"Uncharted" a fun, lively action-adventure yarn based on a video game

Uncharted (2022)

Zero expectations are helpful when one hears “video game adaptation,” especially one that’s been in development for 14 years. But “Uncharted,” based on the Playstation game designed by Naughty Dog, should be a win-win proposition for gamers and those who don’t even own a game console. Whether one is seeking an “Indiana Jones”-ish itch that the mediocre “National Treasure” movies never quite scratched (sorry) or a faithful video game adaptation, “Uncharted” is a silly action-adventure yarn that’s lively, brisk, and more fun than we deserve it to be. 

Right off the top, we’re thrown into the high-flying action with our hero Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) free-falling out of a cargo plane over the Banda Sea. When Nate comes to, realizing he’s hanging by a cargo strap without a parachute, it’s a dizzying and downright exciting high for a cold open. Played with a roguish yet buoyant likability by Holland, Nate is an orphaned rapscallion living on his own with the last memory of his long-lost older brother Sam (Rudy Pankow) being their heist to steal Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition map. Now in NYC, Nate is working as a slick bartender (and pickpocket) when he’s offered a ticket out by fortune hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), who used to work with Sam. He eventually accepts, and off they go to steal a golden cross at an auction that should lead to lost gold in the Philippines. Along the way, they meet up with Sully’s old partner Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) in Barcelona and keep crossing paths with ruthless treasure-hunting competitor Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) and his hired mercenary Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle). Who's getting the gold?

A cross between “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Cocktail,” "The Da Vinci Code," and one of the least grounded-in-physics “Fast and the Furious” installments, “Uncharted” is a confidently goofy entertainment, and it’s good at being just that. Director Ruben Fleischer (2019’s “Zombieland: Double Tap”) and writers Race Lee Judkins, Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (2019’s “Men in Black: International”) bring a light, waggish tone to the proceedings, much of that having to do with the chemistry of its cast. At the end of a plot that amounts to foot chases, following clues, double-crossing, and going down into secret church crypts, the gold everyone seeks is still a complete McGuffin that doesn’t matter. Even though we know our heroes will probably never be in any real danger, director Fleischer executes a slew of genuinely exciting set-pieces of derring-do and swashbuckling on an old carrack ship without encumbering them with distractingly glossy CGI. Besides that opening free-fall, a lot of the action is slickly staged yet tactile with unexpectedly clean stunt choreography (including Nate using his bartending flair as an amusing diversion and defense). 

Tom Holland, who has been deemed too young by the opinionated, makes the casting work as his Nate Drake is more of a boyish rogue. Actually, a harder pill to swallow is the conceit of actor Tiernan Jones, who plays younger Nate, aging fifteen years later into the physically strapping Holland. He and a game, world-weary Mark Wahlberg have an enjoyable back-and-forth with each other, and Sophia Ali is a fetching addition, as the distrustful Chloe, with an appealing edge to her. Antonio Banderas gives menacing monologues and threats as Santiago Moncada, but if you want an even more ruthless force calling the shots, Tati Gabrielle (Netflix’s “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) is a viper ready to strike as Jo Braddock, a femme-fatale Bond girl of sorts like Xenia Onatopp. Never failing to make a wardrobe change into something stylish for every one of her scenes, Gabrielle is commanding and watchably nefarious.

For the most part, "Uncharted" is a blockbuster that doesn't put all of its eggs into one franchise basket. It could remain a one-and-done or forge the path for more, but it satisfies on its own (okay, there is one cameo that will only matter to fans of the game and leave the rest of us amused but lost). Of course, two mid-credit codas do set up for a sequel, but otherwise, the movie proper seems more concerned with the one we’re currently watching rather than the ten that could follow. “Uncharted” isn’t overwhelming enough to stick in one’s memory bank for years to come, but for a breezy gold-hunting adventure, it has a giddy, go-getter attitude that cannot be faked.

Grade: B

Sony Pictures is releasing “Uncharted” (116 min.) in theaters on February 18, 2022.