The first reviews for Uncharted are in, and they have few nice things to say about the video game adaptation. Still fresh off the incredible box office success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland will soon be seen in another potential blockbuster for Sony. Inspired by the popular video game series developed by Naughty Dog studios for PlayStation, the Uncharted movie entered development in 2008, suffering a long and painful process with various writers, directors, and cast members attached.

The film finally got off the ground when Mark Wahlberg signed on to play Sully, followed by Holland's casting as a younger iteration of Nathan Drake. To direct a script penned by Rafe Lee Judkins (The Wheel of Time), Jon Hanley Rosenberg, and Mark D. Walker, Venom's Ruben Fleischer was brought on board. Antonio Banderas stars as the villain alongside Tati Gabrielle as his sidekick. The last notable cast member includes Sophia Ali as Drake's love interest. Uncharted releases in UK theaters today, February 11, followed by February 18 in the U.S.

Related: Uncharted's Biggest Twist Will Be Its Perfect Sam Casting — Theory Explained

With Uncharted's release on the horizon, the first critical reactions to the movie are coming in, and they are slamming it as another vapid video game adaptation. At the time of writing, the film is sitting in the low 40% range on the Tomatometer, which is sure to fluctuate this early on, though not by much. If the critics have anything nice to say about Uncharted, it's that it functions decently as a "diet version of Indiana Jones." See what the critics are saying below:

Charlotte O'Sullivan, London Evening Standard

You don’t need to be a gamer to love Uncharted. You just need to have a very soft spot for buddy movies, maps, puzzles, pirate ships and Holland’s chest.

Clarisse Loughrey, Independent

Abandon hope all ye who enter here. There truly is no future for the video-game-to-movie adaptation if Hollywood can’t even crack Uncharted.

Kevin Maher, Times

Even Tom Holland, riding a wave of global Spider-Man love, can do little to save this mediocre Tomb Raider knockoff about a modern-day bartender-cum-treasure hunter who’s searching for the lost gold of Magellan.

Danny Leigh, Financial Times

The movie feels uptight, joyless even when riffing on much-loved old favorites. If you can’t actually enjoy lifting bits from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jackie Chan’s Police Story, you should leave them where you found them.

Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

A plastic archeological swashbuckler which goes through the genre’s motions with all the elegance and verve of a glazed-over gamer Pavlovically prodding the buttons on his joypad.

Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

With laser-guided precision, with the exactitude of a Nobel-winning rocket scientist or a world-class neurosurgeon, this film measures right up to what you’d expect from a movie based on a PlayStation video game.

Helen O'Hara, Time Out

The characterizations here are more likely to annoy than delight the hardcore fans of the game.

Jo Berry, Movies4Kids

Uncharted is a diet version of Indiana Jones that coasts by on the charisma of its star, Spider-Man's Tom Holland.

Matt Looker, Total Film

Uncharted makes a decent play for filling an Indy-shaped hole in the movie market right now. But the series will need to beef up its reserves of charm and swagger to be in the same league as cinema’s favorite archaeologist.

Tom Holland as Nathan Drake in Uncharted movie poster featured

Historically, critics haven't been very kind to video game adaptations, so the response to Uncharted isn't very surprising. The last notable video game adaptation to hit theaters was Mortal Kombat which was similarly slammed by critics, though it did well enough at the box office and on HBO Max for Warner Bros. to recently green-light a sequel. Sony has similar hopes for turning Uncharted into their own cinematic franchise, evidence by Holland's casting as a younger version of Drake, which was met with controversy early on.

Critical reactions rarely have a substantial effect on a movie's performance at the box office, though it remains to be seen how Uncharted will fare. Its similarities to Indiana Jones should be enough to coax audiences out to the multiplex, coupled with Holland's charisma as a star who is still riding the Spider-Man: No Way Home wave. Audiences will soon be able to head out and make up their own minds about the Uncharted movie.

Next: Tom Holland's Uncharted Origin Story Is Making One Major Change

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