uncharted movie review imdb

How is a movie based on a video game more soulless than the game itself? The knock against the world of gaming has long been that they lack a human element, but Ruben Fleischer ’s “Uncharted” feels emptier than the award-winning franchise on which it’s based. Dominated by green screen special effects and thin treasure-hunt plotting, “Uncharted” fundamentally lacks the sense of adventure that turned the Sony games into some of the most beloved of all time. What’s most startling is how much the games themselves feel more cinematic in terms of world building, character, and narrative than the actual movie. It’s not quite as disastrous as some video game adaptations, and it’s at least light enough on its feet to never insult the intelligence of its fan base as so many of these movies tend to do. However, “Uncharted” seems to want to ride the goodwill of the video game adventures of Nathan Drake more than create any of its own; it takes no risks and feels like a bare minimum effort in terms of storytelling. Roger famously said that video games can never be art . The ones on which this movie is based are certainly more artistic.

Nathan Drake ( Tom Holland ) was conceived as a throwback to Indiana Jones and the serial adventure films that inspired him. He should be a smooth-talking treasure hunter, someone who exists in a slightly gray moral area wherein stealing priceless artifacts is warranted because no one else can really appreciate them like Drake. Holland has the agility but quite simply lacks the weight and world-weariness needed for a character like Drake, who was raised in an orphanage and is willing to steal to make ends meet. If Indiana was typically the smartest person in a room, Drake needs to be the one with the sharpest instincts, someone who sees the puzzles of history from a place of expertise and courage. Holland is a smart actor, but he’s just wrong here, always looking a little bit like a kid dressing up as his favorite video game character.

While working at a bar and stealing jewelry from his patrons, Drake is approached by Victor Sullivan aka Sully ( Mark Wahlberg ), who tells him that he got close to one of the most famous lost treasures in history with Nathan’s brother Sam. They stole the diary of the famous explorer Juan Sebastian Elcano, which will guide them to treasure that was hidden by the Magellan expedition. They quickly cross paths with Santiago Moncada (an Antonio Banderas so underutilized that one has to believe half his part was cut), the heir to the family that funded the original expedition. Moncada’s will is enforced by the tough Jo Braddock ( Tati Gabrielle ) and the boys reunite with an old colleague of Sully’s in Barcelona named Chloe Frazier ( Sophia Ali , who pretty much steals the movie).

“Uncharted” bounces these characters off each other on a journey to Spain and the Philippines, but nothing has any weight to it. It’s green screen performing that ignores how much setting can matter in a film like this one. Design never once feels like a consideration, whether Nathan and Chloe are crawling through a nondescript tunnel to hidden treasure or Sully is getting into one of the few fight scenes in an actual Papa John’s. A film like “Uncharted” needs to transport audiences. We need to go on the journey, not just watch actors pretend to fall out of planes. The “Uncharted” games take players around the world. You’ll never once get that feeling during this cold, distant adventure film.

If anything saves “Uncharted” from the depths of the worst video game adaptations, it’s the relative charm of the cast. Holland may be miscast, but he’s just an incredibly likable movie star, and I hope he can find parts that better utilize his charms. Wahlberg creates a nice balance between his charisma and the exhausted tone of a treasure hunter who has seen and done enough, and just wants that final gig that can set him up for life. Banderas is wasted and Gabrielle is inconsistent, but Ali is arguably the one performer who gets that “Uncharted” should be fun. She gives the film some much-needed energy and unpredictability when she’s on-screen.

“Uncharted” is another one of those projects that has been through so many potential production teams over the years that it lost its identity. There are reports going back to 2008 about different filmmakers trying to get this movie made and David O. Russell , Neil Burger , Joe Carnahan , Shawn Levy , Dan Trachtenberg , and Travis Knight were all rumored or even attached at different points. When a project goes through so many iterations over the years, it can often lead to a final film that feels like a compromise, a watered-down version that took the most common, most basic elements of everything that had been suggested over the years. “Uncharted” checks boxes for fans and newbies but does so in such a predictable manner that it lacks any edge or spark. I’ve played through some of the “Uncharted” games from beginning to end more than once, a multiple-hour commitment. It may only take two to watch it, but I’ll probably never see this movie again.

Opens in theaters on Friday, February 18 th .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Tom Holland as Nathan Drake
• Mark Wahlberg as Victor 'Sully' Sullivan
• Antonio Banderas as Santiago Moncada
• Sophia Ali as Chloe Frazer
• Tati Gabrielle as Braddock
• Steven Waddington as The Scotsman
• Pingi Moli as Hugo
• Matt Holloway
• Rafe Judkins
• Chris Lebenzon
• Richard Pearson

Cinematographer

• Chung-hoon Chung

Writer (story)

• Jon Hanley Rosenberg
• Mark D. Walker
• Ramin Djawadi
• Ruben Fleischer

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‘Uncharted’ Review: Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in a Video-Game Movie That’s Better Than Most of Them (but That’s Not Saying Much)

It's watchable in a thin "Raiders of the Lost National Treasure of the Fast & Furious Caribbean" way.

By Owen Gleiberman

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I try to go into every movie with open eyes and an open mind, but I confess that this Buddhist goal can be seriously tested by the prospect of sitting through a video-game movie. Sorry, but I’ve been burned too often — by “Super Mario Bros.” (the first one out of the gate, back in 1993), by “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Kombat” and their sequels, by the 637 “Resident Evil” films, by the operatic death-plunge bombast of “Assassins’ Creed,” which looked like it was adapted from the 100 greatest prog-rock album covers. Are there good video-game movies? I enjoyed the 2018 reboot of “Tomb Raider.” The audiences for these films, who tend to be steeped in the games, would say that any number of them are good. But for those like me, who are looking at the movies as movies rather than live-action adjuncts, there can be a sludgy sameness to them: the kinetic fight-club visuals, the skeletal scripts, the “world-building” that starts to look like a series of digital-production-design show reels.

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But “ Uncharted ,” based on the Naughty Dog game whose first installment dropped on PlayStation in 2007, is at least trying for something. It’s built around an appealing pair of actors: Tom Holland , who I think registers more vividly as he grows less boyish (he’s in a more rough-and-tumble mode here), and Mark Wahlberg , who knows how to play a hard-ass who is also a trickster. (It’s no insult to Wahlberg to say that his intelligence is his secret weapon.) Holland is Nate Drake, the valiant but naïve adventurer hero, and Wahlberg is Victor Sullivan, who becomes Nate’s mentor by recruiting him to go on a mission to find the legendary stash of gold, which is essentially pirate booty, that was discovered 500 years ago during the around-the-world expedition of Ferdinand Magellan. Can you say “Raiders of the Lost National Treasure of the Fast & Furious Caribbean”?

