I always wonder what goes through the minds of people when they decide to model a film after a video game. What makes you want to put a popular video game on-screen? Do you feel like you’ll do the franchise justice? Do you feel like the gaming world will be kind to you? Marvel fan boys and gamers are one in the same my friends, which is why Assassin’s Creed is receiving less than stellar reviews and it hasn’t been released publicly yet.
It all boils down to this: If you want to see this movie because it looks ‘cool’ and know nothing about the game, you’re going to love this movie. If you’re a gamer and a purist, you probably won’t leave fulfilled.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because Hollywood has never been able to transfer a video game’s mass appeal to the big screen accurately. Let’s count just a few of the blunders shall we?
- Street Fighter (Every. Single. One.)
- DOOM (Nah)
- Mortal Kombat (Cool soundtrack, terrible movie)
- Need for Speed (Nope)
- Final Fantasy (No… Just no)
- Tomb Raider (Thanks for Angelina Jolie, but still no)
- You could argue the best of the worst has been the Resident Evil series, but even with that, they could definitely be better.
I think the movie was great. The visuals are ok, the storyline has some holes in it (but no video-game-to-movie is ever perfect), but the action and the stunts are awesome.
Michael Fassbender plays Callum Lynch, a man who explores the memories of his ancestor Aguilar, and through technology, gains the skills of a master assassin.
Once he enters the animus, the story takes place in 15th Century Madrid where the Templars are battling a secret society of assassins to find the Apple of Eden. The Apple is said to house the root or the source of violence and aggression. So with that, the Templars planned to bring peace around the world and eradicate violence, which would in turn destroy the assassins.
I’m pretty sure the reason there are so many terrible reviews floating about is because these guys know nothing about the game itself (let alone played it).
My favorite part about the film was the sheer physicality. With all the jumping, lunging, diving, and the heavy fight scenes, it just made me wonder about the hours of training that went into this (and the $150 million, can’t forget that). Of course Fassbender was in shape, but everyone else around him had to be in peak condition as well. At one point during the film I thought I was watching an eight minute long parkour exercise.
Rikken (Jeremy Irons) and his daughter Sofia (Marion Cotillard) have been trying to find the Apple of Eden for years. Using billions of dollars invested in the project (the animus), they are about to lose their funding. So once Cal arrives, they’re forced into a ‘now or never’ situation.
The film also stars Brandon Gleeson, Michael Kenneth Williams, Denis Ménochet, and Ariane Labed.
I give Assassins Creed 8 out of 10. Even though the whole existence of the film/game revolves around assassins, they still managed to get the film a PG-13 rating, which I think is great. There is blood but nothing to squirm or close your eyes about. The plot is so-so and the film’s flow could’ve been better, but as an action movie, it’s pretty fun.
-Jon J.