Uncharted Review: A Treasure Hunt That Forgot the Treasure Was Supposed to Be Fun

The Setup: A Franchise That Deserved Better

The Uncharted games are not just action-adventure games. They are globetrotting, treasure-hunting, wisecracking cinematic experiences that make you feel like Indiana Jones with a grappling hook. They are about history, mythology, and the thrill of uncovering something that has been lost for centuries. They are about Nathan Drake — a charming, slightly morally ambiguous treasure hunter who cracks jokes while dangling from a cliff.

The film adaptation has none of that.

What we get instead is a generic action movie that happens to feature characters named Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan. It's not Uncharted. It's Tom Holland Does Parkour: The Movie. And that's the core problem.

The Plot: Magellan's Gold, Or Something Like That

The story follows a young Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) — a bartender and petty thief who claims to be a descendant of Sir Francis Drake but has none of the gravitas that implies. He's recruited by Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to help find the lost treasure of Ferdinand Magellan, a haul of gold worth billions that has been hidden for centuries.

Along the way, they team up with Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali), a fellow treasure hunter with her own agenda, and face off against Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), a ruthless billionaire who wants the treasure for himself.

The plot is a MacGuffin chase. They go to one location, solve a vague puzzle, find a clue, then go to another location. There's a map. There's a key. There's a hidden treasure. There's a betrayal. There's a double-cross. None of it matters because none of it feels earned.

The puzzles, which in the games required actual thought and historical knowledge, are reduced to "Nathan Drake looks at something and suddenly knows where to go." There's no satisfaction in discovery. There's no moment of "aha." It's just a sequence of events.

The Characters: Holland Tries, Wahlberg Wanders

Tom Holland is a talented actor. He's charming. He's athletic. He's funny. But he's playing Nathan Drake as if he's still Peter Parker — a wide-eyed kid who's in over his head. That's not who Nathan Drake is. Nathan Drake is a seasoned treasure hunter who has seen things. He's been shot at. He's killed people. He's watched friends die. Holland's Drake is a puppy who accidentally stumbled into a treasure hunt. It's not his fault. The script gives him nothing else to work with.

Mark Wahlberg as Sully is a baffling casting choice. Sully is supposed to be a grizzled, mustachioed, cigar-chomping mentor figure — a man who has been in the game for decades. Wahlberg, who is famously committed to his fitness and looks like he's never smoked a cigar in his life, plays Sully like a slightly older version of himself. There's no gravitas. There's no history. There's no mustache. It's just Mark Wahlberg in a Hawaiian shirt.

Antonio Banderas as the villain is wasted. He's a talented actor who has played some of the most charismatic villains in cinema. Here, he's given nothing to do but stand in rooms and look vaguely menacing. He deserves better. So does the audience.

Sophia Ali as Chloe is fine. She's not given much depth, but she's at least present. The film doesn't really know what to do with her, so it just has her show up when the plot requires exposition and disappear when it doesn't.

The Action: It's Fine, But We've Seen It Before

The action sequences are competent. The airplane cargo drop — where Nathan is thrown out of a plane and has to fight his way back in — is genuinely exciting. It's the one moment where the film feels like it might be capturing the spirit of the games.

But most of the other action is generic. There's a chase through Barcelona. There's a fight in an auction house. There's a helicopter lifting a ship. None of it is bad, but none of it is memorable. It's the kind of action that you forget as soon as the credits roll.

The final set piece, involving two helicopters carrying a ship, is absurd in a way that doesn't work. In the games, the action was absurd but grounded in a sense of physical reality. Here, it's just cartoonish.

What the Film Forgot: The Joy of Discovery

Here's what the Uncharted games understood: the treasure doesn't matter. The treasure is just an excuse to explore beautiful locations, solve intricate puzzles, and learn about history. The games made you feel like an archaeologist. The film makes you feel like you're watching someone else play.

There's no sense of wonder. There's no awe at the size of an ancient ruin or the complexity of a centuries-old clue. The film rushes from one action scene to the next, never stopping to let the audience breathe. It's afraid of silence. It's afraid of letting the audience feel something.

The best moment in the film is a quiet one: Nathan and Sully sitting in a bar, talking about Nathan's brother. It's a glimpse of what the film could have been — a character-driven adventure about two men who don't trust each other but need each other. But that moment is fleeting. The film quickly returns to its generic action-movie default.

The Verdict: A Missed Opportunity

Uncharted is not a terrible film. It's just a forgettable one. It's a film that exists because the games are popular, not because anyone had a story to tell. It's a film that plays it safe at every turn, terrified of offending fans and terrified of being original.

Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg are both talented actors. They just don't belong in these roles. And the film around them doesn't give them anything to elevate.

Score: 2.5/5

Verdict: One-Time Watch. If you're a fan of the games, prepare to be disappointed. If you've never played the games, you might enjoy it as a generic action movie. Either way, you won't remember it a week later.

The writer of this review still holds out hope for a proper Uncharted adaptation. Nathan Fillion is still the only correct choice. It's not too late.