The Problem With Uncharted

The Uncharted movie has been in development for a very, very long time. Now, Sony's flagship PlayStation franchise is finally on the big screen, with Spider-Man star Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. But how is it? Well...

[captainmidnight]

Do you want another Uncharted movie after this?

[lacolem]

I think Hollywood vastly underrates how well written a lot of games are by themselves and don’t need reimagining, or how important relatability and self insert are when replicating these plots.

[yash_kapoor]

This movie would’ve worked better if it was simply an adventure Nate and Sully went on. Making it Nate’s “first big adventure” immediately gave me red flags. It would’ve been better to drop in the middle or at least after they first meet like Uncharted 1 did.

[zsht]

They cast Holland, not because he was right for the role,
but because he's popular and his chat-show/press-junket appearances often go viral.
The pressure of selling big-budget movies is so intense, that studios would rather invest in mediocre algorithmic by-the-books drivel than take a risk on a creative auteur piece.

[noahhutchins]

For me, the characters made the Uncharted games so special to me. So, when I saw the casting, all my faith in the project was lost. I just can't see either Holland or Wahlberg growing into Nathan or Sully.

[theveryworstluck]

The "weightlessness" of the CGI is nothing compared to that scene every reviewer uses of the barrel spilling the gold. Gold is heavy as fuck. You can tell that's prop gold the way it falls out.

[kiera]

I think the main issue is that the people who made this film… clearly don’t understand the appeal of the games. If you’re adapting a massively beloved game series, you should, at the very least, be able to identify WHAT people like about it. Uncharted isn’t as popular as it is because it has groundbreaking gameplay. I can’t even say it’s because of the intricate set pieces and cliche story beats. No, Uncharted is popular because of the likability of Nathan Drake and his chemistry with Sully. The film couldn’t even get those two essential things right.

[nanouklezaf]

Wahlberg would have been a great Nathan Drake 10 years ago.
Hollland would have been a great Nathan Drake in 10 years.

[rogue]

The characters are the charm of the games. Their likability is what makes the story of the games so compelling. The movie strips that away and you’re left with a hollow shell of Uncharted. People who haven’t experienced the real characters won’t be bothered because they don’t know what they’re missing. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[nadomedia]

The main problem is: videogames aren’t being taken seriously by Hollywood. Their idea of a game is ‘brainless fun, so the movies should be like that too.’

In my honest opinion they should have let someone else direct the film, for example the director of National Treasure, and not cast Tom Holland nor Mark Wahlberg.

[WaddleDee]

Tom Holland is already a bad miscast here but when I heard that Mark Wahlberg was gonna be Sully I knew it was going to be a terrible adaptation. I can't even remember the last time Mark has been in something halfway decent.

[LeonardoKlotz]

I knew how this movie was gonna turn out when I learned that the writers were the ones behind TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT

And MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL

[MrOPD]

This movie became tedious soooo quickly.
Everything just kept boiling down to everyone constantly quadruple crossing each other, backstabbing each other, one upping each other, "sorry, but I've learned to not trust people" each other, every fucking other scene. Not to mention that they just all constantly keep stumbling into each other - like, it's the most well kept secret in human history or some shit, and you need to have these super mysterious macguffins, following this super secret treasure map, doing all this super mysterious adventure shit, and it's always just 1 guy going through the trouble of figuring everything out with 10 other people just constantly knowing EXACTLY what that one guy is up to at every single given moment.

This movie was National Treasure. But worse. And like 20 years too late. With way less likeable characters. And just about 0 action. And the most boring and stupid mysteries and adventure. But alas, don't mind me hiding a 200 y/o key hole inside a Papa John's with a steam vent directly connecting my $5 billion treasure to a night club.

[luckyspurs]

The "let it go" scene in Last Crusade works so well because you know Sean Connery's been after the grail for decades and decades before Indiana even thought of it, at the expense of spending any real time with his son.

Indiana wants the grail almost entirely for his dad's love and approval, not the thing itself. So when Sean Connery tells him that he has it already, without risking his life, it completes the story perfectly.

[TheSt]

The problem is these video games can have 6-10 hours of material . Trying to cram such expansive material into 120-150 minutes is is extremely difficult, Even from watchingj just the trailer Tom Holland feels horribly miscast. Also regarding the storytelling of Indiana Jones don't forget Raiders of the Lost Ark was nominated for Best Picture at Oscars and is considered one of the greatest adventure movies ever made- that is pretty heady.

[ETibbs]

To play devil's advocate for just one thing, apparently Tom Holland stated in an interview (do not remember which one) that COVID really hampered the crew's ability to film the globe-trotting film they really wanted.

Now that doesn't excuse the Papa John's scene one bit. Or any of the other movie's flaws haha. Unfortunately, having a lot of the movie only take place in Barcelona makes sense and is pretty sad.

[karastern]

Having a scene in a Papa Johns didn't bother me. It pointed out how much the world had changed since the sailors hid their treasure. The amazing fresco on the wall was no longer in a church or wherever it was when the map was hidden. Now it's a cheap fast food place. Or a night club.

What bothered me more was the scene at the end where the ships, suspended from helicopters were whipping around through the air. I can give a certain license to psychics in an adventure film, like the part at the beginning where Drake climbs up the cargo boxes back into the airplane. But those 500 year old wooden sailing ships would have been reduced to splinters when they tried to put the nets around them, never mind lifting them and flying away with them. It shattered my suspension of disbelief.

I'm completely unfamiliar with the video games so the deviation from the source material didn't bother me. I just wanted a fantastic adventure movie with fast action and daring do. But the action felt rushed and the character scenes felt drawn out. I left the theater feeling unsatisfied.

[Hawkguy]

I haven’t heard someone mention Chuck in a very long time… Really underrated, loved that show

[jonasdiaz]

I think the biggest thing wrong this film is that there is everything there to make this franchise a series of great to excellent action adventure films! While some people are willing to expect less and enjoy it for what it is by itself, it is also beholden to the great expectations of the franchise and underwhelms on one too many fronts. Quite disappointed that this isn't universally the best video game movie to date, as it easily could've reached that height to match that of Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible!

[SpammytheHedgehog]

Now Tom Holland knows how Robert Downey Jr. felt when he tried to starring in a movie after a huge successful Marvel movie.