“Uncharted” opens on one of those leap-ahead-to-the-middle-of-the-story moments, so that the film can entice us with its most astonishing sequence: an unintentional airplane escape, with Nate, having fallen out of the plane, shimmying across a roped chain of bulky oversize packing cubes, each equipped with a parachute — a sequence that may sound standard, but the technology for this kind of thing has advanced, so that it’s done in a seemingly all-in-one-shot breathless way, until you could swear that Tom Holland is actually thousands of feet up in the air, hanging on with one finger. It’s the kind of sequence that makes the video-game-movie skeptic in me sit back and say, “Okay, cool, I’ll go with this.”

Back on the ground, before all that happened, Nate is a New York bartender who’s also a pickpocket and a loner, because he grew up in the St. Francis Boys Orphanage with his older brother, Sam (Rudy Pankow), who got kicked out, leaving the 10-year-old Nate to fend for himself. When Wahlberg’s Sully shows up out of the blue, it’s not really a coincidence — all the connections in the movie trace back to Nate’s vanished sibling — but these two are still thrown together as if they’d been assigned to the same cop car. “Uncharted” is a buddy movie that takes place in the air, on the water, and in tombs with mechanical puzzle entrances tucked away in the catacombs of Barcelona.

In a fun early sequence, Nate and Sully infiltrate an auction so they can steal its prize antique: a dripped-gold ruby-studded key that looks like an ornate cross. There are two of the keys out there, and for them to work you need both. The pair’s rival in all this is Santiago Moncada, whose ancestors funded the Magellan mission; he’s played by Antonio Banderas , who glowers in one-dimensional villain mode. “Uncharted” is essentially an action thriller about two lethally competing scavenger-hunt teams.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, who made “Venom” and the “Zombieland” films, the movie is less obviously video-game-ish than most entries in the genre. Yet after the initial fireworks, you begin to see the design of the thing. “Uncharted” must have looked like a natural movie to make, because the game it’s based on is so “cinematic.” But what that means, in practice, is that the game crossbreeds legendary movie tropes in an abstract way, and when they’re adapted back to the big screen the abstraction is still there. “Uncharted” is a lively but thinly scripted and overlong mad-dash caper movie, propelled by actors you wish, after a while, had more interesting things to say and do.

In a scene that takes place in a bedroom between Nate and Chloe (Sophia Ali), who has the other golden cross, I was struck by how the movie makes a point of showing off the very buff Holland, but what would have been a romance a decade ago is now…not a romance. (Maybe it’s set to become one?) I’m not saying the film needed a cliché love story to snuggle up against its other clichés, but at least it would have been an additional element. The vibe of “Uncharted” is breathless and a bit neutral. I chuckled at the Scottish hooligan (Steven Waddington) with a brogue so thick that Nate has to ask him to repeat his threats just so he can understand them, and I enjoyed the playful way Wahlberg suggests that his character might be a scoundrel. The climax, in which Magellan’s ancient ships are hoisted into the Philippines by bottomless helicopters, is both absurd and spectacular — a nice combo. But if you sit through the credits, you get not one but two separate preview sequences, the second one hidden like an Easter Egg. I don’t know if I’d call that presumptuous, but I’d definitely call it optimism.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, Feb. 14, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 116 MIN.

• Production: A Sony Pictures Releasing release of a Columbia Pictures, Arad Productions, Atlas Entertainment, PlayStaytion Productions production. Producers: Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner, Ari Arad. Executive producers: Ruben Fleischer, Robert J. Dohrmann, David Bernad, Tom Holland, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Neil Druckman, Evan Wells, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway.
• Crew: Director: Ruben Fleischer. Screenplay: Rafe Lee Judkins, Jon Hanley Rosenberg, Mark. D. Walker. Camera: Chung-hoon Chung. Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Richard Pearson. Music: Ramin Djawadi.
• With: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia All, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas.

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Tom holland and mark wahlberg in ‘uncharted’: film review.

Holland takes a breather from web-spinning to play treasure hunter Nathan Drake in this cinematic adaptation of the hugely popular PlayStation video game series.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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This weekend, you’ll be able to go to theaters and see a highly entertaining thrill ride of a movie, featuring Tom Holland performing death-defying stunts and spending a good portion of the film’s running time engaging in witty banter and flying through the air.

I’m talking, of course, about Spider-Man: No Way Home .

Release date: Friday, Feb. 18

Cast: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Screenwriters: Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Oh, there’s also Uncharted , the feature film version of the hit PlayStation video game series, starring Holland as globe-trotting, history-obsessed treasure hunter Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Victor “Sully” Sullivan, Nathan’s shady mentor. The film deviates from the video games in a number of ways, being an origin story featuring younger versions of the beloved characters. And if you’re thinking that Wahlberg once would have been a great choice to play Nathan himself, you’re not alone. The film has been in development for so many years that he was formerly attached to play the role until he eventually aged out of it.

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Resembling the love child of Tomb Raider , Raiders of the Lost Ark and National Treasure , Uncharted definitely feels like a video game adaptation, so rapidly segueing from one elaborate action set piece to another that your fingers may start twitching while watching it.  Director Ruben Fleischer knows his way around this sort of material, having previously helmed such movies as Venom and Zombieland , and he understands that the target audience isn’t particularly interested in deep characterizations or sophisticated dialogue.

Still, it would have been nice if screenwriters Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway had come up with something more interesting than this generic adventure in which Nate and Sully team up to first commit a robbery at a high-end auction house and then head to exotic locales in search of Ferdinand Magellan’s lost treasure of gold. Or more interesting villains than the ruthless Santiago Moncada, played by Antonio Banderas in a performance that can best be described as detached. Or wittier exchanges than Sully constantly teasing Nate about his gum-chewing and Nate responding in kind about Sully’s habit of leaving too many open apps on his cell phone.

More problematically, Nate and Sully, mutually supportive in the games, here come across like a bickering couple on the verge of divorce. Wahlberg’s Sully looks and behaves disgruntled so much of the time that you begin to wonder how these two went on to form a long-running partnership. (Or maybe the actor was just annoyed at disappearing from the story for long stretches of time.)

This star vehicle doesn’t exactly feel like a stretch for Holland, since his Nate, an expert pickpocket, is basically a more larcenous Peter Parker minus the web-spinning — at one point, he apologizes to a bad guy he’s just sent plummeting to his death, which is exactly what Peter would do. As made evident by his many shirtless scenes, the actor clearly buffed up for the role, the better to perform the numerous high-octane stunts that include falling out of an airplane and a lengthy parkour-style foot chase.

The film features plenty of photogenic real-life locations and some genuinely exciting action sequences, including the aforementioned airplane scene — which opens the film and is reprised later on — and a breathless battle involving airborne 16 th -century sailing ships.

Refreshingly, it’s the female characters who are the most badass. Sully’s longtime treasure hunting associate Chloe Frazer (a charismatic Sophie Ali) more than keeps up with the guys when it comes to physical derring-do, and Moncado’s blade-wielding henchwoman Braddock (Tati Gabrielle, fearsome) is a homicidal villainess who could give James Bond a run for his money.

