Prior to the release of the Uncharted movie, there had been zero movies based on video games that were received generally well by movie critics. With the failures from the Sonic movie, to Assassin’s Creed, to Tomb Raider, it has been difficult to produce a movie that matches the cinematography, plot, and acting of the video games. The approach that director Ruben Fleischer used in the Uncharted movie divided critics and audiences.

The Uncharted movie is based on a four-part video game series about ex-thief turned traveler Nathan Drake in search of lost gold with his partner Victor Sullivan. Using historical pieces like the trip of the famous Ferdinand Magellan, Drake uses conspiracies of finding hidden treasure to lead his adventures around the world to find these gold mines.

Because Uncharted is split into a four-part video game series, it is unreasonable to assume that the movie would include every plot element of each game. Instead, Fleischer decided to incorporate the most action-packed scenes of each game like the airplane scene and auction scene while primarily following the plot of the fourth game. The fourth game follows the origins of Nathan Drake as a young child turning into a thief with the help of his brother Sam and mentor Victor Sullivan. 

Tom Holland (most famous for his role in Spider-Man) played the role of Nathan Drake while Mark Wahlberg played Victor Sullivan. The casting choices were questionable as both Holland and Wahlberg appeared a little too young compared to the characters in the video game series.

Vineeth Mothe ‘22 agreed that “the characters seemed a little different than the ones in the video games. Even though they don’t look that similar, they were still super funny and it was still really fun to watch.” 

The critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes was that the movie had a “promising cast but misleadingly titled, Uncharted mines its bestselling source material to produce a disappointing echo of superior adventure films.” The audience score was much higher with a consensus that “Uncharted is a solid adaptation of the games — and a fun throwback to classic adventure movies of the past.”

The plot itself felt a little rushed, as Drake’s origin story was covered roughly in the first 20 minutes. The chemistry between Wahlberg and Holland made for a comedic experience and the CGI was done incredibly well.

In terms of how much it corresponds to the video games themselves, however, the director did as much as he could. There were a sufficient number of scenes that tied back to the plot of the games, but it isn’t necessarily perfect. The inclusion of another character named Chloe felt a little forced, however, the acting done by Sophia Ali was still top-notch.

In terms of overall movie performance, the movie surpassed expectations and did tremendously well for a video game that was already received so well. Despite the hype and fame surrounding the video game, the movie was able to meet most of the expectations and produce an entertaining and comedic film.