Many video games have been based on movies, you got big names like “Spider-Man” or “Alien”, maybe some smaller titles like “Narnia” or “Dick Tracy”; but, while there are some, there are a lot less movies based on games. This is usually because it’s difficult to fit a full game into just a couple hours but this did not faze the directors of “Uncharted” who sought to do just that while also being one of the firsts to make a jungle adventure movie without the Rock. They only succeeded with the latter of those two however.

“Uncharted” felt like a mashup of every other treasure-hunting movie ever made, which made it feel as if the viewer was just watching “National Treasure” but with more snapshots of Tom Holland’s abs. The movie followed the basic formula for every action movie ever and the blatant shortcuts to establish a plot left the movie feeling sloppy and made me wonder how fast they rushed this movie. The writers failed to complete the basic task of making a good betrayal, making it flip-flop annoyingly. They couldn’t even blame the poor quality on the fact that they had to match the games because the movie is modeled to be a prequel, therefore they had plenty of artistic license.

The good scenes were few and far between but when they happened they carried their own weight. I cannot tell you how entertaining it was to see Tom Holland climbing his way up crates hanging out of an open cargo plane, continuously apologizing to goons as he kicks them into the air. Then after all of that he finally gets back in the plane just for his situation to get comically worse.

If you go and see this movie then stay after the credits for your another home run scene. This final scene is really entertaining, but It really says something about the overall quality of the movie when the post-credit scene is one of the best of the whole movie, though it leaves room for a sequel I’m not sure anyone is asking for.

The one thing that movie did right was their casting. Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland are gold together and there was a nice cameo by Rudy Pankow. It was nice to see the variety of roles that can be played by Tati Gabrielle, from the motherly love from hit TV show “You” to the ruthless antagonist of this movie, it really shows what a talented actress she is. I really enjoyed the role that Antonio Banderas played but it annoyed me how many times they changed out who the bad guy was throughout the movie. 

For the storyline being bad, there was really good execution all around.

Uncharted summed up in one term is aggressively mediocre. I think that if the writers attempted to move away from the basic treasure hunter movie or even just didn’t follow the formula to a tee, the movie would have been a lot better. I am interested to see what is in the future for this possible series and I would love to see more from these characters but maybe with different writers in the future.