You can’t say that the makers of Uncharted lack confidence, since the film ends with the sort of cliffhanger that basically promises a sequel. It’s a bold move, considering the number of video game film adaptations that have crashed and burned, but with the charismatic Holland as its star, it just may pay off.

Full credits

Production companies: Arad Productions, Atlas Entertainment, PlayStation Productions Distributor: Columbia Pictures Cast: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas Director: Ruben Fleischer Screenwriters: Rafe Lee Judkins, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway Producers: Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner, Ari Arad Executive producers: Ruben Fleischer, Robert J. Dohrmann, David Bernad, Tom Holland, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Neil Druckmann, Evan Wells, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway Director of photography: Chung-hoon Chung Production designer: Shepherd Frankel Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Richard Pearson Costume designer: Marlene Stewart Composer: Ramin Djawadi Casting: Priscilla John, Orla Maxwell, Yael Moreno, John Papsidera, Anna-Lena Slater

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Uncharted’s road to gold is plagued by its bros

Drake and his dad in the club meets tomb raider.

By Charles Pulliam-Moore , a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

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Columbia Pictures’ new Uncharted movie from Venom director Ruben Fleischer is a testament to the idea that the longer much-buzzed-about adaptations of beloved franchises linger in development hell, the more likely they are to emerge from it — that is if they ever do — as warped misfires that might have been better kept in the drafts. Uncharted isn’t the first movie this is true of. But unlike so many other adaptations in this class, which tend to feel hamstrung by a lack of understanding of what people like about the source material, you do get the sense watching Uncharted that everyone involved vaguely “gets” what all the fuss is meant to be about. Uncharted knows what it’s supposed to be — the problem’s that it is profoundly uninterested in being that thing.

Uncharted draws upon elements from multiple Uncharted games in order to build a story around a younger, more inexperienced Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) who’s sucked into the jet setting, tomb raiding lifestyle after a not-so-chance encounter with conman / treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg). Though Nathan, a lonesome bartender with a troubled past and no close family in the present day, knows better than to trust smooth-talking strangers who pick pockets better than he does, Sully’s able to earn the younger man’s trust and recruit him onto a big job by playing up his connections and similarities to Nathan’s long-lost brother, Sam. 

Technically, Uncharted opens on one of its surprisingly few major set pieces that take place towards the end of the movie before jumping back in time to focus on Nathan and Sully’s meeting. But Nathan’s path to lost treasure actually begins back in his adolescence when he (Tiernan Jones in flashbacks) and Sam (Rudy Pankow) were just two wayward boys sneaking out of their orphanage to steal valuable pieces of history from museums, as children are wont to do. What Uncharted attempts to do in its opening scenes is convey to you how Nathan and Sam’s love for treasure hunting and their being ripped away from each other in their youth laid the groundwork for the adult Nathan to become the sort of person to be won over by Sully’s charms. But what Uncharted inadvertently ends up doing instead is drawing attention to its own indecision about who its main character is and what kind of people they are.

Uncharted can’t decide who its main character is

Watching Holland and Wahlberg try to play off of one another in basically any of the movie’s comedic scenes is like gazing into a sharp crystallization of just how fraught Uncharted ’s journey to the big screen was. Long before it shifts fully into action mode, Uncharted tries to sell you on the idea of itself as a buddy adventure flick. But the bulk of Nathan and Sully’s banter falls flat due to an unfortunate blend of questionable chemistry and hackneyed dialogue that makes even the dullest of video game cutscenes shine by comparison. 

Wahlberg, who was one of the frontrunners to play Drake over a decade ago, neither seems particularly excited about nor down on the idea of playing Sully — he just looms like a reminder of the Uncharted movie that could have been. Holland’s Nathan is, by comparison, the more engaging of the two characters, but the degree to which Uncharted attempts to rely on Holland’s boyish charm to carry it ends up hurting the film in a way that becomes progressively more noticeable as it goes on and more characters are introduced. This might not be such a glaring issue if Nathan and Sully’s brotherly camaraderie wasn’t meant to be Uncharted ’s beating heart, and if the film had the wherewithal to at least try to make some of its supporting characters feel like people instead of walking, talking callbacks to the games.

By the time that Nathan and Sully set out on their mission to track down a lost treasure hidden by Magellan’s crew, there’s still plenty of Uncharted to get through, but because the film can’t commit to a focus or a tone, it continues to feel much longer than it actually is all throughout.

The Uncharted franchise isn’t just Tomb Raider for Men™, but this movie is

Uncharted doesn’t really want you to think about why Sully and other hunters like Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) and Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) are only able to finally start getting leads once Nathan shows up even though they’ve all been hunting for this specific treasure for ages. The movie also doesn’t especially want you to notice the fact that none of the puzzle solving or clue hunting that Nathan himself does appear to be very difficult or clever. What Uncharted does want, though, is to give you the feeling of being whisked away to gorgeous, foreign locales, where no one takes much of an issue with folks showing up to hack away at valuable pieces of history.

The Uncharted franchise has its merits and isn’t just Tomb Raider for Men™, but that’s definitely the impression one could take away from this film for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, its apparent allergy to developing female characters beyond being quippy prizes for its male leads to lust after. Uncharted ’s greatest sin, however, is the sureness with which it presents you with the potential for future installments — installments this movie’s ending neither earns nor warrants.

Uncharted also stars Antonio Banderas, Steven Waddington, and Pingi Moli and hits theaters on February 18th.

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‘Uncharted’ Review: Steal, Fight, Repeat

This inaptly titled treasure-hunt adventure recycles all the familiar clichés while giving Tom Holland a strenuous physical workout.

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By Manohla Dargis

At least give Sony credit for recycling. That is the best that can be said for its nitwit treasure-hunt movie “Uncharted,” an amalgam of clichés that were already past their sell-by date when Nicolas Cage plundered the box office in Disney’s “National Treasure” series. Now, it is Tom Holland’s turn to cash in with a musty story about ancient loot, old maps, lost ships, invisible ink and a wealthy scoundrel with disposable minions. But while he’s following in Cage’s inimitable footsteps, Holland also seems in training to become Tom Cruise 2.0.

The similarities between “Uncharted” and the first “National Treasure” are notable, with both movies adhering to the same booty-questing template. Each opens with a flashback of the protagonist as a wee lad eagerly being primed for adventure by an older male relative, a misty rite of passage that seems calculated to put a family-friendly stamp on an otherwise greed-driven setup. In “National Treasure,” the kid soon becomes a character played by Cage, whose singular, offbeat performance style can elevate and disrupt crummy material.

