10s Movie Review - Assassin's Creed

Director: Justin Kurzel
Genre: Fantasy/ Action/ Science Fiction/ Adventure
Runtime: 115 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Kenneth Wiliams

Description: Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) explores the memories of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha and gains the skills of a Maser Assassin, before taking on the secret Templar society.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2022 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 46: A MOVIE BASED ON A VIDEOGAME
 
Review: Movies based on videogames aren’t really successful, with a few exceptions of course. This time, it’s “Assassin’s Creed”. The film has an incredible cast and it looks amazing. But its execution is a soulless misinterpretation of the game, that might even be on the list of worse videogame adaptations ever made.

The real potential of “Assassin’s Creed” lies in three unique elements, all of which were butchered. First, “Assassin’s Creed” belongs to the sci-di genre, but this is extremely poorly utilized. The basic elements are still accurate: Abstergo is a secretive company that kidnaps people from certain bloodlines, such as Callum Lynch, to put them in the so-called Animus. An imaginative device that finds in DNA the genetic memories of one’s ancestors, and creates a holodeck-like simulation in which history can be experienced. In the game, these simulations show a fine collision between history and technology. In the film Callum has zero influence on the simulation. He simply undergoes the story as Aguilar.

Second, the relationship between Callum Lynch and his ancestor Aguilar. The game always works with two storylines, where the Animus driver and ancestor are quite different but gradually grow together. This “synchronization” is hardly named in the film. It also never plays with themes of reality or identity. The scenes in medieval Spain are simply three long flashbacks that serve only as action scenes or plot vehicles.

Finally, the mysterious story is told with the subtlety of a children’s series. For example, the film opens with a piece of text, leaving nothing in the dark. Where the mystery slowly unveils in the game series, there is hardly any subtlety present in the film.

They put so much effort in the visuals of the film, but totally ignored the essence of the game’s story. And also completely wasted the talented cast that they had. I’m not a big games, but I don’t believe fans of this game like it. I just know this movie sucked.

Rating: 2/ 5