances where the movies actually turn out good, but that has hardly ever been the case. Thankfully, that latest video game adaptation, Uncharted, Starring Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Sully isn’t half bad considering the track record of other games.

The Uncharted series is definitely one of the best PlayStation exclusives of all time where all the games combined have sold over 41 million copies. The developers at Naughty Dog definitely did a stellar job of keeping player glued to the screen as they ensure that each game had so much more to offer in terms of world design, story, and puzzle solving. My review for this particular movie might feel a little biased considering I have played and thoroughly enjoyed all the Uncharted games. Hence, it becomes a little difficult for me to not look at it from a gamer’s perspective because the games were so damn good. So, how does Uncharted do in terms of bringing the game’s brilliance to the big screen? Let’s find out:

The movie starts off with a scene involving Nate’s brother Sam, who is a central figure in the game series in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and also because the movie is based on this title. This is where things might’ve gotten a little confusing for the fans as they used the story of the fourth game for the first movie.

The start of the movie is really weird as it somehow feels rushed and quite slow at the same time. There is little to no time spent on depicting the backstory for either Nate (Tom Holland) or Sully (Mark Wahlberg) or even Chloe Frazer (Sophia Taylor Ali). As the story progresses, the movie quickly brings together Sully and Nate who just embark on a journey to finish Sam’s mission to find a lost treasure just after knowing each other for not more than 5 minutes.

Next thing we know, the duo are now infiltrating an auction to steam a rare artifact that will lead them to the said treasure. This is where we are introduced to the villain of this film, Santiago Moncada played by Antonio Banderas, who is also after the treasure and believes it is his birthright. He is accompanied by a murderous mercenary, Braddock, played by Tati Gabrielle, to help him in his quest. This particular scene is quite similar to the video game as well. After a successful heist, the duo head to Spain to retrieve another artifact that is in the possession of Chloe Frazer, another key figure from the video game. While the video game shows her to be a double agent to save Nate, here she is an actual double agent who plans to keep the treasure to herself.

After a brief encounter with Moncada’s goons led by Braddock, the trio of Sully, Nate, and Chloe find a map that would eventually lead them to the Philippines, where Ferdinand Magellan’s treasure lies. However, Chloe betrays the duo here and takes the map from them as it is revealed that she is working for Moncada. This leads Sully and Nate aboard the plane that Moncada is taking to the Philippines, where the famous action sequence from Uncharted 3 takes place. This is also the part where it is revealed that the actual villain of the movie is someone you’ll never expect.

From thereon, it is just a matter of who gets to the treasure first that involves a small skirmish to keep control over it, and Nate’s eventual success in eliminating the villain to fulfill his brother’s quest.