9/6/2023 0 Comments Uncharted tom holland![]() There’s no room for any spectacle to stand out, or for the characters to develop a rapport organically. (There’s some business with a sports car that would make Dominic Toretto blush with embarrassment.) It’s as if no one bothered to consider how cartoonish chaos would come across in the context of a two-hour movie that veers between serious and lighthearted. The Uncharted games have never focused on realistic action, but some moments in the film adaptation still stretch the fantasy a bit too far. ![]() (Also, anyone who’s played these games knows nothing should come easy or convenient for Nathan Drake.) It’s admirable that they want to shake up the familiar elements, but there’s no weight or emotional gravitas to anything that happens. Fleischer and the writers find convenient ways to initiate the set piece - which in the games builds from a car chase in which the player jumps into the plane as it’s taking off on the runway - but in live-action it’s done with a blockbuster kitchen-sink method that can’t escalate the tension with so many characters in the mix. Some of the action sequences are lifted straight from the games, most recognizably the much-advertised cargo-plane fight from Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, where Nathan free falls to what seems like certain death. But even without the burden of introducing so many characters, the choices propelling Uncharted still lack stakes, genuine peril, fascinating twists on history, or adrenaline-pumping adventure. The fragmented story makes it even more difficult for them to introduce and alternate between so many different characters. The film version feels like the writers were assigned different aspects of adapting the Uncharted formula: puzzle-solving, sneaking around, parkour, and larger-than-life action. That verve is missing in the film version as well. The series’ villains have never been interesting, but there’s some personality behind motives like seeking the Tree of Life to gain eternal youth, or magicians attempting to fracture Nathan and Sully’s deeply established friendship. The Drake-and-Sully duo function as the thieving core in the first installment, before the designers expand their roster and flesh out their backstory in subsequent entries. In the game series, the characterization is more compact and robust. Throughout the film, Zombieland and Venom helmer Ruben Fleischer and screenwriters Rafe Judkins, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway ping-pong between as many game franchise characters and new additions as they can possibly cram into one origin story. For one minute, everything about the characters feels right, but it comes far too late. A glimmer of sequel potential is stowed away in a second post-credits scene, where a sudden burst of chemistry in the riffraff banter between treasure-hunting pals Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) and Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) is sure to make people wonder where such lively line deliveries have been for the last two hours. It’s a small beginning for a possible Sony film franchise, but yet another dud of a video game adaptation. It’s engraved “Sic Parvis Magna,” or “Greatness from small beginnings.” The game series reflected that motto, with the modest first installment spawning three direct sequels, each better than the last.īut that greatness isn’t reflected in the movie version of Uncharted. Uncharted game series protagonist Nathan Drake owns a ring he claims came from his forebear, explorer Sir Francis Drake. ![]()
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