In “Uncharted,” the boy grows up to become a neo-buccaneer played by the boyish Holland, a likable, exuberantly physical performer who has traded his Spider-Man responsibilities for more old-school heroic duty. The Hollywood action movie seems an open field right now partly because most of the male stars who headline non-comic-book blockbusters are middle-aged or older. Holland is 25. He’s cute without being threatening or distractingly, Chalamet-esquely beautiful, and has enough presence and training ( dance, gymnastics, parkour ) that he can bluff and breeze past clichés while gracefully bouncing through fights and obstacles.

Cruise will be 61 when the next “Mission: Impossible” finally (maybe) opens in July 2023. He’s likely to keep going Energizer Bunny-style for years to come. Still, the paucity of young male actors who have the profile, credits and skill set to sell studio goods like “Uncharted” may prove a lucrative opportunity for Holland and his treasure-seeking handlers. At any rate that may explain the images of his character, Nate Drake, a thief who moonlights as a bartender (or vice versa), pulling some smooth moves on the job, a bit of juggling tomfoolery that instantly triggers images of Cruise in “Cocktail.”

Soon enough, though, Nate leaves behind his gig and his New York pad for an international escapade that he embarks on in tandem with Mark Wahlberg’s Sully, a more experienced, openly untrustworthy thief. A veteran of workaday blockbusters, Wahlberg serves twinned functions here as a presold pop-culture brand and an archetypal mentor for Nate. Sully can sprint, fight and trade unfunny quips without breaking a sweat, and Wahlberg is just fine delivering the same gruff, regular-guy performance that he always does. He shares top billing with Holland, but Wahlberg is largely onboard as training wheels for the younger actor.

“Uncharted” is based on a PlayStation game of the same name that first hit in 2007 and that tracks the globe-trotting doings of its Everyman hero, said to be descended from the British privateer Sir Francis Drake. The movie, directed by Ruben Fleischer, nods to the game and Sir Francis, who circumnavigated the globe in the 16th century and was instrumental in England’s challenge to Spain. Given the current climate, though, it’s a surprise that the movie didn’t quietly ignore Sir Francis, who participated in establishing the slave trade . In 2020, a statue of Sir Francis in Britain was draped in chains with a sign reading “decolonize history.”

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Uncharted Review

11 Feb 2022

Back in 2011, in a commercial made for the Japanese market but which has since appeared online, Harrison Ford sat down in front of a TV to play the third video game in the Uncharted series. “Fantastic. Oh, incredible,” said the star, as he hammered the X button with his thumb. “So cinematic.” It was a publicity coup — the actual Indiana Jones stepping into the pixelly shoes of his gaming equivalent, Nathan Drake. It was yet more evidence that Uncharted — a brilliantly executed PlayStation adventure franchise which is, yes, cinematic as hell — was destined to become a film series too. But the ad also hinted strongly at the biggest problem facing anyone daring to take Drake to the big screen: the shadow of Spielberg’s Indy films, the gold standard for movies about treasure-hunters dodging dusty booby-traps and falling out of planes.

After roughly 15 years of development, Uncharted the movie is finally here. Dusty booby-traps and plummets from planes are present and correct. Alas, despite the promise and all that time expended, it’s disappointingly weak sauce. For die-hard fans of the games, there’s little that lives up to their ingeniously unfolding action set-pieces, such as the train sequence in Uncharted 2 which builds and builds in intensity until a cliffhanger that involves actual cliff-hanging, or the wild horseback gun-battle in part 3. Non-Drakeheads, meanwhile, are likely to wonder what all the fuss was about. What’s on screen is amiable enough, a hunt for $4 billion of pirate booty that involves a lot of double-crossing (plus, thanks to the film’s twin MacGuffin, a pair of crucifixes, a literal double-cross). But while it clearly aims for Raiders Of The Lost Ark — “When did you decide to become Indiana Jones?” someone says at one point, while our heroes’ trek is depicted by a red dotted line on a map, Indy-style — it lands somewhere around National Treasure 2 instead.

Antonio Banderas makes for a colourless villain, with monologues about “diversified investments” so inert that even his goons look bored.

Over the years, the search to fill the two lead roles — Drake and his grizzled mentor Sully — cycled through pretty much every actor in Hollywood with a gym membership card. It finally landed on Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg , two actors who can be charming and funny individually, but who struggle to muster up much in the way of comic chemistry here. It doesn’t help that the dialogue they’re given is significantly lamer than that uttered by their video-game counterparts; as they bicker in catacombs over ancient riddles (Wahlberg was at least well-cast in the sense that his resting expression suggests he is perpetually trying to crack an ancient riddle), scenes start to feel like cutscenes that you wish you could skip. Antonio Banderas , likewise, makes for a colourless villain, with monologues about “diversified investments” so inert that even his goons look bored.

There are moments when it jolts into life: a well-executed, lengthy single shot tracking Drake as he freefalls from an aircraft; some Goonies -esque underground map-syncing. But only the final 20 minutes, with a pirate-ship battle that takes to the skies, lives up to the giddy, inventive spectacle of the source material. Otherwise, Uncharted plods around an all-too-familiar map.

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Uncharted Reviews

If you go in expecting a grand adventure, Uncharted likely won’t deliver. Temper your expectations and you’ll likely leave thinking that the film was decent enough, despite having faults

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 29, 2024

If this movie has taught me anything it’s that video game movie adaptations will never be a sustainable avenue for Hollywood.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Sep 23, 2023

What will be most frustrating for fans of the video game franchise and distributors Sony is that the film fails to deliver the same level of quality as its source material, though newcomers might find more to enjoy.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2023

Tom is a solid Nathan Drake Sophia is a great Chloe Mark was Mark…. Nothing against him but he was nothing like Sully. As a long time fan of this gaming series I wanted more & left frustrated even with the fun glimmers that were throughout the film

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

What started as a video game produced by Play Station became a movie that just doesn’t hit all the notes it desperately tries to.

Uncharted is an action-adventure flick, but despite a more entertaining last act, it fails to break the curse of videogame film adaptations due precisely to the lack of said action and adventure.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 25, 2023

With a predictable plot, rudimentary puzzles, and strawman characters, Uncharted never manages to find its narrative bearings.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Uncharted fails to provide the most basic principles of an adventure movie. It is underwhelming and overloaded, without the charm of its clearly Spielberg-ian roots.

Uncharted heads into familiar action-adventure territory making for a forgettable video game adaptation.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Dec 4, 2022

While Uncharted rarely veers away from the charted territory, the film has enough fun with itself for an enjoyable ride.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2022

If you squint hard enough, you'll see what makes Holland great—charm, charisma, aw-shucks levels of approachability—but none of it saves the flick from being utterly forgettable.

Full Review | Oct 12, 2022

Uncharted seems fresh in the era of superhero blockbusters. Saying it’s not as great as one of the best video game series ever shouldn’t be a massive indictment as it’s a fun ride with a clear respect for the source material.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 10, 2022

A globe-hopping adventure that manages to be visually boring and charm-sucking.

