The following contains spoilers for the Uncharted movie and the video game Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Uncharted, the latest attempt at adapting a video game into a feature-length film, is now hitting theaters after an extended delay. Starring Tom Holland as Nathan “Nate” Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Victor “Sully” Sullivan, it is, unfortunately, not a finished work that was ultimately worth the wait as it fails to recreate the magic of the video games. Regrettably, a core issue comes down to how the film is unable to bring the characters to life in the same way the games did. In particular, the film misses out on what made Sully an intriguing character and flattens him down into being all snark with no heart.

When setting out to adapt a video game into a movie, it is important to know the strengths of your source material. Changes will always have to be made as you make the shift from one medium to another, though there is the hope that you can capture some sense of what worked from a narrative perspective. One of those things was always the strong relationship between Nate and Sully who went on many harrowing journeys together. It was their loving bond and friendly banter that gave the spectacle of their collective adventures a heart. Much of this was due to the strong performance of the prolific voice actor Richard McGonagle who gave Sully a gruffness mixed with prevailing compassion for Nate’s well-being.

All of this is lost in the film adaptation. It isn’t just that Wahlberg doesn't resemble or sound like the character. New portrayals needn’t be a direct imitation of what came before. Still, Wahlberg was a strange choice of casting that feels miles away from what made Sully such a charming and simultaneously caring aspect of the games. His portrayal makes him feel like an entirely different person who, for lack of a better word, is reduced to being a smarmy jerk. Wahlberg’s portrayal cranks up the mocking tone that even tips into being downright cruel and manipulative. While Holland was not everyone’s first choice to play Nate, he ends up finding a far more genuine note that, while still imperfect, makes his co-star pale in comparison.

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Image via Sony

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This starts from the very opening scene and only goes downhill from there. It begins in a New York bar when Sully approaches Nate at work and attempts to get him curious about a job. Largely uninterested, Nate just wants to close up and go home. Wahlberg plays the scene with something that is attempting humor though ends up just feeling abrasive and annoying. It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to spend another moment with him, let alone go on an entire adventure with him. Not content with how unlikeable he was being, Sully later dangles information about Nate’s missing brother, Sam, in front of him. He does this in order to trick Nate into joining him, a calculated deception that only gets worse later.

When juxtaposing that with the first time the two met in the games, the difference in emotional impact is striking. In 2011’s Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, a young Nate meets Sully when they are both attempting to steal the same artifact. When things go south and Nate is in danger, it is Sully who rescues him at the last possible moment. He then takes him under his wing as both a protégé and friend. This creates a sense of connection between the two, building real investment and stakes in their relationship with each other. It ensures that, at a moment later in the same game where Nate mistakenly believes Sully has died, the looming potential loss carries real narrative weight. The prospect of Nate losing the closest thing he has had to a father figure cuts deep. In the games, Sully is a character who feels multifaceted and far richer in terms of emotional depth.

Wahlberg’s one-note portrayal of the character is none of those things. He plays Sully as being almost entirely selfish, with moments even approaching animosity towards Nate. Don’t get me wrong, in the game the two still playfully rib each other at many turns. What makes the game work is, when you pull that all back, is that the player cares about what happens to the two of them and believes they care about each other too. Again, looking to the third game where the film draws much of its inspiration, there is a moment where Sully and Drake manage to barely escape a burning building. They end up having a heart-to-heart conversation about whether it is worth continuing on. In the scene, McGonagle imbues Sully with a sense of mortality as it is clear he is getting too old to keep doing this. As he tries to caution Nate against recklessness, Sully’s compassion is felt in every word and makes the most of even a quiet scene.

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Image via Naughty Dog

Not only does the movie never come close to making you feel any of that, it feels like Sully is actively trying to get Nate killed. He frequently makes him take on the more grueling aspects of the job that exposes him to danger. When things go south, Wahlberg’s Sully does the opposite of McGonagle’s Sully: he abandons Nate. It happens multiple times and makes one wonder why Nate is still sticking around with someone he barely knows that drops him at the first sign of trouble. It is often played as a joke that the two bicker about, but it is impossible to shake the feeling that Sully just does not care about Nate. It is a detriment to the character and to the story overall. There aren't enough back and forth attempts at humor in the world to make you forget that Sully, Nate’s supposed friend, will leave him for dead without a second thought. The film tries to set up a redemption arc, though it is entirely unearned and rushed.

The most egregious issue plaguing the story is when the film establishes that Sully has been lying to Nate from the very beginning. Remember that information that he had dangled in front of him about his brother Sam? It turns out that Sully left Sam to die when they came under fire while out on a prior adventure. Sully now thinks Sam is dead, information he has kept from Nate while still leading him on with the prospect of reuniting with his brother. Such an insidious act is something you would expect to come from a villain, not the supposed ally of the film’s protagonist. It is okay to make a character flawed and even selfish, though the way Sully is written is taken to such an extreme that it strains credulity about why anyone is supposed to like him. The portrayal just ends up coming across as superficially paranoid, self-serving, and callous. Not only are none of these words that resemble the Sully from the games, but they also don’t come close to resembling a well-written character in any story.

It is clear that the film has hopes for a sequel, though it is hard to imagine getting excited about more stories if they are anything like this first attempt. To take Sully and warp him in such a manner that it feels like an entirely different character is a choice that likely wouldn’t have ever paid off. However, it also doesn’t foretell it getting any better in the future. Still, to offer some sense of optimism, there are sequels that have managed to reinvent themselves and address the flaws of their predecessors. If such a follow-up does occur, one can only hope the film devotes as much attention to developing its characters as it does to recreating scene after scene of puzzle-solving. This is the first thing it should address as it would be worth it not just for the sense of building interesting characters but in how it would make the stakes of everything else feel more substantial. Sully is a character worth exploring, though only if given the attention he deserves. As it stands now, the lack of care given to his portrayal undercuts everything the film is going for and ensures it is an entirely hollow entry.