How many of you have played
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End? I have, I loved that game. I remember when the first teaser came out and it was just a map and a voiceover. Then when the second teaser, which was just Nathan Drake waking up while a voiceover of a conversation of him and Sully played. Those two teasers, even though the first one got deleted out of the game, had more emotion and heart than this movie will. Look at the scene from the video below, featuring Sam Drake's' "escape" from prison:
Yes, that scene was magnificent. Of course, Naught Dog always provides us with a cinematic experience. Look at the original
Crash Bandicoot, can you find me a better platforming game from that time frame? It was better than
Super Mario 64 people, and people love Super Mario 64 but when you speak objectively and look at the facts - Naughty Dog has always reigned supreme.
Yet less people are upset about a film on
The Last of Us than a film on Uncharted, simply because while the former takes place in a world in which any number of stories could be told - the latter is a character driven story. That's not to say that the adventures of Joel and Ellie didn't make for an intimate game, they did, but the DLC proved that you don't need Joel to drive the story and there were parts of the game without Ellie. You just need heartbreak. However, that's a discussion for another time.
See, I know that I'm not the only one out there who sees Nathan Drake and thinks Nathan Fillion - even if Fillion is a bit too old at this point, he still has Drake's face, voice and swagger. I don't think Mark Wahlberg, although I would be remiss to say that Wahlberg would be unable to do a good job. He definitely can, but when people start to hate on your project because of him, already deciding they won't like it (look at
Fant4stic), you've got to do an incredible job to convince them otherwise, because a divisive effort isn't enough (see
X-Men: Apocalypse). Hell, they don't have someone cast for Sully yet and the perfect option, Burt Reynolds, is a bit too old at this point. The rate at which this movie is going, it looks like we might end up with Gwyneth Paltrow as Elena.
I'm not going to say that Shawn Levy should cast whot he internet demands as Drake, but rather someone who the world can see doing an appreciable job as Drake. Mark Wahlberg is a fantastic actor, no doubt - but he doesn't play characters like Drake, he never has. Sure, he's an actor and playing new characters is his job but look at his recent movies. He's come to the point where when he plays established characters, like in
Pain & Gain, he doesn't change to play those characters but changes those characters to play him.
If Levy can make sure that Wahlberg doesn't turn Drake into a smart-aleck Bostonian teenager in his 40s, then keep him. If not? Get someone else... I did hear a rumor about Oscar Isaac.