Uncharted

The video game is brought to cinematic life in a high-stakes spectacular of non-stop action and humour.

Mark and Tom’s excellent adventure

Just as Harrison Ford is winding up production on the fifth Indiana Jones escapade, there’s a new man in town. Fresh off the box-office success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland has piled on even more muscle to play Nate Drake, a flashy bartender, pickpocket and treasure hunter. Well-endowed with a spirit of adventure, a photographic memory and the agility and good looks of a Peter Parker, Nate’s only weakness would seem to be his innate trust in the goodness of his competitors. He is one-of-a-kind, though, until, that is, he meets his match in Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a veteran big-time thief who appears to have the inside track on Nate’s past. Sullivan – or ‘Sully’ – seems already one step ahead of Nate’s game, but needs him in order to unlock an ancient puzzle leading to an unimaginable stash of gold. The key – literally – is a bejewelled crucifix currently up for auction in New York, a prize that has awakened the interest of other international opportunists…

Based on the ‘Naughty Dog’ video game, and long in development, Uncharted is the promising start to a new franchise. The opening scene could hardly be more exciting. A close-up of a ring on a leather cord appears to be floating upwards on its own volition. We then realise that Nate is hanging from an aircraft thousands of feet above ground while a number of adversaries are shooting at him. What follows is fast and furious and in mid-air cuts to a caption that reads: ‘Boston – 12 years earlier.’ Here, a ten-year-old Nate and his older brother Sam are admiring an ancient map of the globe, an artefact that Sam attempts to steal, before being caught and then vanishing into the night. Nate was never to see him again, although a series of postcards from his brother stoked his interest in cryptic ciphers and the possibility of hidden spoils…

Seldom has the dusty world of centuries past – and the secrets buried therein – been brought so vividly to life, which no doubt was part of the appeal of the video game. Not only is Nate’s knowledge of the ancient world encyclopaedic, but he seems fluent in Latin, too, which helps to unlock an elaborate puzzle leading the viewer from New York to Barcelona and beyond. Less discernible is what comes out of Mark Wahlberg’s mouth, who seems stuck in a lower gear, as if in annoyance that Holland is playing the part that he was once earmarked for. There is, however, some nice badinage between the two, with Wahlberg’s Sully insisting he is more than one inch taller than Nate (a moot point), while admitting that he needs his glasses to read the instructions on an ancient text. It is this irreverence and the non-stop pace that distracts the viewer from any cavities in the logic. In fact, the stunts are of a very high calibre, and there are scenes both subterranean and airborne that are genuinely jaw-dropping.

Considering the film’s intended audience – it is a 12A – Uncharted is nimble enough on its feet to keep ADHD at bay, while refraining from gratuitous violence or unnecessarily bad language. And it is nothing if not visually inventive and unlike other video game franchises has both feet more or less lodged in the real world. A case in point is when Sully attempts to break through a sheet of glass, with increasingly thwarted results. Throw in some exotic locales and a couple of strong female characters (ably embodied by Sophia Ali and Tati Gabrielle) and you have an entertainment that delivers in spades. Hopefully, the mid-credits cliffhanger promises more to come.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas, Steven Waddington, Pilou Asbæk, Rudy Pankow, Tiernan Jones. 

Dir Ruben Fleischer, Pro Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner and Ari Arad, Ex Pro Tom Holland, Screenplay Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Ph Chung-hoon Chung, Pro Des Shepherd Frankel, Ed Chris Lebenzon and Richard Pearson, Music Ramin Djawadi, Costumes Anthony Franco and Marlene Stewart, Sound Paul N.J. Ottosson, Dialect coach Rick Lipton. 

Columbia Pictures/Arad Productions/Atlas Entertainment/PlayStation Productions-Sony Pictures.
116 mins. USA. 2022. UK Rel: 11 February 2022. US Rel: 18 February 2022. Cert. 12A .