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Thursday, May 26, 2022

Movie Review: Uncharted

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Fun action movie
Cons: Usual action movie weaknesses
The Bottom Line:
Globe-trotting action
Some humor along the way
Mindless fun movie



“You Mean You Were Looting, Right?”  “If I Didn’t Take Them, Somebody Else Would Have.”

It’s been a while since I watched a good caper movie.  It’s a genre we don’t get too much of these days, or at least I don’t hear enough about them.  So when I saw the trailers for Uncharted, I was immediately interested.  It turned out to be fun overall.

The movie tells the story of Nate Drake (Tom Holland), who is living as a bar tender in New York City.  He has a habit of being a pick pocket, but no one has caught on yet until one night when Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) comes into the bar.

Even more intriguing, Sully wants to recruit Nate on his quest to find Magellan’s ships, rumored to be filled with gold.  But what really catches Nate’s attention is that Sully has worked with Nate’s brother to try to find the ships until Nate’s brother vanished.  Can Nate trust Sully in the adventure ahead?

This movie is based on a video game that I might have heard of (honestly, can’t remember for sure), but I know I’ve never played.  For me, the draw was that it looked like fun.  And it was.  It’s got a globe trotting plot, a tons of crazy action sequences, and some humor.  If you are looking for a couple hours of mindless fun, this will fit the bill.

You’ll notice I said mindless.  This is not a terribly original plot, and I was usually a plot point ahead of the action as I watched.  The double crosses got a little ridiculous as well.  Oh, and they started with one of my least favorite story telling devices – starting with a moment of action and the flashing back to show us how the characters got there.

That isn’t to say I wasn’t having fun.  The action and stunts were truly spectacular.  A few of the special effects to create that action were obvious, but that was another minor complaint.

There’s also some great banter.  I did almost feel like the writers occasionally remembered they were supposed to have banter and they put it in.  It was definitely centered on a few specific scenes instead of being throughout the movie.

The characters are decent.  They could have been stronger, but they worked to draw me into the story.  The actors were all good, doing the best they had with what they were given.  There just isn’t a ton of meat for them to work with.

There are a couple of scenes at the end that certainly tease an interesting sequel.  If that does indeed happen, I would gladly come back and watch it.

As I said, this is supposed to be a mindless action movie.  If that’s what you are looking for, you’ll enjoy Uncharted.

2 comments:

  1. A mindless movie is so comforting at times.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love a mindless movie and don't mind the action movie flaws as long as it's a fun action movie. I'm looking forward to watching this one!

    ReplyDelete

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