Film Review: UNCHARTED (2022): Stars Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland Make Adventure Film a Blast

Uncharted Review

Uncharted (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Steven Waddington, Pingi Moli, Tiernan Jones, Rudy Pankow, Georgia Goodman, Diarmaid Murtagh, Joseph Balderrama, Alana Boden, Jonathan Failla, Anthony Thomas and Peter Seaton-Clark.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, the fun new video game-inspired film, Uncharted, gleefully combines elements of the Indiana Jones films, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the National Treasure pictures with solid results all around. Mark Wahlberg is so much fun to watch in this new movie that one can sometimes forget to take the picture all that seriously. While that would be a problem in a movie that was meant to keep audiences in suspense, the audience here knows that the action comes from the story of a video game and viewers are just bound to go with this film’s exciting story line, lighthearted nature and entertaining performances from Wahlberg, Tom Holland, Sophia Ali and Tati Gabrielle among others.

Uncharted opens with two young brothers named Nate (Tiernan Jones) and Sam (Rudy Pankow). The rebellious Sam leads Nate into a lot of trouble with the authorities which in turn causes Sam to run away and he eventually keeps in touch with Nate through letters. We meet Nate (now played by Tom Holland) when he is older and living in New York as a bartender and pulling off scams such as swiping jewelry from a female customer (Alana Boden). The mysterious treasure seeker Victor Sullivan (Wahlberg) is watching Nate and catches him in the act of theft. Victor seems to have known Sam and Victor and Nate soon team up to pull off a heist in which they will swipe a cross from an auction that is on the radar of the evil Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and his female assistant Braddock (Tati Gabrielle). This cross has the power to help lead to a treasure of gold that all the key characters in the film seek, including a woman named Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) who doesn’t seem like she can be trusted. Or can she be trusted? See the film to find out.

The treasure hunted in the film is that of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. There are plenty of clues throughout the film as to where the fortune is hidden that our lead characters must try to discover in order to get their hands on the loot. This soon transports a lot of the action to Barcelona where our two heroes, Victor and Nate, reluctantly team up with Chloe but there are secret passageways, double crossings and other trappings at every corner. A fun scene has Nate wondering which way to spin the “key” to a secret passage and Victor tells him to turn it one way but it was actually the other way that it was supposed to be turned so they almost get hurt by a trap. There are plenty of other scenes where our heroes are in jeopardy. A particularly good one comes in a waterlogged scene when Chloe and Nate are trapped and close to drowning while Victor and Braddock face off in the Papa John’s across the way. Yeah, it’s that type of movie with product placement thrown in for good measure.

As the film progresses, there are some truly memorable comic scenes from one set in a nightclub to a sequence close to the finale where Nate is falling out of a plane with a car coming out of the plane as well and he needs to find a parachute in order to survive while he’s falling in the sky while another character may be able to help save his life. This part of the movie was a showstopper and kept me on the edge of my seat although I never doubted that everything would turn out OK. In fact, the movie opens with this very scene before flashing back to the two brothers.

Mark Wahlberg is perfectly cast. He’s charming and his line delivery is perfect and effortless. He’s one of our most reliable actors and comes up aces in his turn. Tom Holland more than holds his own beside him and the two play off each other with comic wit and timing that is occasionally priceless to watch. There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot which keeps the audience engaged in the action. Banderas is occasionally over-the-top and not always successful in his role but nevertheless gets a pass for his performance in the film. As one of the more memorable bad guys in the picture, Steven Waddington is a lot of fun to watch as a character known as The Scotsman who has some fight scenes with the male leads that are perfectly executed as well. Tati Gabrielle also succeeds as the villain we can’t wait to see get her just desserts by film’s end.

Uncharted is not a great film by any measure but it gets the job done in the entertainment department. Wahlberg helps a lot with that. He carries the film whenever he can and Holland picks up the slack while Wahlberg is off screen. Being based on a video game, the film is a little hollow in terms of substantial character development but when the action is so much fun, who cares? Uncharted is nothing less than a guilty pleasure–an enjoyable good time at the movies and it is recommended viewing for fans of the game or for fans of action/adventure pictures with a fair share of humor thrown in for good measure. Stay tuned throughout the end credits for fun– a couple of nice add ons as well.

Rating: 7/10

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