Assassin's Creed Movie Review (Rant/Review)

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition."

Ahh here we go another day another video game to movie, and what is it this time? Assassin's Creed never expected that one, oh and it's in Spain too.

First off I have to admit I enjoy my yearly run through the latest Assassins Creed game.

But to find out in 2016 that we wouldn't be getting a game but a movie instead, you could say I was about as enthralled as a person trying to drink soup with a fork.

The convoluted plot of the games is something I imagine is very hard to squeeze into the 20-hour epics the games are let alone a 2-hour film, but alas here we are with the film released.

Assassin's Creed follows a new assassin named Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) who has been brought on by the abstergo corporation to relive his ancestor's memories that are encoded within his DNA through the power of a machine known as the Animus. With the animus in use, he takes on the role of Aguilar de Nerha, in 15th Century Spain, through living his ancestor's memories he soon learns what his bloodline has to offer.

Anyway talking about the plot of this film would take another 4 pages, all I can say is if you haven't played the games, good luck learning everything in the short time the film gives you.

The first shot of the film is a few lines of text giving a bit of backstory, giving me horrible flashbacks of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender.

Look I understand that a film that is trying to squeeze its way into an already established universe is hard, especially Assassins Creed, but you can't help but think about who is this film for.

Fans of the games will already know everything there is to know about the Assassins Creed universe, but someone just being introduced to this world isn't going to have a clue what is happening, and having 3-4 lines of text isn't going to make any difference.

This film is trapped in an ether between appealing to fans, and appealing to newcomers, but can't help to bore established fans at the start who have to sit through exposition after exposition, and newcomers are given so much information at once I wouldn't be surprised if some cinemas gave you the Assassins Creed Anthology before viewing.

Just watch this clip, if your a newcomer you will literally have no clue what these are talking about.

The character Sofia (Marion Cotillard) who I dubbed Mrs. Exposition because that is her one purpose in this film, just when you think she is about to be developed something else gets in the way.

This film just overloads on exposition because of how established this universe already is, if your franchise is already established and has a massive audience why bother compromising? You have a massive fan base make the film for them.

But...

This is going to seem very odd after ranting about it, I came out of this film, actually impressed, it's the first movie adaptation of a game that embodies the spirit of the original content while bringing something new to the table.

Visually the film is quite breath-taking from the untouched Spanish mountains, to the clean and functional Abstergo headquarters this film screams gorgeous at every vista that's seen.

One thing that I know I will get a lot of criticism about but, the redesign of the animus in the film is actually more visually stunning and interesting to watch than the one we find in the game.

Just look at this comparison of the Animus, how can you argue the game is better than that? A Chair versus a giant claw.

To gloss over one more aspect of this film is its structure, the daring move to use only the 15th Centaury scenes as action only and then modern day scenes for storytelling is a bold and highly rewarding method of showcasing the high octane chases while also balancing the story in an ever changing and compelling way but that's from an established fans point of view.

So I have ranted, I have praised it, but on the whole what do I think of it?


If you haven't played any of these games before, treat it as nothing more than a summer blockbuster come early expect great action with a less than forgiving plot, if you're a fan just hold on a bit after the start it gets better much, much better.