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An action film based on the popular video game franchise, “Uncharted” is a surprisingly flat film that never manages to level up. I have never played any of the video games in this series and have no knowledge of any of the in-game characters or storylines, so I have to judge this film on its own merits. In that regard, it’s pretty meh. One issue is that it’s hard to root for any of the characters. There’s so much double crossing and backstabbing throughout almost the entire movie that they’re all hard to sympathize with. (Not to mention they’re all pretty one-dimensional.) Even Nathan Drake is portrayed as kind of a bad person initially, and it’s only Tom Holland’s charm that keeps him likable. (And despite his likability and his natural athletic abilities, he just never clicks with this role.) With everyone in the movie basically out for themselves, it’s hard to root for any of them to find the mysterious treasure. And as far as the mystery part of the story goes, it’s shockingly uninspired. Every time it looks like there’s going to be an elaborate puzzle, it ends up being something they quickly solve. Similarly, every time an action sequence looks like it’s going to get exciting, it just kind of tapers out and ends. And even the big set piece on the plane suffers from being used to start the film, before continuing over an hour later. (Which also hurts the opening flashback and the flow of the first half of the movie.) The effects are fine, but everything looks just a little too bright, and too much like they were probably just filmed on a green screen.
** out of *****