Assassin's Creed Review

Assassin's Creed is the film adaptation of the game franchise that carries the same name with both having a focus on exploring history in order to use it in the present. This is also the dividing point between the two takes on the series as the game firmly plants itself in the past with back story being filled in from the present time whereas the film focuses on the present providing only teases of the past.

It's actually rather confusing as the start of the film really helped to build up this mystery around viewing time through the Animus and then just only showed us brief glimpses into the past. The Animus itself here is odd; looking like GLaDOS, but I give it a pass since it does make some realistic sense.

The story follows Cal (Michael Fassbender) as he gets taken to the Abstergo, a mysterious research facility. There he meets Sofia (Marion Cotillard) that has been studying him intensely along with other people with past history potential. It all sets things up nicely developing enough of a back story while only giving hints as to what the assassins are. Things seemingly get exciting when Cal is sent back into the past, but these mostly act as action scenes. I would have thought that a movie about assassins might have some sort of tactical approach to it or at least some actual assassinations.

The acting was solid from Fassbender as he embraced the struggling individual well while also being tough during action sequences. Cotillard on the other hand seemed stiff here and almost bored with what's supposed to be an excitement job.

A scientist should have a little bit of joy when what they've been working their whole life on finally comes together and she was just plain the entire time. I also found the general look of the film to be off putting with it not being well shot and not having enough distinction between time periods. It would have been better to get a very clean future with a gritty past, but the entire film looks faded out.

It was however authentic in the past by having the characters speak the native tongue of the region and that was well appreciated. I just wish there was less action with those portions as being an assassin can be awesome. For regular movie goers this will be fine as they'll enjoy the well choreographed action, but those that enjoy the game will be disappointed for the most part.

The Conclusion

I may sound somewhat negative towards Assassin's Creed as I had many points of dislike towards areas of the film, but it was still a decent action film. It's something that lands towards casual enjoyment and I'm sure many would enjoy it. The past scenes felt authentic, but lacked in having any calmness.

They somewhat missed the point halfway through as well opting to make this all about the future when the real interesting parts are in the past. The action for Assassin's Creed was great, the fights felt tense and for the most part it was an alright film.

Assassin's Creed at Home with streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Fox

Rating Overall: 6.0