Uncharted

Indiana Jones was a scholar, an archeologist, and a professor. And, above all, he was a likable guy. These people? Not so much. It’s hard to get into a movie, no matter how well done are the action sequences, or even if there’s a decent story (or back story), if you just don’t have much reason to like the characters. Clearly, Tom Holland’s supposed likability was expected to carry a lot of weight here, but that never particularly worked for me in this film. (Personally, I find him a bit too lightweight in whatever context.) It probably also doesn’t help that this outing is based on a video game; that’s always a kiss of death for any movie. On the plus side, the action is very well done, and the movie overall has good pace, and the settings throughout are interesting and eye-catching. All in all, not a bad effort for a check-your-brain-at-the-door action flick; it just never really catches fire. If you want to go on a cinematic treasure hunt, you won’t find gold here. Finally, I note for the record that I named a fictional cat character Mr. Whiskers over two decades before this film was made, proving there truly is nothing new under the sun.