Full Review | Aug 26, 2022

It’s a fun ride, and there’s a cool cameo for gamers to enjoy, but it is not quite the film I had hoped it would be.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2022

“Uncharted” really leans on its star power, especially Holland who plays a very Holland-like character – charismatic, boyishly charming, a bit daffy, and with an unshakable innocence (even when he tries to talk tough).

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 16, 2022

The film's secret weapon is Tom Holland's natural athleticism.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 10, 2022

If you are after a relatively generic action-adventure, Uncharted probably fits the bill – although a Marvel-like reliance on digital effects does let down its larger action sequences.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 9, 2022

Amidst the lukewarm broth of deepfakes and green screen that make for the main entertainment of this film, there are very few fun, memorable moments except for the most stupid ones, and we'd rather forget about those. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 11, 2022

There's just enough that gleams here to be watchable. It's a film with a few shiny coins in its bag, rather than a whole bar, cavern or ship of riches.

Full Review | Jun 25, 2022

Uncharted plays out like a very middle-of-the-road treasure hunt movie which emulates the likes of Indiana Jones and National Treasure and comes off as an uninventive re-tread.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 10, 2022

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Common Sense Media Review

Violence, language in too long game-based adventure.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Uncharted is a treasure hunt action-adventure movie that's based on the popular video game series featuring hero Nathan Drake (Tom Holland). Expect lots of largely bloodless action violence, much of it in the form of set pieces in which the main characters have to fight faceless,…

Why Age 12+?

Frequent action violence, with many set pieces in which the main characters must

Language and cursing includes "s--t," "son of a bitch," "hell," "bastards," "ass

Several scenes take place at bars, with characters ordering cocktails by name (m

Flirting. A male character looks suggestively at a woman's body as she walks awa

Characters are pursuing a trove of gold from a lost Spanish sailing foray; it's

Any Positive Content?

Central character Nate is intended to be seen as principled compared to his fell

The two top-billed stars are White men. Within the central quintet of tough, bra

Like in the game, the movie takes place in a world where people have few scruple

Violence & Scariness

Frequent action violence, with many set pieces in which the main characters must fight their way into or out of situations. Characters are often in mortal danger -- e.g., a scene in which they're trapped in an underground chamber filling with water. Two people are accidentally ejected from an aircraft and fall through the air while taking out villains. Deaths take place on-screen, including scenes in which throats are slit, characters are stabbed, and people fall off of planes and helicopters; blood is infrequent, and only one dead body is visible at length. Guns are used/brandished. Most of the opposition that main characters face is of the anonymous-henchperson type, with assailants seen quickly and dehumanized by shots that hide their faces.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language and cursing includes "s--t," "son of a bitch," "hell," "bastards," "ass," "crap," "oh my God," and "Jesus" (as an exclamation). Characters frequently say something "sucks."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Several scenes take place at bars, with characters ordering cocktails by name (martini, negroni) and a bartender showily twirling bottles. In another scene, characters bond by drinking wine; by night's end, all look bleary and exhausted, and the room is littered with perhaps 10 bottles (for three people). A character holds, but does not smoke, a cigarette.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Flirting. A male character looks suggestively at a woman's body as she walks away; he's warned off by another character. References to characters being "together," and a scene in which characters are seen asleep in bed with the implication that they slept together. Female characters, particularly one antagonist, wear costumes that are impractically tight and bare; male characters are frequently seen shirtless.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Characters are pursuing a trove of gold from a lost Spanish sailing foray; it's said to be worth billions.

Positive Role Models

Central character Nate is intended to be seen as principled compared to his fellow adventurers, who don't hesitate to double-cross each other. And he is indeed loyal to those he considers his friends, but he also kills dozens in his pursuit of wealth and never seems to question it. Sully and Chloe are even less principled, betraying each other at almost every turn, as well as killing conveniently anonymous villains.

Diverse Representations

The two top-billed stars are White men. Within the central quintet of tough, brave characters, two are young women of color; everyone else is male. An antagonist is a man of unspecified Latino heritage who frequently speaks Spanish. Female characters are sexualized with bare, clingy costumes.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Like in the game, the movie takes place in a world where people have few scruples and angle after ill-gotten gains (in this case, a missing treasure). Never considers what the Spanish treasure ship and the explorers who crewed it did to the land and people they plundered, nor whether finding and keeping the gold is worth the toll it ultimately takes.

Parents need to know that Uncharted is a treasure hunt action-adventure movie that's based on the popular video game series featuring hero Nathan Drake ( Tom Holland ). Expect lots of largely bloodless action violence, much of it in the form of set pieces in which the main characters have to fight faceless, dehumanized minions to get into or out of a location. Characters are frequently in mortal danger, including dangling from a flying plane and being trapped in an underground cavern that's filling with water. Guns are used, and people are killed by being hurled off of vehicles and falling great distances; one has his throat slit, and viewers see some blood and his dead body. Sexual content is limited to flirting, suggestive looks, and a scene that shows people in bed, implying that they slept together. While two of the main characters are women who are depicted as just as strong and brave as the men, they also wear clingy and sometimes unrealistically bare costumes that would be difficult to fight in, including spiked heels. Language includes "s--t," "son of a bitch," "hell," "oh my God," and more. Characters drink frequently; in one scene, three people share at least 10 bottles of wine and appear bleary and sloppy afterward. One character holds a cigarette and tries to light it but doesn't succeed. Drake is depicted as more heroic than the other characters because he doesn't betray his fellow adventurers, yet, like them, he pursues the lost Spanish gold at seemingly any cost, without concern for death and injury. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (21)
• Kids say (70)

Based on 21 parent reviews

More curse words than I thought

What's the story.

Based on the popular action-adventure video game series that started with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune , UNCHARTED focuses on the game's main protagonist: treasure hunter Nathan Drake ( Tom Holland ). Claiming that he and his long-lost brother, Sam (played as a teen by Rudy Pankow), are descended from renowned explorer Sir Francis Drake, Nathan is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan ( Mark Wahlberg ) to search for the lost riches of Ferdinand Magellan, with the grudging accompaniment of their associate Chloe ( Sophia Ali ). But they aren't the only team on the hunt: Nathan and Sully's globe-trotting forays are closely followed by the ruthless and well-funded Moncada ( Antonio Banderas ) and his hired gun, Braddock (Tati Gabrielle).

Is It Any Good?

Beautiful to look at and crammed with heart-stopping adventure sequences set in picturesque foreign lands, this video game adaptation is thrilling, if overly long and morally iffy. What Uncharted mainly has going for it is adept adventure set piece directing and star Holland, who's an affable, even charming, lead. Nate is relatably anxious in the midst of mortal danger yet both game and good-humored, a fantastic foil for Wahlberg's Sully, who leans toward blank-faced derring-do. Holland's easygoing vibe makes viewers want to root for Nate on his quest in beautiful places and through immeasurable danger.

