Uncharted: Maybe Every Live-Action Remake ISN’T Horrible After All

“Uncharted” promotional poster featuring the main cast. Sourced from Sony Pictures Entertainment

The new action-packed movie, “Uncharted”, brought to audiences by Sony Pictures, is a star-studded affair based on the Playstation game of the same name by Naughty Dog. Directed by Ruben Fleischer along with Old Hollywood faves, Antonio Banderas and Mark Wahlberg. And Hollywood’s new sweetheart Tom Holland (Spider-Man), and the brilliant Tati Gabrielle (“The 100” and “You”). With a cast this good and dynamic, it’s totally fair to say that many people will want to see the movie just for the actors. Without even bothering to learn about the video game itself or the concept of the movie. Yet, Sony does a stellar job of combining an A-list cast with a plot-filled movie that keeps the audience intrigued and enticed for what’s to come. 

Nathan “Nate” Drake (Tom Holland) is a young, charming bartender who has come a long way from his days at the nunnery. Where he grew up with his older brother Sam (Rudy Pankow). On one of his shifts bartending and looting from those he deems financially abundant, Nate meets professional thief and Sam’s old friend Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) and joins his quest.  The goal? To recover the legendary $5 billion treasure lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada. An elusive treasure that Nate and Sam both studied heavily while they were growing up.

What starts as an exciting adventure for Nate to find treasure and learn more about his estranged brother soon turns into a trial of trust, deceit and betrayal. But they’re not facing this trial alone, their opponent is Moncada’s newest generation, Santiago (Antonio Banderas) and the vivacious Braddock (Tati Gabrielle). Santiago is adamant about claiming what he believes rightfully belongs to his family and is indebted to from years ago. Just when it seems like Nate and Sully are finding the clues and putting the pieces together, they need to put this Moncada puzzle to rest. The rollercoaster of love in addition to the Moncada mob on their tails makes for an exciting chase around the world and an unexpected ending. 

The trailer, published on Sony’s Youtube channel does a sorry job of capturing the true quality of this movie, and just what makes the movie so entertaining. The banter between Nate and Sully is hilarious and sadly, left out the trailer heavily. This is especially noticeable when looking through the comments of fans who have played the game “Uncharted” and have only seen the trailer. Viewers like Melmeows states “One of the best things about uncharted is the banter between characters and I’m just sad that it doesn’t seem to have that vibe.”. This is a very honest and very apparent perspective based on the trailer.

Luckily, for fans like Melmeows, that banter they’re looking forward to between Nate and Sully is abundant! And so profoundly carried out by Tom and Mark. Furthermore, “Uncharted” fans can expect to hear Nate Drake’s infamous catchphrases “Oh Crap” and “this is gonna suck” when Tom Holland successfully shows off his parkour skills throughout the movie and trailer. Scenes from the trailer quickly capture the adventures of Nate and Sully on huge pirate boats. At exclusive auction centres and running from trouble all across the world. It’s easy to assume “Uncharted” is another movie along the lines of the “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” remakes. With a dash “Indiana Jones”, and “Pirates of the Caribbean” mixed in. But the movie itself could not do a better job of proving this assumption wrong. 

From the banter between Nate Drake and Victor Sully, the playful fights between Braddock and Sully, or other professional schemer Chloe Frazer (Sophia Taylor Ali), and Nate, to even the little moments of comedic relief given by the extremely amusing Scottish henchman, played by, Steven Waddington, in the midst of some of the most intense action scenes in the movie, “Uncharted” is humorous and entertaining throughout. The movie starts with a flashback of Holland’s character Nate Drake and his brother, Sam Drake that illustrates the intense bond these two share, that is very integral to Nate’s character development and the passion he has for history. These early scenes also serve one of the first moments of foreshadowing that are so carefully placed throughout the movie and explain exactly why finding the treasure is so important to Nate. 

Throughout the first half of “Uncharted”, Sully becomes the brother Nate is longing for, but has never been able to rid the void of. The audience looks into intimate moments shared between the two characters as Sully teaches Nate how to properly fix his tie, a classic moment shared between men, and how to become more smooth with his sticky fingers when planning to steal from others, which is still ironically endearing. These small moments, amongst others, between the two characters, played out by Holland and Wahlberg, are so well calculated that they truly make one believe their bond is something that will not, and cannot be broken.

Time and time again, however, this is put to the test as Nate and Sully both battle with their bouts of mistrust and greed as they believe they are getting closer to the alluring fortune and to finding out more about Nate’s brother Sam. In the thick of all this drama, is also a potential love situation that is bubbling between Holland’s character Nate Drake and Sophia Taylor Ali’s character, Chloe Frazer. This chaotic relationship between the two characters brings an element of romance to the movie that does not actually distract from the action within the movie, but ignites it! As Frazer has her own issues with trust and deceit, this relationship is one that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats waiting for the moment it may actually come to full fruition, if ever. This romance also complicates the budding kinship forming between Nate and Sully. 

Nonetheless, throughout all the romance and drama within “Uncharted”, this movie is without a doubt an action movie – and a great one at that. Audience members can look forward to a movie with a variety of action scenes that are exciting, different, and never a dull moment. Whatever one’s preferred weapon may be, this is a movie that gives it all. There are guns, cannons, gun powder, and even swords! Not in a scary, gory, way either, but in a historical, exciting way, if that could even be imagined. That is one of the things that just make the movie so great as well.

The element of violence is not the main aspect or one that is seemingly encouraged; Instead, it is used to keep the audience engaged and provide a different experience than given in a lot of action movies today, which is mostly just guns and fast cars. This movie takes a twist on fast cars and gives the audience pirate ships. For every gun in another action movie, “Uncharted” raises gun powder instead. 

As many may already know due to the video game, there will definitely be an “Uncharted 2” and that couldn’t be more thrilling after watching the first one. The creators of “Uncharted” have done an amazing job at creating enough suspense for movie number two by leaving many unanswered questions open, especially with the surprise extra ending after the credits. With so many questions still stirring in one’s brain after watching “Uncharted”, Sony Pictures has successfully started to work on building the hype up for the next movie in the potential trilogy. 

“Uncharted” teeters on the line of being family-friendly and does not hide it with its PG-13 rating. With mild explicit language and bouts of violence and action, this movie is definitely one recommended for the teenagers in the family, adults, or anyone who has played the video game as well. Haven’t played the video game and are concerned you won’t enjoy the movie?

Not to worry. “Uncharted” does a fantastic job of deriving concepts from the video game and exact quotes as nods to the fans, but also implementing an eye-catching storyline and star-studded cast who perform amazingly throughout the whole movie. Audience members can expect laughs, romance, action and even some nostalgia for those who have watched “Spiderman: Homecoming” as Tom Holland’s acrobatic performance and parkour are eerily similar to the likes of him playing Peter Parker in the latter movie. This is a movie series to look forward to over the next few years as the plot thickens in the next movie and more details unravel!