Assassin's Creed Movie Review

Released: 1st January 2017 (UK)

Length: 116 Minutes

Certificate: 12A

Director: Justin Kurzel

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson

As the latest video game adaptation to come to cinemas, Assassin’s Creed is Ubisoft’s first foray into the silver screen. With a well-established series bursting with interesting stories to tell, you’d think that it would be a great fit for the big screen. Regretfully the answer is yet again, no.

The film follows Calum Lynch, a rebellious individual executed for murder; he wakes up no longer existing in the world, as a patient (or prisoner) of Abstergo Industries, an organisation aiming to eradicate violence through the removal of free will. After a flimsy, incomprehensible opening with Calum’s family, we’re tossed into the bland, uninteresting world of Abstergo headed by Alan Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) and his daughter Sophia (Marion Cotillard). Calum is strapped into the Animus, a virtual simulation very much like The Matrix where he relives the memories of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha during the Spanish Inquisition. Here lies the film’s biggest problem; there’s far too much time spent in the present day; this was an issue in the games but in the adaptation, it takes up three quarters of its runtime, desperately trying to create a journey for Calum with no success; you’ll constantly be checking your watch, waiting around for the film to go back into the virtual world. Both sides of the plot suffer immensely because of this focus; the modern story never becomes engaging and the one within the animus is one of the most hackneyed and rushed I have ever seen. The Inquisition scenes start with a chase across a desert then suddenly we’re placed into an execution scene with no sense of progression or passage of time. The absence of basic storytelling here is abhorrent; there is no flow, no smooth transitions. It’s as if the filmmakers picked a few moments from the games, threw them in and hurriedly wrote in the modern plot around them.

The characters are equally sluggish and completely uninteresting; Michael Fassbender is average here, he’s trying his best with the material but his character is just too basic and one-note, making his supposed struggles completely mundane. While Calum is painfully simplistic, the cast surrounding him is utterly worthless. Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson are all equally wasted for this production, their performances amounting to little other than standing around in rooms and talking with blank, monotone looks on their faces. The characters in 15^th Century Spain are even worse; there is absolutely no development to be found here and thus the film leaves no impact on the audience whatsoever. Instead the film chooses to rely purely on fan service in a checklist fashion; the eagle soaring around? The air assassination? The parkour chase? They’re all here for fans but this is a poor substitute; considering how the games (Particularly the Ezio trilogy) created well-written characters, it’s inexcusable for the film to have done this. Characterisation in Assassin’s Creed is non-existent; because none of the characters are worth caring about, any investment in the action is immediately lost.

Boasting a drab, desaturated look on both sides of the animus, the aesthetics of Assassin’s Creed, the film, are quite indicative of its sheer dullness. The scenes in the Spanish Inquisition are blurry, with a constant dusty yellow hue that really muddies its entire presentation. Cutting is something the Assassin’s Creed movie really likes to do and by that I’m not talking about the franchise’s titular hidden blades. The action sequences are overly-loud and horribly edited, constantly bouncing from shot to shot with intrusive uses of CGI without a hint of coherency; often you’ll find that several moments within a sequence were skipped or cut out completely, making them wholly disjointed. The 12A rating, which sits below all its gaming counterparts doesn’t do it any favours either, with the more violent moments that could have had impact concealed from view. Then there’s the horrible idea of constantly switching back and forth between past and present as Calum performs the actions of his ancestors from the animus; while intended to bring a more cinematic flair, instead it ruins any chance of immersion.  At least the film does bring a light level of authenticity; Spanish dialect has been worked into the past scenes and the costume work is capably executed. When it isn’t obscured by the awful camera-work, a few stunts look OK as well; the iconic leap of faith is a highlight, despite being quickly cut off before the landing. Outside of a few select moments, Assassin’s Creed is an ugly, lazy looking film, lacking any kind of personality to match the universe it is set in.

In every way imaginable, Assassin’s Creed fails as a cinematic experience, embarrassing its source material in the process. Even the biggest fans of the game series will be left bored and confused by this film which somehow takes the weakest aspects of the series it’s based on and magnifies them before disregarding all semblances of coherent filmmaking. This is one of the worst adaptations to be released in some time and another misfire from the infamous game-to-film transition.

Rating: 1/5 Stars (Terrible)