“Uncharted” Fails To Live up to Expectations for Video Gamers

Poster+for+the+movie%2C+Uncharted.

Poster for the movie, “Uncharted.”

By Jessica Palmer, Staff Writer

Fans of the hit PlayStation series “Uncharted” have been excited for the new movie, inspired by the game, to come to theaters. The “Uncharted” series has been loved by many since 2007, with four main games following a storyline. Usually, when a movie adaptation of a video game comes out, fans often worry about how it will fit into the story or if it will capture the character’s true relationships. My prediction was that it would be difficult to fit a new story into the timeline, and I was right.

The movie starts with Nathan Drake, played by Tom Holland, falling out of a plane, unconscious in the air with his foot stuck in cargo. This was a very exciting way to start, straight into the action while also recreating scenes from the game “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.” The movie then transitions to a young Nate with his brother Sam Drake in an orphanage, where Sam had to leave Nate behind. This sets up Nate’s motivations later in the movie, as this was the last time they would see each other in person. I like how they included this to show how important their relationship is to Nate.

Present-day in the movie, Nate works as a bartender, while working a side-job as a pickpocketer. Working a late night, he gets caught stealing by Victor Sullivan, though he is commonly referred to as “Sully,” played by Mark Wahlberg. Despite his act of theft, Nate is not punished — instead, he is recruited to join Victor in a heist. He initially refuses to join, but then agrees when he learns that he could learn more about his brother’s whereabouts.

The heist includes going to an auction and stealing a valuable cross that is key to finding a bigger treasure. This is another reference to “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” — the cross is being bid on by one of Victor’s rivals, just like the scene from the video game. I have mixed feelings about these recreations because it’s cool to see them on the big screen with actors, but I wanted something more original. If this is set in the same timeline as the video game, it would have been better if they created new adventures rather than combining parts of the games, mainly the fourth.

One of the larger problems I had with the plot is how they changed the way Nate and Victor met. I understand they want to introduce the characters, but by changing this, it takes the movie outside of the original timeline. Compared to the video game, this meeting was less significant and does not set up their relationship in the same way. Victor’s actions towards Nate miss the dynamic humor they have with each other. At the end of the movie, Victor has a change of heart scene where he chooses to throw away the gold treasure to save Nate. Though it was not really necessary to do that, seeing that he could have kept it and saved Nate, it showed the development in the two’s relationship.

Throughout the movie, I really enjoyed the action scenes — they were exciting and also included some humor. Certain parts had the whole audience gasping or laughing along with each other.

“Uncharted” was overall an exciting movie but felt like it was lacking something. Movie-goers who are unfamiliar with the videogame series would enjoy it better since they would not have something to compare it to. Having such high expectations, some of them were met, but most were letdowns leading me to rate this movie a 6/10.