Reviews: Unchartered, Shadow in the Cloud, Nerve

 

Inspired by the game of the same name Uncharted , showing at cinemas now, aims to show the origins of how its two main characters first met. Apparently. I’d never actually heard of the game so I can only judge the movie on what it delivers so there may well be Easter Eggs and references aplenty that I didn’t get. So, judging purely on the film itself Uncharted is an entertaining, lively action movie in the vein of things like Pirates of the Caribbean or Mission Impossible or Lara Croft. Lots and lots of running, clues aplenty on ancient artefacts, close escapes, dramatic visuals and characters who converse largely in banter. Tom Holland manages to delineate between his character here Nathan Drake and his best known alter ego Peter Parker. It’s a more mature performance even if before too long he’s engaged in the sort of action you’d normally expect from a superhero. If you’re looking for a good gym use the one Nathan Drake uses! Mark Wahlberg is now the more mature mentor character Victor Sullivan which makes me (and probably him) feel old but the two establish a breezy on screen rapport that makes for an easy journey. The third main character in the picture Chloe Fraser at first seems like the increasingly typical girl who’s as tough as the guys but thanks to Sophia Taylor Ali the part develops into its own place.

Nathan Drake grew up in a children’s home with his elder brother Sam both of them showing an (unlikely) interest in ancient artefacts, in particular a stash of legendary explorer Magellan’s gold believed to be hidden somewhere. Only Sam disappears and by the time we find Nathan bartending he’s not heard from his brother in a decade. The only clues to both mysteries are a map and a couple of antique crosses. Through a connection that isn’t immediately explained but which you can guess, Victor Sullivan, a more experienced treasure hunter recruits Drake to steal one of the crosses from an auction. Chloe Fraser, who has worked with Sullivan before, is also in the mix and the distrust between the trio forms a backdrop to the action in the first half of the movie. The antagonists are more broadly drawn though Tatti Gabrielle as Bradock proves a formidable opponent with a strong screen presence. Antonio Banderos too turns up the evil Moncada whose ruthlessness we see at first hand.

It's an intriguing tale even if most of the developments – in particular the elaborate traps set centuries ago – seem far- fetched. While the subsequent twists and turns do hover on predictable the presentation is so sharp and the chemistry between the main trio so much fun that you go with the flow.  Matters culminate in an absurd but actually really exciting chase between the most unlikely vehicle lash up you’ve probably seen in a movie. The laws of physics are left firmly at the starting gate!

Making it’s debut on sale or streaming, Shadow in the Cloud skips across genres with confidence and even though it has a running time of eighty two minutes it feels even shorter due to the speed with which events take place. Providing you’re prepared to accept some of the highly unlikely developments it’s a great ride. In World War 2 a B17 Flying Fortress bomber about to take off gains an unexpected extra passenger; an English agent called Maude Garrett. She has a very important case which must be delivered and not opened. The crew are period authentic so their chauvinistic behaviour ends up with Maude having to sit out the flight in the vulnerable and uncomfortable gun turret effectively underneath the plane. With the intercom left on she is party to the banter firm above, none of it flattering.

Then things start to shift. Her motives are questioned while she starts to see something on the wing outside the plane. As the action escalates and this creature makes several attacks on her, so her real, more personal  mission is uncovered and the crew find themselves fighting for their lives in stormy skies as their assailant turns out to be both brutal and robust.

It’s a lively unusual idea which gains currency from its presentation. For a large proportion of the run time the camera does not leave the turret so we only hear the other characters as voices over the intercom while Maude is trapped inside. This makes things more tense than had we been flipping back and forth – her credibility is undermined when she most needs help and this really builds up the tension. The creature itself is a fearsome winged mutant monkey sort of thing that tenaciously starts to pull the plane apart.

