Uncharted (2022)
If you've spent many hours scaling treacherous cliffs and picking through ancient ruins in the Uncharted video game series like I have, sitting down to Ruben Fleischer's 2022 film adaptation feels less like a cinematic reunion and more like a profound betrayal. That's not hyperbole. That's the honest reaction of someone who came in genuinely wanting this to work, and left feeling thoroughly let down.
When you've played every entry in a franchise, you develop a real attachment to its world, its characters, its particular brand of swashbuckling charm. You don't expect a carbon copy. You just expect the filmmakers to grasp the basic DNA of what made the source material special in the first place. Uncharted doesn't manage even that. It's so wildly divorced from the games that it registers not as a flawed adaptation but as a massive, glaring missed opportunity, the kind that makes you wonder whether anyone involved had actually picked up a controller.
The crux of the problem, and what makes this picture so genuinely frustrating to sit through, is the casting. Mark Wahlberg is an actor I generally quite like. He was great in Lone Survivor (2013), and he can bring real presence when he's properly deployed. But as Victor "Sully" Sullivan, he's a thoroughly baffling choice. Sully is weathered, charismatic, roguishly funny, the kind of man who's been around the block so many times he's worn a groove in it. Wahlberg brings none of that. He just sort of shows up and does Mark Wahlberg things, which doesn't come close to cutting it here.
And then there's Tom Holland as Nathan Drake. I'll be straight with you: Holland routinely annoys me on screen, and this does nothing to change that. He has absolutely zero in common with the gruff, seasoned treasure hunter fans know and love. The whole dynamic between Drake and Sully is supposed to be the beating heart of the story, a mentor-and-apprentice relationship built on mutual mistrust, begrudging respect, and genuine warmth. Here it's completely flat. The chemistry simply isn't there, and without it the whole thing collapses. It's a casting decision so fundamentally misguided that it poisons the well for the entire runtime.
Fair play to Antonio Banderas, who is perfectly fine as the villain and carries himself with the kind of easy menace the role requires. But one decent performance can't rescue a ship already taking on water. The script gives him little to do beyond looking sinister and delivering exposition, which is a waste of someone with his presence.
I'll concede the film isn't a visual disaster. The set pieces are undeniably exciting in the moment, and the action sequences deliver the kind of loud, kinetic spectacle you'd expect from a major studio blockbuster. There's a cargo plane sequence in particular where the sheer energy of it almost makes you forget the hollow characters at the centre. Almost. But flashy explosions and decent production design can only do so much heavy lifting when the emotional core is entirely absent.
This is yet another depressing entry in the long, sad history of video game adaptations that fall so far short of their potential. Fleischer had a genuine blueprint for a cracking, globe-trotting adventure here. Instead he's delivered a generic, personality-free action romp that feels like it could have been retrofitted from any number of forgettable studio films. Slap a different title on it and you'd never guess it had a beloved franchise behind it.
For fans of the games, it's an exercise in frustration. For everyone else, it's a perfectly mediocre couple of hours that you'll have largely forgotten by the time you reach the car park. Two stars, and I'm being generous with the second one.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2022 | Watched: 2026-07-25
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Channel 4 Plus · Sony Pictures Core Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Hulu · Amazon Prime Video · fuboTV · YouTube TV
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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