Jake Oeck
Staff Editor
The new film “Uncharted,” directed by Ruben Fleischer, hit the box office on Feb. 18. The movie features a cast overflowing with big names like Antonio Banderas, Bryan Cranston, Mark Wahlberg, and yes, Tom Holland.
The premise of the movie is the hunt for Sir Frances Drake’s El Dorado treasure. Basically, lots of gold. The movie follows its main protagonist Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) through his life as a bar tender/pick pocket. When Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) approaches Nate one night offering an opportunity at real adventure, Nate hesitates, but ultimately accepts. As the movie progresses we come to find that these are not the only ones seeking the treasure and trusting anyone is no longer an option.
The movie has some strong points and some faults. If you like a lot of action and aren’t as interested in long scenes of dialogue this is probably the movie for you. There were definitely some moments where a little extra background context would have been nice. The action was absolutely there but the plot or rather the reason for the action was lacking.
Overall, it was a well-filmed movie with an amazing cast. The settings were absolutely stunning and made for a very visually pleasing movie.
The cast was stacked with some of the most popular and talented actors of today. As far as acting chemistry was concerned, this may have worked against the film. Mark Wahlberg and Tom Holland played two treasure hunters with a kind of student/teacher relationship. Sometimes the acting between them seemed forced or dialogue seemed awkward at odd times.
This wasn’t limited to just them, all of the characters felt flat because they didn’t really have a complex backstory to justify their actions. There was varying degrees of dimension to the characters but generally their main reason for being is to find the treasure which didn’t make for very unique conflict.
All this said, this is a movie based off of a video game which historically hasn’t been a very successful idea. For what it is, it is definitely breaking new ground and become very popular.
Overall, the quality of the movie comes from the individual opinion. Regardless of anything you hear, the movies are always fun. Go ahead and see Uncharted in theaters right now and see for yourself.
The Pioneer Press 