For Chloe Grace Moretz this is a tour de force as the actor has to effectively front two thirds of the film alone, her reactions are all we have to watch while the disembodied male voices become increasingly panicked by the turn of events. She does a great job especially when the character’s true motives are revealed while her injuries as a result of the tenacious creature are rather gruesome. Of course it does go a bit too far; the early care to stay broadly within the parameters of what she or the plane could conceivably do eventually morphs into some impossible feats though the most improbable aspect of all is what turns out to be inside the box. You honestly will not believe it!

It’s almost a shame when Maud finally re-appears inside the main part of the plane for a more conventional sequence of the men being slowly picked off by this creature as a crash landing looms but director Roseanne Liang keeps it sharp and to the point. The creature, mostly CGI, holds up once seen in full and the film plays again and again on the old trope of it coming back after seemingly defeated. Shadow in the Cloud somehow manages to be a war movie, horror story, psychological drama, action adventure and line up with the current tread for female led projects. In that respects it is both as unlikely and gymnastic as its lead character.

Nerve is a 2016 film and the name of an online game where players risk their reputation and more to win money only the game is controlled by `watchers` in other words the viewers. It is they decide what the participants should do and a limited time in which they should do it. It’s based on the novel of the same name penned by Jeanne Ryan and intended for a young audience enchanted by the possibilities of interactive media. Starring Emma Roberts (daughter of Eric, niece of Julia) and Dave Franco (brother of James) and given the subject matter the film may give the impression of being the sort of fare that used to go straight to video back in the day. In fact it proved fairly successful when released at the cinema making $88million from a budget for of $19milliom, a palpable hit ad it’s easy to see why. It’s a prescient and compelling tale that draws from the still current concerns about the influence and power of social media and also just what people will do to become internet famous.

Nerve is an online game of dares that can be trivial like having to kiss a stranger or dangerous like dangling from a crane hundreds of feet up. You can decide whether to be a player or a watcher and as the dares become more extreme so the money you can win increases. It’s all hidden from the authorities and players are warned ominously “snitches get stiches.”  It’s like YouTube with danger.

Vee is a high school senior whose mother does not want her to go to college as she is still getting over the sudden death of her brother two years earlier. Vee is also living in the shadow of her best friend Syndey, a loud, up for anything girl who already plays the game and has amassed several thousand followers. Fed up with living in the shadows and longing to escape to college she joins the game and soon becomes emmeshed in it’s increasingly risky stunts. She is teamed up with Dave about whom we learn little, deliberately so.

Initially these japes are amusing – both end up in clothes they `borrow` from a high end department store and as the scenario develops they become more popular to the increasing annoyance of Sydney. The narrative shows how fickle people can be and how following something online becomes entertainment however risky it is for those taking part.

Directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman present a colourful vista using fast edits and online imagery (counters, messages, emojis etc) to simulate the excitement and speed the game offers its participants. I’ve no idea if all the teach talk of bots, the dark web and the game’s design to make everyone a server is plausible but it doesn’t matter because the film sells it well enough. Some films with an online based theme can seem somewhat dull, ironically enough, but Nerve moves at a pace and adds a cinematic sheen to even the most ordinary sight of scrolling texts or selfies.

The cast also liven things up. Emma Roberts is a terrific heroine never falling into the cliché of the weak in real life / tough online trope she remains as unsure and frequently horrified by what she’s going through. She and Dave Franco have an easy chemistry that adds a human side to all this technical hoo-hah. There are strong turns to from a riotous Emily Meade as Sydney, Miles Heizer as Vee’s best friend and computer nerd Tommy who is obviously besotted by her and Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) as frightening adversary Ty who turns out to be not all he seems by the end.

The story enables the film to have both a technical climax in which Tommy and a band of secret hackers try to take down the game and a physical one in a nineteenth century relic on the Staten Island waterfront which becomes the arena for a final showdown which has a strong twist that plays out well. The technology may have move on in the six years since Nerve was made but this film is an exemplar in how to make a film about online matters visually and thematically interesting.