Uncharted movie review: Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg can’t save lifeless adaptation

Not even the combined starpower and charisma of Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg can save this adaptation.

As the latest swashbuckler-in-chief, Tom Holland, is inheriting a cinematic tradition that dates back to the likes of Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn.

But Uncharted actually has its roots not in film but as a wildly popular video game franchise.

But if you didn’t already know of its origins, there would be nothing on screen to suggest that it was spawned from anything other than the most generic tropes muddled together in an uninspired screenplay.

Considering the movie has been in production since 2008, there’s been plenty of time to shape it into something distinct, not just to the game franchise but as another entry into a beloved genre.

Distinct it is not. Uncharted could be any other treasure hunter versus arch villain in the search for untold riches story. And it doesn’t have the personality of Indiana Jones, the fun of National Treasure or even the spirit of Dora and the Lost City of Gold.

The ambition may have been Mission Impossible-style airborne stunts, but the result is more like CGI overkill that looks hokey more than daring.

Tom Holland as treasure hunter Nathan Drake.

Nathan Drake (Holland) is a descendant of famed explorer Sir Francis Drake and that obsession runs in his blood. As kids, he and his brother Sam talked endlessly about Magellan’s 500-year-old lost fortune, enough gold to be worth half a trillion dollars today.

Fast forward to the present and Nate is a petty thief and bartender with too much knowledge about the origin of each cocktail.

That’s when he’s approached by Sully (Mark Wahlberg), another treasure hunter who entices Nate with the chance to find Magellan’s gold while dangling the promise of finding Sam, who Nate hasn’t seen in many years.

But they have a rival expedition, one financed by the one-dimensional and nefarious Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) who feels entitled to the fortune because his family funded Magellan’s original mission.

There are two other treasure hunters/mercenaries – Chloe (Sophia Ali) and Jo (Tati Gabrielle) – gumming up the works but it’s all a lot of flash-bang-whizzes. Once the whiff of smoke dissipates, it’s apparent there was nothing there.

Uncharted is adapted from a popular video games series. Picture: Sony

With weak and bland characterisations – not even the combined charisma of Holland and Wahlberg can dazzle – and so many demands you suspend your disbelief in gravity, physics or logic, Uncharted is yet another video game-turned-movie disappointment.

That’s a graveyard littered with corpses. There’s something that seems to happen in almost every adaptation where whatever that made the game unique loses that spark in the transition. It’s wild that Sonic the Hedgehog may actually be the most successful adaptation to date although there is hope the upcoming TV version of The Last of Us will conquer.

Uncharted had the potential to break the curse given that the games themselves were so epic and narrative-driven, but director Ruben Fleischer managed to flatten all the personality out of it.

And the script by Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway is so laden with exposition, plot contrivances and signposts of “look here!”, it may as well be a paint-by-numbers picture.

Lifeless and tiresome, Uncharted is not the treasure audiences hoped to find.

Rating: 2/5

Uncharted is in cinemas now