What A Hardcore Uncharted Fan Thinks Of The Uncharted Movie

7. The Closest It Gets To Nailing Uncharted Is In The Final 30 Minutes

Uncharted movie Tom Holland Nathan Drake
Sony Pictures Releasing

Why couldn't the entire movie be like this? The third act - including that final mid-credits scene - is where Holland feels the most like Nate, where Wahlberg feels the most like Sully, and where the movie, as a whole, feels the most like Uncharted.

Not only is the flying pirate ships a deliriously entertaining action sequence that Naughty Dog should be jealous of (more on this later), but this final chunk is where the movie really hits its stride tonally, brilliantly merging the comedy, rough-and-tumble action, and ridiculous stunts that Uncharted is known for.

Holland and Wahlberg's banter is at its best here, and there's a moment where Nate messes around with the wheel of a pirate ship that was a very Nate thing to do, reminiscent of his dumb, yet frankly adorable Marco Polo joke in Uncharted 2.

It also helps that Holland gets those iconic holsters, Wahlberg finally gets his moustache, and the music from the games kicks into gear as Nate starts blasting goons with his pistol. As a fan of the series since day one, it was delightful to watch, and I had a huge smile on my face throughout this entire finale.

It makes me lament that the movie didn't start out this strong, and that these fully-formed versions of Nate and Sully weren't used from the very beginning. Couldn't their origin story/initial meeting have played out via flashbacks?

Look, if the movie can carry the momentum of this climax into the sequel... then great! But because we might not even get a sequel, it's like we've all been teased with the proper Uncharted movie we all wanted to see.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!