But that quest is more enjoyable if you switch off your brain before watching. It can't be denied that the only difference between Nate and Sully and the better-funded Moncada team that opposes them is that we're told the Moncada family is involved in criminal enterprises. Real bad stuff, the film tells us in a few throwaway lines, and then, poof!, Sully and Nate are seemingly cleared to kill as many people as they want in horrible ways in pursuit of treasure. That doesn't sound like a particularly heroic quest, but the film treats it as such (none of the characters questions whether this is a worthy goal, even when lives lost in the hunt mount into the dozens), which certainly detracts from the messages viewers might otherwise take away. Fans of the video games may not care: Scenes in which Nate and Sully leap through midair from planes and helicopters and ancient Spanish galleons are certainly exciting, and the Holland-and-Wahlberg buddy team is pleasant enough to anchor the movie if you don't think too hard about it.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether you need to have played any of the Uncharted games to appreciate this movie. Does knowing the game(s) help sharpen your enjoyment, or is the comparison distracting? Do video games typically make good fodder for movie adaptations? Why, or why not?

Many games have lots of deadly violence, with enemies killed in great numbers as the main character pursues their goal. How does the impact of that compare to what you see here?

How does Uncharted dehumanize the characters who die so that viewers don't consider their deaths important and it doesn't detract from the movie's flow? Is that OK?

How do you think viewers are meant to feel about Sully and Nate? About Chloe? Braddock? How do movies tell you who to root for and who to dislike? Consider that villains and heroes in this movie use the same ends to attain their means -- i.e., physical violence and trickery. With that in mind, what makes the heroes different from the villains?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 18, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : May 10, 2022
• Cast : Tom Holland , Mark Wahlberg , Sophia Ali
• Director : Ruben Fleischer
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Middle Eastern/North African actors
• Studio : Columbia Pictures
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Adventures
• Run time : 116 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : violence/action and language
• Last updated : July 11, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

Jungle Cruise

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

National Treasure

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

The Mummy (1999)

The Librarian: Quest for the Spear

Excellent adventure movies for family fun, best action movies for kids, related topics.

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

‘Uncharted’ charts a predictable course

Though it has its charms, mark wahlberg and tom holland don't cover new ground in this average action-adventure film..

By Kevin Slane

In the new action-adventure movie “Uncharted,” there’s a moment where Nathan Drake (“Spider-Man” star Tom Holland) glimpses an elderly nun shuffling through a medieval cathedral. 

“Nuns. Why’s it always gotta be nuns?” he mutters, an obvious nod to a famous line uttered by Indiana Jones, the spiritual forefather to Drake’s globetrotting mercenary.

That the comment is neither clever nor especially relevant to the plot is immaterial. It’s an Easter Egg for fans of the popular video game series from which the movie is adapted, and a reference for film fans venturing to the multiplex this weekend in search of Spielbergian adventure.

While “Uncharted” does manage to provide two hours of passable if unspectacular entertainment, it certainly doesn’t live up to its title, instead charting a well-trodden path previously covered by the likes of “National Treasure,” “The Da Vinci Code,” and, yes, “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

The story of “Uncharted” more or less begins with a flashback to Nathan’s childhood in Boston at an orphanage. His older brother Sam teached him the life of a streetwise pickpocket, which leads the state to separate them. Before Sam slips the authority’s grasp, he vows to reunite with Nathan one day. Fast-forward 15 years, and Nathan is working as a bartender, distracting wealthy marks with his fast talk and undeniable charm while nabbing their wallets and jewelry.

Very quickly, Nathan is visited by Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a conniving con-man in search of an ancient treasure tied to explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Nathan initially refuses, but when Victor reveals that Sam was searching for the treasure as well, Nathan joins the hunt.

After that, the plot stops really mattering. Nathan and Sully steal some stuff, get double-crossed, shot at, and travel all over the globe, all while engaging in witty if perfunctory banter.

The action set pieces in “Uncharted” are some of the best scenes of the film, with director Ruben Fleishcer (“Zombieland”) staging a number of bravura sequences that pull directly from the video game series. One sequence based on a mission in “Uncharted 3,” in which Nathan leaps his way through the air at 30,000 feet back toward the plane he just fell out of, is a particular highlight.

It may not shock you to learn that Wahlberg has little trouble playing Sully, a gruff hoodlum who peppers Nate with a steady stream of banter directly in the Dorchester native’s wheelhouse. It’s hardly heavy lifting for Wahlberg, but he performs it with aplomb.

Of the supporting cast, the highlight has to be Antonio Banderas as Santiago Moncada, a ruthless treasure hunter whose family lineage ties him to the same $5 billion treasure Nate and Sully are hunting. Banderas plays the Bond villain-esque role with ease, disposing of useless henchmen and intrusive family members with a cold sneer.

Holland, 25, has now played Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe six times, and “Uncharted” should have been the perfect opportunity for the actor to show his range as a new type of action hero. Instead, what we get is a Peter Parker rehash, with Holland leaning on his aw-shucks persona when the character doesn’t call for it.

Holland still fares better than most of the supporting cast, who merely serve as useful vessels to advance the film’s pedestrian plot. Tati Gabrielle plays Braddock, a deadly assassin who does little more than show up and cause trouble. As fellow mercenary Chloe Frazer, Sophia Ali typifies the film’s worst impulse, in which every single scene involves characters double- or triple-crossing each other for approximately 30 seconds before begrudgingly deciding to trust each other again. By midway through the film, you won’t particularly care who finds the treasure, how they do it, or when it will happen.

The Takeaway:

With omicron case numbers finally dropping, fans desperate for a big-screen movie experience could do worse than “Uncharted.” It’s an inferior version of a roller-coaster ride you’ve ridden 100 times before, but even still has its charms, especially when you haven’t been to an amusement park in two years.

Should you watch “Uncharted”?

“Uncharted” is a movie that benefits from a big-screen experience, and fans of Holland or Wahlberg will no doubt find plenty of entertaining moments. But the film is by no means a must-watch. Catching it on-demand somewhere down the line — or even flipping to the right 30 minutes of it while channel-surfing sometime in 2023 — is a fine alternative.

Rating: 2 stars (out of 4)

What is Mark Wahlberg's best onscreen pairing?

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‘Uncharted’ review: If you don’t take it seriously, it’s one of most exciting movies in years

‘uncharted’ brings tom holland and mark wahlberg together for a fun adventure story.

By Herb Scribner

If you like realistic movies, “Uncharted” isn’t for you. But if you like popcorn blockbusters and Tom Holland, then it may be the perfect movie for you.

• “Uncharted” — based on the video game series — tells the story of Nathan Drake, a street-smart bartender who joins hunter Victory “Sully” Sullivan on an adventure to discover the treasure hidden by Ferdinand Magellan.
• Of course, the adventure doesn’t go smoothly as other parties seek out the treasure, too.
• “Uncharted” may seem like a basic adventure story. But there’s definitely more than meets the eye for this adventure story.

