*Pretty standard here…

IMDB Synopsis

Nathan Drake and his wisecracking partner Victor “Sully” Sullivan embark on a dangerous quest to find the greatest treasure never found while also tracking clues that may lead to Nate’s long-lost brother.

“Nuns. Why is it always nuns?”

Over the years video game movie adaptations have had a bad reputation. There have definitely been good ones but as a whole I think the genre still lacks great movies. Uncharted is a new one that clearly is trying to create a new franchise based on the adventure series, and who better to do it with than Super Star Tom Holland. Sony would love try and get a franchise that they do not have to share with Marvel, but it is interesting they would turn to their Spider Man in order to do that. Especially considering the Nathan Drake in the games is much older than Holland is.

Uncharted was a game I never personally played, which is surprising because I love adventure games like this. But this movie clearly takes its beats from other movies like Indiana Jones, or National Treasure, where you have a hero solving various clues in high paced action. One of the parts I enjoyed was that all of the different sets that the clues took Nathan and his partner Sully (Mark Wahlberg) to were unique and felt like they would be worlds in the game. They needed to be, because like I said the story was definitely something you have seen before as far as the treasure hunt, but the characters were charming and kept me at least engaged throughout the entire story.

As far as the filming of the movie Ruben Fleischer is a director that has made some great movies like ZOMBIELAND 1 & 2, and the first VENOM which I liked more than the second one. Even though I do not love all his movies he has proven though at least he can make a fun action comedy that never feels like it is dragging. The cinematography was done by Chung Chung-hoon who did OLDBOY (2003) also which is incredible, so he brings a level of steadiness that these movies do not normally have. The action scenes are exciting and all are very easy to follow, and even though they do not pull of an OLDBOY style oner, they still bring us some high level action. Ramin Djawadi of Game of Thrones fame did the music and again I really liked his score. I thought it did not overpower the movie, but elevated the action scenes to a much higher level.

Stock Watch

Stock Neutral – Tom Holland

He is Spider Man and one of the biggest stars in the world. It is cool to see him branch out though and get a new franchise where we can see his face the whole time!

Stock Neutral – Mark Wahlberg

He is a big time star but it was cool to see him kind of take a back seat on this one and play the sidekick. Usually he has to play the hero in everything he does, so to see him play off Holland was different and made me see him in a different light.

*A couple other tidbits

• I thought Sophia Ali was solid as Chloe, her role just felt way too predictable.
• Starting a petition to get Antonio Banderas better roles.
• 2 post credit scenes to set up the franchise, bold, but par for the course these days.

I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. They were advertising this ad nausea, which usually means the movie is not great. But, it was a romp and actually has me excited to see where this story goes in the future. It even makes me want to check out the games, which is why they make these movies to begin with, so I would say that is a win.

Juice Rating:

*You can find my 2022 Movie Rankings here.

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