The consensus is rare enough to be underlined from the outset:
Uncharted
is the most boilerplate of average films.
Neither good nor bad, Ruben Fleischer's feature-length adventure (
Zombieland
,
Venom
) leads Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in pursuit of explorer Fernand de Magellan's lost galleon and its - supposedly - incredible treasure.
Despite a catchy hook, the journey was coolly received by French critics as Anglo-Saxon, who received it without a hoot but without enthusiasm, either.
With indifference, then.
A reception common to many films adapted from video games.
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However, this is not where the shoe pinches.
Big show action movie, propelled by some 120 million dollars, the entertainment is satisfied with a flat academicism and obviously without great bio.
A
“very conventional treasure hunt”
for
Le Monde
,
Uncharted
represents, according to the daily, neither more nor less the quintessence
of “the badly digested globalized blockbuster”,
which
“condenses in a crazy and sloppy way a whole memory of the American action film”
.
Classicism is not enough to doom anyone to loathing, however.
The video game press, more indulgent as a whole, thus salutes a film
"well done"
- for IGN France -, even
"a copy close to the jewel"
, made of
"millimeter choreographies with effective cutting"
and beautiful staging ideas , in the eyes of the Journal du Geek.
As Widescreen readily admits, in short,
"the whole grammar of games is present"
, with a scrupulous homage, and a sense of action which
"authorizes a sincere pleasure, too timorous no doubt, but very present" .
If a certain showmanship indeed answers the call, what is wrong, then, in this umpteenth blockbuster?
Well everything else, we must believe.
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An adaptation at a discount
Perhaps because it is so prominently featured on the poster, the film's most visible and commented on fault is its distribution.
Tom Holland, in particular.
The teenager propelled to the forefront of Hollywood thanks to the last parts of
Spiderman
would definitely not measure up to the seasoned adventurer whose costume he is supposed to have endorsed.
As for Mark Wahlberg, the young man in his fifties
“rolls mechanics without really believing in it”
, according to Benjamin Puech, who inflicted the feature film on himself for
Le Figaro
.
The Invincibles and
Ted
Movies
actor
was originally set to portray the lead role in
Uncharted in person
.
A choice that should have been kept rather than pouring into youthism at all costs, believes
The Hollywood Reporter
.
“
If you think Wahlberg would have been an excellent choice to play Nathan
(Drake, the character played by Tom Holland, Ed.)
, you are not alone”
, grumbles the American magazine.
A festival of punchlines interspersed with tirades penetrated as to the meaning of life to pretend to believe that this little world has more thickness than the nasal cavities of a cocaine addict.
Simon Riaux, for Large Screen
For
Variety
,
the problem is even more general.
Admittedly, the film is
"lively"
, but to what, since it is above all
"too long"
and
"propelled by actors who we would like, after a while, to have more interesting things to say and to do”,
is in despair the American magazine.
The scenario ?
It would be summed up in a few poor lines.
"A festival of punchlines interspersed with tirades penetrated as to the meaning of life to pretend to believe that all this little world has more thickness than the nasal cavities of a cocaine addict"
, tackles with verve the criticism of
Large Screen
.
Never mind, however, warns the
Washington Post
, follower of Ockham's razor:
“Is it far-fetched?
Yes.
It is also very improbable, laughable and absurd.
(...) It would be unreasonable to expect anything more – or less – from
Uncharted
”.
Badly embodied, long, flat, silly,
Uncharted
would be, well, devilishly uncreative.
Almost inevitable pitfall of a project, which consisted in making a film on a game already paying homage to the great Hollywood productions.
Either an
“aberrant ambition”
, for
Le Monde
, which regrets a final product in
“pale photocopy of photocopy”
.
The result is a fatal feeling of deja vu which has not gone unnoticed by our British comrades from
The Guardian
.
When you know the Indiana Jones
, the
Benjamin Gates
and even the
Goonies
by heart
, can we be satisfied with a less inspired medley?
Waiting for their true spiritual successor is the treasure hunt of the most patient moviegoers.