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Assassin’s Creed

Adaptations are a tricky thing. Hollywood has been worked tirelessly to transform other mediums into films for decades and the census is that they won’t be stopping anytime soon. One medium that seems to be popular to convert to film is video games. Now we all know that this is daunting task, mainly because the worlds that video games create are so vast and intricate that it is quite difficult to incorporate everything from that world into a two hour movie. Hollywood has come close with decent video game films like Tomb Raider or maybe the first Resident Evil movie (these are, of course, okay movies that are semi-entertaining). The video game adaptation seems to be the Everest of many Hollywood producers in the fact that video game films don’t do very well critically or financially. However producers everywhere press on and audiences everywhere hold their breath for that one video game film that will live up to expectations. This last part is for me as much as it is for anyone else because this year 20^th Century Fox release one of my most anticipated of 2016 and one of my favorite game series…Assassin’s Creed.

The Story: For centuries there has been a secret war waging on in the shadows between the Templars and the Assassins. The Templars are out for world domination through any means necessary and the Assassins are the thorn in their side, trying to keep the world in balance. One specific way the Templars have tried to succeed in their plans is to find an ancient artifact known as The Apple of Eden. Said to contain within is the first disobedience of Man and a blueprint to rid the world of Free Will. The last person to have the Apple is an Assassin by the name of Aguilar de Nerha (Michael Fassbender X-Men: Apocalypse). Unfortunately for the Templars, Aguilar has been dead for 500 years so they have found a way to unlock memories using the DNA of Assassin’s descendants. Enter long time con, Callum Lynch (also Fassbender) who is on death row for murder. The Templars fix it so that the world thinks that Lynch is dead and now has the freedom to hook him up to their machine known as the Animus. While Lynch is connected to the Animus, the Templars can get a 3D view of events that happened during the Spanish Inquisition and where the final resting place is for the Apple.

The Good: There are many things about this film that I found quite appealing and parts that I really did enjoy. The scenes that take place in the past are the best parts of this film. The costumes were gorgeous and really felt authentic. You can tell that director Justin Kurzel (Macbeth) wanted this part of the film to be as accurate as possible. This includes the sets and even the language (they speak Spanish during these scenes) which both were top notch. Kurzel, to me, proved that his recent success with the latest Macbeth adaptation was no fluke. Kurzel can definitely handle a big budget film like this. The action sequences were also very well done. They were exciting and everything that I expected from this film. The cast in this film brought forth a very good mix of characters and were all very well done.

The Bad: I so wanted to love this film, but there are many aspects that I think could have been done differently. First is all of that Present Day scenes were boring. In the game series most of the story takes place in the past and we learn everything that we need to know about the present and the real intentions of the Templars through the past events. This is not the case in the film, where everything is spelled out for you during Fassbender’s interactions with Sophia Rikkin, the creator of the Animus, played by Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight Rises). I would have loved to see the mystery unfolded in the past like the games. Also there isn’t enough of the Past to really process fully. These sequences are the best of the movie, but they are there and gone so quickly that I couldn’t enjoy them as much as I wanted. This movie also falls victim to what a lot of other game adaptations do, which is making a film that is geared more toward die-hard followers of the game, but the over compensating for explaining way too much. We learn a lot about Lynch and his past and how the Animus works, but we never really learn more about Aguilar and the Assassins themselves. Kurzel is on record saying that he didn’t want to make one faction more good or evil over the other, but I feel that he spent way too much time explaining the Templars intentions clear and not enough time explaining the titular sect of this film.

The Verdict: Is this the worst video game adaptation? No, not by any means (*cough* Super Mario Bros.). I will say that if you follow the games, then you won’t hate this film, however for those of you that don’t it will leave you scratching your head for some answers. I also believe that if this wasn’t based on a video game and the Creed/Past aspect of this film was fleshed out more, Assassin’s Creed would actually be a great movie. The action scenes were great and the acting was done as well as what the actors had to work with. Recommend for an action film kind of night.

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