Uncharted (2022) Movie Review

Here is my review of the newest video game adaptation movie Uncharted  2022. Does it worth watching it, let’s find out.

Uncharted (2022) Review

Uncharted is a 2022 American action-adventure film directed by Ruben Fleischer. The film is Based on Naughty Dog’s video game series of the same name.

Street-smart Nathan Drake is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter, Victor Sullivan to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize, $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate’s long-lost brother…but only if they can learn to work together.

All right, so I’ve never played the video game that this is based on, but I still had a lot of fun with this action adventure. Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg have some really good chemistry and I love the dry, sarcastic humor that comes from Wahlberg, but Holland is able to hold his own in the humor Department as well.

The film opens with the sequence that was in the trailer with Tom Holland as Nathan Drake dangling out of a cargo plane, doing his best to get back inside. I’m not an expert in gravity or even velocity, but it does feel a bit far-fetched at what he does.

The opening scene doesn’t resolve fully at the beginning because we then flashback to when Drake was a kid. Through this flashback we get a tiny bit of development, but more importantly, we get some insight into what will be Drake’s motivations later in the story.

As an origin story, there isn’t too much here on the characters other than how they team up and they begin their partnership.

Some character depth is given along the way, but really most of the camaraderie is gained through their wild adventures.

And because I haven’t played the game, I wasn’t watching for how accurate of an adaptation this was to the game story. The story we did get through, did intrigue me. It’s not anything new or even deep, but it is very entertaining.

For anybody that likes treasure hunting adventures like Indiana Jones, National Treasure. Even The Mummy or The Goonies, this movie follows a lot of the same storylines, but that doesn’t make it any less fun.

The fun of this comes as Drake and Sully are trying to figure out the puzzles that will lead them to the next step in finding the immense amount of treasure.

Now there are elements of cloak and dagger as others are also on the Hunt for this treasure, so deception and intrigue are wrapped in a lot of the storytelling.

While a lot of the puzzles aren’t really explained in detail for us. I still found myself trying to look for clues along with the characters. I felt the anticipation of finding the treasure, which then created a suspenseful atmosphere.

The characters we get are varied and how enjoyable they are. I loved Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg and I thought they were fantastic. I also really liked Sophia Ali as Chloe. 

And Tony Gabriel is brutal and ruthless, which made her a menacing adversary. Antonio Banderas stars as an Uber rich antagonist, one who is also searching for the treasure.

Now, while I liked him, I’m not sure he’s really given enough to do, and I really would have liked more with him to just solidify why he could be such a villain.

There are also two henchmen, but I remember only one of them actually speaking. Unfortunately, the best part of him was shown in the trailer, so there really wasn’t anything new that we get to see.

The action and stunts in this are very exciting and wonderful to watch. Holland gets put through the Ringer a bunch of times throughout the movie and I thought it was really fun to watch him not stick a landing after we had always seen him land on his feet in the Spider-Man movies.

The camera work is mostly immersive through the action sequences, and while there are times where they do employ too many quick cuts, there are also some great sequences where we get to see the scope of a fight, which then also showcases how deadly the consequences can be.

More than a handful of times I was saying just as a character would bounce off of something as they fell, it was funny to watch, but it’s a painful kind of funny.

There are also moments that clearly looked to be CGI rather than action happening, but those weren’t present many times, so they didn’t become a bother to me.

And of course, with the action, a lot of disbelief does need to be suspended. I mean, so many times our characters should have been shattered, maimed, or even dead because of what they experience.

But that’s also why I go to see a movie like this. I want wild adventure with spectacular stunts that create all kinds of exciting thrills. I mean, this is pure escapism. I think it works. This is just under 2 hours, I never felt the time.

The story kept the pacing moving forward in pretty good succession and to me it didn’t drag even when the action took a backseat for a bit so that there could be some story development.

For fans of the games, I know that there are at least two big Easter eggs in this. One is super quick and while my son caught it, I didn’t see it at all. I even knew that it was going to be there at some point.

The other I figured out because it was more obvious and it has more time on screen and it also helped me figure it out because my son was smiling and nodding as this came into view.

So I know this is a pretty thin story, but there is enough there to support the quest that our heroes are on. To me, the search is intriguing, which then hooks me into the adventure, but if you’re looking for huge exposition and great story or even good character depth, you’re going to be disappointed in this.

If though you’re looking for swashbuckling adventure with a lot of crazy stunts and exciting fights and chases I think this is going to satisfy.

This is really just a summertime popcorn action flick that happened to arrive in February. So if you’re looking for a fun way to spend 2 hours and you want a break from reality with a couple of characters that have good chemistry and banter, this is a good use of that time.

I paid to see it in the theater and I am not sorry one bit that I did. There’s no sex or nudity, some profanity, and a bunch of violence.

I am giving Uncharted (2022) 3.5/5.

What’s a game that you’d like to see adapted for the screen. I know we’re getting a bunch in future months there but let me know what you’d like in the comments below.

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Uncharted (2022) Movie Trailer

Here is the review of the new action-adventure move Uncharted (2022).