UNCHARTED (2022) – High adrenaline-charged adventure, Tom Holland style
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Uncharted may not be a superhero movie but with Tom Holland pouncing around doing crazy stunts from start to end, you are forgiven for mistaking it as being another Spiderman movie sans the Spiderman costume. It is however, based on a Playstation computer game of the same name, so the genre’s characteristics are not really that far different from each other.
Tom Holland is Nathan Drake one half of two orphaned brothers who got separated from his elder brother at an early age. He grew up streetwise and parttime pick-picket. One day he is approached by a professional treasure hunter Sully (played by older and wiser Mark Wahlberg) to look for sunken treasures off the Philippines islands. Along the way we meet others hunting for the same treasures and there are lots of opportunities for fights, chases, betrayals, and counter betrayals. There is little time for the viewers to feel bored since the action keeps coming literally from the first scene that involves some eye popping aerial stunts.
To Tom Holland’s credit, he manages to carry the whole thing on his shoulders. His natural cute charms coupled with amazing agility and strength displayed in the numerous action set pieces shows star quality. The fights and chase stunts are infused with a touch of humour which reminds me of the kind of comedy kung fu that the younger Jacky Chan was so good at in his early movies. While I have no doubt that Tom has a body double to do many of the more dangerous stunts, he is still seen doing a lot on his own especially since he is not covered from head to toes in a Spiderman costume. This is the key difference between the action here compared to the action in his Spidey movies.
Even the likes of veteran Mark Wahberg and Antonio Banderas have to take a back seat. Mark has almost no big stunts to do except for perhaps one fist fight while Antonio Banderas’ bad ass villain is more all bark and no bite. There is an odd couple chemistry between Tom and Wahberg which works well for the movie as its humour is quite infectious. This film knows enough not to take itself seriously at the right dose. And injects plenty of wild crazy action which allow for the actors to participate without having the CGI effects take over.
Director Ruben Fleisher is no stranger to the big action fantasy movies having been involved with such films as Zombieland and Venom. This is no masterpiece or even going to be memorable in the long run, but it is entertaining enough to say this is probably Ruben’s better effort under the genre.
Like all super heroes movies stay back for the teasers at the end credits. There are actually two teasers which seem to reflect on the film makers’ hope to start another franchise with the Tom Holland and Mark Wahberg team. Given the energy and fun this first outing, I for one, am game for more Uncharted territories to explore in the future.