5 things the Uncharted games deliver that the film series needs to add
From the franchise's most important female character to Crash Bandicoot, we highlight five things missing from Sony's new Uncharted
Games Features Uncharted
Sony’s Uncharted opens in theaters this weekend, marking the latest push by a major studio to leverage star power and big budgets to drag a video game adaptation out of the genre’s usual critical mire. With Tom Holland as a (somewhat improbable) take on the franchise’s hero, lantern-jawed adventurer Nathan Drake, and a plot that hodgepodges a number of elements from across the bestselling and globetrotting franchise, the film at least has the look of something capable of breaking the game-to-movie curse.
As Mike D’Angelo points out in his not-especially-positive review of the movie, though, there’s a certain Xerox of a Xerox quality to the Uncharted movie, adapting as it does a game series already operating firmly in the “big stuff blowing up while the hero yells ‘No no no!’” vein pioneered by the likes of famed archeologist/Nazi puncher Dr. Henry Jones Jr. Which isn’t to say that the games are devoid of creativity, in any way, or that their contributions to The Big List Of Great Cinematic Set Pieces don’t deserve a spot on the big screen.
Hence this list of five things we’d like to see in the Uncharted films going forward, provided Holland, co-star Mark Wahlberg, and Sony are actually able to get this thing off the ground. These include some of the games’ biggest set pieces, as well as some of the more human elements that this new film version seems to have potentially left behind.
21 Comments
They could go down the Uncharted 3 route and make it as buggy as hell, Have Tom fall through the floor into an unending void or have one of the enemies he needs to fight spawn behind a wall so he cannot be killed and we have to restart the movie or have it when he jumps into a new area nothing happens and again we have to restart the movie.
Love the series but UC3 was a rushed mess.
Uncharted 3 was the first major game to come out after I got a 3DTV (If you bought a non-budget TV of a certain size between 2010-2012, you were getting 3D whether you wanted it or not.) All I remember of it now is that it utilized the 3D feature very well in the “Running through the North African marketplace while tripping balls” sequence and the Poseidon Adventure homage “Navigate a giant cruise ship, including the cavernous ballroom, as the ship is sinking” level.
The rest of it…I mostly just remember as “More refined than the original, but still not as good as 2.”
I really like Uncharted 3. It’s not as good as Uncharted 2 but its still a lot of fun and Sully is in it more than any other game.
If the movie should get a disc release (not sure if that’s still a thing) it should just not work on older players. I never played Uncharted (the original) back in the day because it would never load on my PS3. People claimed that my optical drive was bad but I never had any problem with any other game.
Now I want a Zelda movie where Link picks up a leaf, does a series of very specific turns and steps, then zooms through a tree and past a series of unrelated rooms full of enemies, at which point the credits roll. Bonus points if the theater then congratulates the audience on how short the viewing experience was.
“Which isn’t to say that the games are devoid of creativity, in any way, or that their contributions to The Big List Of Great Cinematic Set Pieces don’t deserve a spot on the big screen.”That seems unnecessarily generous.
Fuck Marky Mark.And slideshows.
So… people like the games because you’re playing as an Indiana Jones style movie character. And the idea of the movie is to translate that experience into… watching a movie?When does the game adaptation of this movie come out?
It does inch very close to the Street Fighter: The Movie game. Uncharted always felt like Indiana Jones, but not trapped by the Indiana Jones IP. This movie isn’t needed because there are two good Indy movies that can be enjoyed, just like the upcoming Indy game isn’t needed because Uncharted 2-4 are all good Indy games.
How about whoever decided that a helicopter could carry a 16th Century galleon should never work in cinema again?And focus on real stunts, real locations. The games were games, they have to use rendering. Movies don’t, and personally I’m sick of CGI being used where it isn’t needed.
Bold of you to assume this is getting a franchise
“Things it needs to add”The ability to grow facial hair?
Sully’s a father figure in the games. It’s explained much later, how he met Nate who was just a kid then, and he knew his best days were behind him so he took him in. It’s simple, it serves the story for both of them. I can’t see a movie sequel undoing the damage, after a young-ish sully meeting teen Nate.
I assume he’s a little older than a teen – after all Tom Holland is 25 and I assume you need to be older than 21 to serve drinks – but yes the point holds.On another note, Elena may be the main female character but Chloe is definitely the “most important” in that she’s note really bland and lame.
The movie looks monumentally stupid. I hope it bombs.
“5 things the Uncharted games deliver that the film series needs to add” – apart from playability, that is? Wocka wocka!
I doubt I’ll see this in theaters, so please tell me that at some point in the movie, Drake sees a handhold with white or yellow paint on it just before he jumps to it! Bonus points for some side eye or knowing wink before making the jump!
They seem to have fucked this up in all the most obvious ways. Casting: Nathan Drake is a thinly-disguised ripoff of a character who is rugged, middle-aged, and a bit of an everyman (influence on “man”). Tom Holland is boyish first, second, and last. Great Peter Parker, terrible Nathan Drake. And Sully is a mildly cranky old man/father figure, so naturally, they got Marky Mark, because the name reminded them of Boston or something…? Baffling.Story: is there one? Uncharteds 1-3 are good games mainly because of their escalating set pieces and the feeling of tossing you right into the middle of an action movie. The stories and character arcs are mostly disposable and forgettable. Uncharted 4 is the only one that nailed this aspect by retconning in a ne’er-do-well brother and some genuine emotional stakes. Why not adapt the story of this game into a movie, instead of writing some new boilerplate action/adventure nonsense? Movies need story MORE than games do. They had good material to work with and instead they ignored it and just stuffed in a couple of the famous set pieces, which is the bit that could just as easily have been original to the movie.
Because so much of the motivation is about finding Sam, I would say the movie incorporates more from Uncharted 4 than from any of the others. Which is reasonable, because as you said, it’s the one UC game that put the most effort into its narrative. (And I suspect that had a lot to do with The Last of Us being such a game changer for them. There is noticeably less emphasis on nuanced storytelling from all pre-TLOU Uncharted games.)And I thought it kinda worked. They shuffled some things around a bit, sure, and yea, it’s still a silly, shallow adventure, but at least the Sam thing gave the film a foundation to build from. A long lost expert who’s better than Nate almost justifies going so young with Tom Holland. He reads as a kid who needs his big brother. Without Uncharted 4, I don’t even know what they’d have to even work with. There’s no story to the other three games
You are probably right, I haven’t seen it yet. I imagine I will swallow my annoyance and do so.Am definitely hoping that The Last of Us series is a fairly faithful adaptation. I know Druckmann is involved personally, which is a good sign; the casting is too. That’s a narrative that doesn’t need a lot of alteration.
Tom Holland has the soullessness of Tom Cruise without the ability to act