The good bits: “Uncharted” leans into the ridiculousness that a video game movie will provide. The physics of the real world matter. Like professional wrestling, these characters take bump after bump and still get up.

• So you have to suspend your disbelief for this movie. And if you do, it’s a thrilling treasure hunt story wrapped in puzzles.
• It doesn’t quite reach the charm and excitement of “National Treasure,” but it’s better than “Red Notice,” the recent treasure hunt story with Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds.
• “Uncharted” brings you on a magical adventure that doesn’t slow down. It dabbles in colonial world history that could be boring. But the writing is good enough that you stay engaged throughout the entire story.
• Few of the puzzles are easy to solve. Viewers won’t pinpoint the next move for the characters, making the audience have to do some extra bit of thinking on their own.

The cast: Tom Holland does Tom Holland things, so if you’ve enjoyed his schtick in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you’ll enjoy this movie.

• Mark Wahlberg is another Mark Wahlberg character — a tough guy with a heart. It balances well with Holland’s goofy, clumsy nature.
• Sophia Ali, who plays Chloe, does a great job jumping between trustworthy and untrustworthy, which defines a lot of the film.
• Tati Gabrielle is an almost flawless villain. You don’t trust her from her first appearance and you genuinely dislike everything she does to disrupt our heroes.

The knocks: Naturally, a movie will have its flaws. Some of the jokes didn’t land as well as they could have. Holland and Wahlberg delivered the lines well, but the dialogue felt clunky and forced. So it wasn’t as funny as it could be.

• The trailer also spoiled some of the movie’s coolest moments. So if you haven’t watched the trailer, don’t do it now. It’s better to walk into that movie without seeing some of the bigger trailer shots since that spoils the most fun part of the movie.
• There’s one sequence in particular — it takes place in Barcelona — that felt overly long. Sure, the characters had to solve puzzle after puzzle. But it felt like we spent too much time in Barcelona compared to how we spent time in the third act.

Yes, but: I didn’t play the “Uncharted” video game, so I won’t have a good comparison between the movie and video game. From what other critics told me, the movie did not match the same direction as the video game. I cannot speak authoritatively on that subject, though.

The bottom line: “Uncharted” is a fun, popcorn blockbuster flick that, if you suspend all thinkings of physics, is fun for everyone. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good time and a wild ride. It serves as a pretty fun summer escape in the middle of winter.

• by Mike Tyrkus
• CinemaNerdz

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Why Fans Think Sony Has Canceled Uncharted 2 Movie Release Date Plans

Many fans are wondering whether Uncharted 2 movie has a release date, or if it has been delayed or canceled. This is because there had not been many concrete updates about the movie until recently. Released in February 2022, the first Uncharted movie featuring Tom Holland became a box office success despite garnering mixed reviews from critics, some of whom felt Holland and Mark Wahlberg’s portrayals of Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, respectively, were not accurate in comparison to their video game counterparts. However, it appears that fans have been eagerly awaiting information about the movie’s sequel.

So, is there a release date for the Uncharted 2 movie? Has Sony delayed or canceled Uncharted 2? Here is everything you need to know about it.

Does Tom Holland’s Uncharted 2 movie have a release date?

Uncharted 2 movie does not have a fixed release date or window.

However, as per Variety , Sony Pictures Entertainment confirmed that the film is in development. This confirmation came at the 2024 CineEurope event in June.

Has Sony delayed or canceled its Uncharted 2 release date plans?

Uncharted 2 has not been canceled and is currently in development. However, Sony has not confirmed whether their plans for Uncharted 2’s release date have been delayed.

During an interview with Screenrant in February 2024, Mark Wahlberg, who played Victor Sullivan in the first film, confirmed that the script for the sequel is ready. He then revealed that Sony told him, “Start growing your mustache,” as the film’s development is “gonna take a while.” Wahlberg then expressed interest in how the second film’s story would pan out.

Prior to this, in August 2023, producer Charles Roven also expressed intentions to make Uncharted 2. He told The Hollywood Reporter about how fans, especially those who had no knowledge of the Uncharted video games, liked the movie.

Not much is known about Uncharted 2’s plot details currently. However, based on the first film’s ending, it could likely see Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan compete with a man named Roman and go on an adventure involving a Nazi map. Moreover, it could also see an imprisoned Sam somehow escape and try to find Nathan. This is because Sam was seen writing a note to Nathan, telling him to watch his back.

Uncharted is currently streaming on Hulu in the U.S.

The post Why Fans Think Sony Has Canceled Uncharted 2 Movie Release Date Plans appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

Uncharted review

A forgettable fortune.

TechRadar Verdict

The best way to describe Sony’s Uncharted is to say that, in all likelihood, it is exactly the film you expect it to be. Casting missteps aside, director Ruben Fleischer delivers a perfectly harmless adventure flick that meets the low bar set by its popcorn premise. But Uncharted offers so little in the way of original ideas that many will be left wondering why the project exists in the first place. Those new to Nathan Drake and his video game exploits will find more to enjoy here than fans of the beloved PlayStation franchise, though anyone who possesses a passing familiarity with the action movie genre should prepare to leave this treasure hunt feeling no richer.

Impressive choreography

Charismatic, if miscast, leads

Devoid of original ideas

Contradictory premise

Excessive CGI

Uninspired script

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Uncharted feels like a movie that was always destined to disappoint. For starters, a feature-length adaptation of Naughty Dog’s immensely popular video game franchise had been the subject of Hollywood mutterings for over a decade. During that time, six different directors – including David O. Russell, Shawn Levy and Travis Knight – periodically attached and detached themselves from the project before Venom filmmaker Ruben Fleischer finally bit the bullet in 2020. 

Spider-Man star Tom Holland joined the cast in 2017, but only after Mark Wahlberg – who signed on to proceedings over a decade ago – stepped aside as the movie’s lead to instead play the wily mentor, Victor "Sully" Sullivan, to Holland’s younger Nathan “Nate” Drake. 

The intervening years saw several scripts bounce around the desks of various studios, while the cast and crew behind the still-performing Uncharted game series slalomed between endorsement, skepticism and indifference towards the seemingly cursed Hollywood project. 

So, how does the final feature fare? Well, let’s just say that Sony ’s Uncharted definitely wasn’t worth the grueling odyssey it took to create it.

Amateur adventurers 

Plot-wise, Uncharted takes inspiration from the fourth game in Naughty Dog’s series, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , and finds Nathan Drake on the scent of a treasure trove thought to be hidden among the remnants of a historic Portuguese expedition. With fellow explorer Sully in tow, Drake travels across the globe in search of the fortune, all the while trying to outwit a ruthless financier (Antonio Banderas) who believes the gold to be his birthright.

