‘Uncharted’ Review: Tom Holland Wins Gold in Indiana Jones Retread – CNET [CNET]

February 18, 2022 Richard Trenholm technology

Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in Uncharted — Wahlberg and Holland take Nathan Drake into Uncharted territory.

Sony

Uncharted adapts a video game, but you don’t have to be a gamer to see where it lifts its inspiration. This new flick is about treasure hunters stealing ancient gold, but the bigger theft is the film’s unabashed thieving from Indiana Jones, Ocean’s Eleven and Pirates of the Caribbean. Still, if anyone can carry off such brazen burglary, it’s smooth criminal Tom Holland, following Marvel (and Sony’s) smash hit Spider-Man: No Way Home with a breezy romp that confirms his star power.

Uncharted is in theaters now. It isn’t a direct adaptation of the much-loved series of Naughty Dog games for Sony PlayStation, instead telling a new origin story for two-fisted tomb raider Nathan Drake. The film does borrow its opening from the games, however, launching straight into a slam-bang action scene that showcases Holland’s easy charm and some improbably gravity-defying spectacle.

We first meet Drake as a young boy, sneaking into a museum to steal Ferdinand Magellan’s map of the world. This junior heist goes wrong, and his beloved older brother goes on the lam from their orphanage, leaving Nathan to grow into a cocky bartender with a sideline in relieving women of their jewelry if they spurn his pushy flirting. Holland plays older Drake with his usual likable sincerity, which makes him fun to watch but utterly unconvincing as a calculating pickpocket. Still, he looks real enough to Mark Wahlberg, who shows up at the bar one night to recruit Drake for a heist that involves — gasp! — Magellan’s map, untold lost golden riches and — double gasp! — Drake’s missing brother. Next thing you know the duo are off round the world solving puzzles and uncovering ancient clues, chased by a purring millionaire and his vicious mercenaries.

If that sounds like lightweight fun, well, it kind of is. Holland’s unpolished version of Drake spends most of his time getting his ass kicked, tumbling acrobatically into various scrapes and misadventures. The opening sequence is then topped by an utterly ridiculous final act, which offers some delightfully silly and infectiously entertaining blockbuster spectacle.