Uncharted (12A)

Young fortune hunter Nathan Drake is determined to learn the fate of his long-lost brother Sam. He joins forces with his mentor Victor "Sully" Sullivan and associate Chloe Frazer to discover the whereabouts of hidden gold dating back to the 16th-century expeditions of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Unfortunately, ruthless treasure hunter Moncada and his motley crew including mercenary Braddock also seek the priceless bounty.

LondonNet Film Review
Uncharted (12A)

In the popular Uncharted video games, a tall, muscular and lightly stubbled treasure hunter named Nathan Drake – supposedly a descendant of 16th-century sea captain Sir Francis – embarks on globe-trotting quests to unearth fabled artefacts accompanied by a silver-tongued father figure, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. In director Ruben Fleischer’s considerably less successful film adaptation, a lithe, boyish and gratuitously topless Nathan Drake played by Tom Holland embarks on a madcap odyssey to unearth the lost treasure of on-screen rapport with co-star Mark Wahlberg as his fortune seeking mentor…

Holland hits a motherlode of fool’s gold in Uncharted, shot directly before box office behemoth Spider-Man: No Way Home. He weathers repeated blows to body and face in elaborate action set pieces including a vertiginous scramble over crates tumbling out of an airborne cargo plane, inspired by a sequence in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.

Fleischer opens the film with this jaw-dropping masterclass in mid-air acrobatics – no character development nor perfunctory plot set-up, just the pure adrenaline rush of Holland battling gravity and gun-toting goons – then reprises the elaborate stunt an hour or so later, this time in flimsy narrative context. It’s one of many curious choices that diminishes Uncharted to breathless chases and bruising fights, bolted together with Indiana Jones-style tomb raiding and a throwaway cameo for actor Nolan North, whose motion-captured performances and vocals bring to life the digital incarnation of Nathan Drake.

When we first encounter the 25-year-old hero (Holland), he is working as a bartender and pickpocketing customers’ jewellery using simple misdirection and sleight of hand. Sully (Wahlberg) exposes the thievery and entreats Nathan to become his business partner as they solve the mystery of hidden gold dating back to the 16th-century expeditions of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Another mercenary, Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali), joins the odd couple and warns Nathan to be on his guard with Sully, who claims to have close ties to Nathan’s long-lost brother Sam. “Everything out of this one’s mouth is an exaggeration, a half-truth, or an outright lie,” she hisses.

The bickering trio are shadowed by Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), heir apparent to a cut-throat Spanish dynasty which financed Magellan’s doomed expedition. He intends to reclaim his bloodline’s bounty and hires knife-wielding mercenary Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) and two thugs (Steven Waddington, Pingi Moli) to derail Nathan, Sully and Chloe’s hunt.

Uncharted joins an inglorious list of thrilling video games which translate into dispiritingly hollow big screen spectacles. Holland roughs and tumbles with boundless energy but his chemistry with Wahlberg is inert while Banderas dials in the mild-mannered villainy. On-screen violence is staunched to secure a 12A certificate: one character meets an icky demise but their gaping wound permits only the faintest trickle of red. Bloodless perfectly sums up the entire enterprise. Spider-Man? No way. Stay home.

– Kim Hu