But we’ll come back to all that later – let’s first address the elephant in the room.

Unfortunately, Holland’s casting as Nate – the dashing virtual protagonist of every mainline Uncharted title – instantly became the unwelcome cloud hanging over this long-awaited movie adaptation. Uncharted’s fan-favorite hero is a hunky, stubble-laden adventurer with a Bond-like hardiness – Holland, through no fault of his own, is the antithesis of that description. 

It’s understandable, then, that fans of the game series voiced their doubts about the decision so intensely. To his credit, Holland reportedly gained 18 pounds of muscle (while simultaneously training for Spider-Man: No Way Home ) in an effort to better match Drake’s in-game physique – and he certainly looks bigger than ever – but fears that the young British actor wouldn’t possess the same rugged charm as the famed treasure hunter were justified. 

Still, Holland attacks the role with all the energy we’ve come to expect from the superstar. He puts his choreography skills and boyish enthusiasm to excellent use in some impressive fight sequences and equally daring stunts – but he is not the Nate we know. 

None of that would matter, of course, if Uncharted really did center around a younger, more inexperienced protagonist at the beginning of his swashbuckling career. Rafe Lee Judkins’ script is billed as an origin story, predating the first entry in the game series (2007’s Uncharted: Drake's Fortune), that finds Nate ready to learn the tricks of the trade. But there’s very little learning done here. 

Although we first meet Holland’s character as a bartender, it doesn’t take long before he’s flipping, fighting and falling his way across various countries on a dangerous quest for lost gold. We’re supposed to believe that this is Nate’s first globe-trotting treasure hunt, yet he is often the one pointing Wahlberg’s Sully and the similarly experienced Chloe (Sophia Ali) in the right direction.

It doesn’t help, either, that the movie dances to the beat of Drake’s final video game outing. While it’s undeniably enjoyable to see Holland wear the character’s iconic henley-holster combo, it all happens far too quickly in a story that supposedly charts his origins.

And then there’s Wahlberg’s Sully. The father figure to Nate, Naughty Dog’s version of Sully is a world-weary explorer who exudes old-school charm – sometimes wise, sometimes wrong, always cool (like Paul Newman in The Color of Money). Here, though, we don’t get the same character. We don’t get the red shirt. We don’t get the mustache. Instead, we get Mark Wahlberg doing his best Mark Wahlberg impression; great for the movie’s humor, but less brilliant for the master-apprentice dynamic between its two main men.

Both leads, then – while undoubtedly charismatic and confident in their respective roles – are fatally miscast, which wouldn’t be a problem if Uncharted told a totally different story. 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained 

And therein lies the second dagger in the movie’s heart. Uncharted does nothing to push the boundaries of its genre nor subvert the expectations of returning fans. It borrows too much from the plot of the fourth game and recycles tired tropes from more established action franchises like Mission: Impossible and Pirates of the Caribbean. Ironically, the events of Uncharted are very charted. 

This near total absence of imagination is made worse by an over-reliance on CGI, which often takes away from Holland’s excellent stunt work – the airborne sequence, for instance, is not so much impressive as it is downright ridiculous. Even in moments where we’re encouraged to marvel at Uncharted’s beautiful locations, some obviously animated environments detract from the spectacle. 

Again, though, this seems like an inevitable plague of the project. Video game adaptations have come a long way in recent years, but dramatizing a title that already plays like a movie presents a very particular type of challenge. Uncharted 4 is a stunning video game because it lets players do the running, jumping and treasure hunting themselves – it’s nowhere near as much fun to watch Holland and Wahlberg throw goons off the side of a virtual pirate ship. 

It must be said that director Ruben Fleischer does the basics well – there is very little to criticize in Uncharted from a technical point of view – but most adult movie-goers will likely feel as though they’ve seen all of this a thousand times over. 

Our verdict

In all, then, it’s no wonder that a rocky road to production left Sony’s Uncharted movie gathering dust for over a decade. It isn’t a badly made film, per se, but the project offers almost nothing in terms of added value and contradicts itself with an over-familiar story that’s entirely at odds with its supposedly reinvented characters. 

Despite their best efforts, Uncharted’s lead actors will leave returning fans cold, and the movie’s lack of identity – save for some smartly choreographed fight scenes – makes it nothing more than mindless, harmless entertainment.

Forget the treasure; in the inevitable follow-up, Nathan Drake should hunt for some originality, instead.

Uncharted is in UK theaters now and hits US theaters on February 18.

Axel is TechRadar's UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site's Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.  Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.

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Why Fans Think Sony Has Canceled Uncharted 2 Movie Release Date Plans

By Abdul Azim Naushad

Many fans are wondering whether Uncharted 2 movie has a release date, or if it has been delayed or canceled. This is because there had not been many concrete updates about the movie until recently. Released in February 2022, the first Uncharted movie featuring Tom Holland became a box office success despite garnering mixed reviews from critics, some of whom felt Holland and Mark Wahlberg’s portrayals of Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan, respectively, were not accurate in comparison to their video game counterparts. However, it appears that fans have been eagerly awaiting information about the movie’s sequel.

So, is there a release date for the Uncharted 2 movie? Has Sony delayed or canceled Uncharted 2? Here is everything you need to know about it.

Does Tom Holland’s Uncharted 2 movie have a release date?

Uncharted 2 movie does not have a fixed release date or window.

However, as per Variety , Sony Pictures Entertainment confirmed that the film is in development. This confirmation came at the 2024 CineEurope event in June.

Has Sony delayed or canceled its Uncharted 2 release date plans?

Uncharted 2 has not been canceled and is currently in development. However, Sony has not confirmed whether their plans for Uncharted 2’s release date have been delayed.

During an interview with Screenrant in February 2024, Mark Wahlberg, who played Victor Sullivan in the first film, confirmed that the script for the sequel is ready. He then revealed that Sony told him, “Start growing your mustache,” as the film’s development is “gonna take a while.” Wahlberg then expressed interest in how the second film’s story would pan out.

Prior to this, in August 2023, producer Charles Roven also expressed intentions to make Uncharted 2. He told The Hollywood Reporter about how fans, especially those who had no knowledge of the Uncharted video games, liked the movie.

Not much is known about Uncharted 2’s plot details currently. However, based on the first film’s ending, it could likely see Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan compete with a man named Roman and go on an adventure involving a Nazi map. Moreover, it could also see an imprisoned Sam somehow escape and try to find Nathan. This is because Sam was seen writing a note to Nathan, telling him to watch his back.

Uncharted is currently streaming on Hulu in the U.S.

Abdul Naushad is a Contributing SEO Writer. He has previously written over a 100 articles for Sportskeeda. In his spare time, he likes to play video games, watch movies and aimlessly browse and watch different kinds of YouTube videos whether they be gaming reviews, movie explanations or even funny sketches and skits.

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