The Uncharted movie double-crosses video game fans yet again
Unchartedgame series protagonist Nathan Drake owns a ring he claims came from his forebear, explorer Sir Francis Drake. It’s engraved “Sic Parvis Magna,” or “Greatness from small beginnings.” The game series reflected that motto, with the modest first installment spawning three direct sequels, each better than the last.
But that greatness isn’t reflected in the movie version of Uncharted. It’s a small beginning for a possible Sony film franchise, but yet another dud of a video game adaptation. A glimmer of sequel potential is stowed away in a second post-credits scene, where a sudden burst of chemistry in the riffraff banter between treasure-hunting pals Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) and Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) is sure to make people wonder where such lively line deliveries have been for the last two hours. For one minute, everything about the characters feels right, but it comes far too late.
Throughout the film, Zombieland and Venomhelmer Ruben Fleischer and screenwriters Rafe Judkins, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway ping-pong between as many game franchise characters and new additions as they can possibly cram into one origin story. In the game series, the characterization is more compact and robust. The Drake-and-Sully duo function as the thieving core in the first installment, before the designers expand their roster and flesh out their backstory in subsequent entries. The series’ villains have never been interesting, but there’s some personality behind motives like seeking the Tree of Life to gain eternal youth, or magicians attempting to fracture Nathan and Sully’s deeply established friendship. That verve is missing in the film version as well.
The film version feels like the writers were assigned different
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