Sony’s PlayStation Production arm got off to an extremely strong start with their first offering based on the hit Sony series Uncharted,starring Mark Wahlberg, Tom Holland, and Antonio Banderas. While some critics seem to have expected the world from this franchise and have rated this film with their pinkies high in the air, it’s a perfectly fine and normal summer blockbuster with clever writing, some familiar turns, and plenty of action sequences. In other words, I’m not really sure if the people who expected something amazing here ever played the games. Uncharted games have been praised for their writing, yeah, but it’s always been compared to a summer blockbuster that you could play out and it had writing to match. Summer blockbusters, by their very genre, don’t usually bring home the Oscars. They entertain.
Nothing that’s ever happened in an Uncharted game has ever really blown fans away in terms of the twists and turns. We — I am a fan — always knew what these were, but the quality that they put into these games had far outmatched the usual efforts we got from the summer blockbuster end. I mean, any kid who was alive in the 80’s or 90’s can tell you about the large number of ports we got on NES and SNES were nothing more than licenses of summer blockbusters. Need a stronger example? The best game to ever be played on the N64 — Goldeneye — was based on a rather lame Bond movie of the same title. In fact, it’s defining feature ended up only being included on as an afterthought. We got port after port after port.
Uncharted was the answer to these problems and it put us right in the middle of the action of a summer blockbuster, right on down to the flashbacks and predictable evil bad guy. It wasn’t what we were being given, it was how it was presented. The second game launched you right into the action in a way that you rarely, if ever, see in a game. Do you know how many people died the first time they played Uncharted 2 because they had no idea what they were going to have to do when they started the game?
Most people start games and are generally relaxed and ready to face the inevitable incremental challenges of the game, not Uncharted 2. Right when the game began, you had a quick-time button mashing sequence to try and keep yourself from falling from the very end of a train dangling off a cliff. Not only is the train falling apart from the wreck that caused it, but it’s also ready to fall to its doom and you have to climb the thing right out of the gate, quick time event and all.
That’s exactly how this film starts. Right when it begins you’re watching Tom Holland falling out of a plane. I won’t say any more than that because I don’t wanna ruin the film for anyone, but the opening of this film would easily pass for an Uncharted game opening. It pretty much stays on that path throughout. You run into familiar faces and familiar names throughout the film. It even had a modest twist in there. It was fun from beginning to end. If you can’t have fun in these films, I’m sorry, I don’t even know why you went and watched it. It’s like, uh, going to see the latest Adam Sandler comedy and then walking out mad that it was just like all the others.
But I think this genuinely comes from people not playing the games. Just to restate a point I feel is pretty important here, no fan of Uncharted would tell these games have the most complicated and deep plots you’ll ever play on a PlayStation game. These games are not Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy VII. It’s a really fun action-platformer with a fun to follow treasure hunt hidden behind it. This movie hit every beat the games hit and I honestly hope we see some of these stunts in future Uncharted games. Your mileage may vary, but this film was a great reason to get out of the house and enjoy a night with a friend or loved one. I’d say it’s a solid 4 out of 5.