Assassin’s Creed – Movie Review

Having played all the Assassin’s Creed games up to Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag I’ve gotten a great knowledge on the series, with its historical battles between the Assassin and Templar Orders, the intricate stories of the past and how those adventures brought light to the conflicts of the present time, and the development of very memorable characters like Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Adéwalé.

This movie failed all three of these. When I first heard that the time period in which past would take place in the Spanish Inquisition I was intrigued, as this was a good period in history for the Assassins and Templars actions to be explored. But then I heard less than 40% of the film was going to take place in the past and I knew this film was in trouble. The series hardly had its action and interactive story in the present day and what was in the present day was minimal because the main focus of the series was uncovering the truths of the past. While the Templar Order was trying to do that, the amount of time to allow the viewer to see the past and explore there was small. Which left us with the boring, painfully slow present day conflicts.

And this present day time was full of actors that were poor. Really poor. Their acting was bland and emotionless. The female lead, Marion Cotillard as Sofia Rikkin, was almost unbearable to listen to her almost dead tone, even in the action scenes. That, combined with story elements that would leave even devoted fans of like me confused, turned this into something that makes my skin crawl. Now I could understand what was going on better than my girlfriend, who was watching it with me, so I was glad they did keep the lore of the series just like the games. But even so, the director should have realized that in order to make the film really shine at its best it had to be able to present a story that people who were newcomers or never knew about Assassin’s Creed before should be able to understand clearly. But it didn’t, which left fans frustrated and the newcomers confused.

Despite this bad execution of story, there were some small positives I took from this viewing. First, and probably the biggest one, was what was done right in the games was mostly done right in the movie, with the big exception of the Animus, which looks… well I kind of wish this design for it was the original, except how it can be easily broken by the user. The scenes in past Madrid were exciting, full of story that was engaging and interesting. Both the long-time fan (myself) and the newcomer (my girlfriend) were excited and appealed by the story in the past. Second, which goes well with the first positive, was that the action scenes, especially in the past, were epic. The assassins really fought like assassins in the game. There was intricate hand-to-hand combat, realistic parkour, and excellent use of Assassin and Templar ways of fighting. These actors, especially Michael Fassbender and Ariane Labed, must have pushed themselves to their limits while training and performing their scenes in the past.

But again, the past is hardly scene so we can’t really get too attached to the pasts assassins. Instead we get characters that are just there and hardly anything happens. Too much is given to the audience too quickly, which again makes both fans and newcomers confused, including a father/ son argument, a father/ daughter argument, and some disappointing moments for the main hero when his mind is becoming addicted to the Animus. When eventually the Templars succeed in the plans for the main hero though we get another great action scene, but instead with many of these side characters who fight well and definitely cemented that the choreographed fights are the movie’s strong point. But with the exciting battle it just didn’t feel very in touch with the original source material. I mean there were guards using crossbows instead of guns. Crossbows! In modern times! That’s ridiculous!

Thankfully the ending for the film wrapped up as best as it could. It tied up the story enough so that we weren’t left with a huge cliffhanger but enough that there could be possible sequels. But does this movie deserve a sequel?

Overall Analysis:

To be honest… yeah, it could deserve a sequel if they look back at and fix the many problems this film had because there were some great enjoyable moments, they were just squashed and pushed to the side for plot that just felt boring and unclear. If the movie stuck with the past events much more, explained the events happening there in the plot and made the main characters the assassin’s from the past the movie would have done better. The past was more exciting and engaging to the audience than the present. Not just that, but both the Assassins and Templar were put in the movie in a more grey area instead of more black and white. Maybe that’s with the development of the series as it has advanced, but that’s a flaw of the series right now. To start a movie or possible trilogy with the two opposing forces in a more grey area than black and white or dark and light grey makes it a bit harder for who too root for. Templar want to bring peace through control, Assassins want to bring peace through more freedom, that’s more defined than what was given to us, which even then wasn’t explained much or well. In the end I give this movie, Assassin’s Creed, a 35% approval.

Nothing is true, not caring is permitted.