*MAJOR SPOILERS*
This was supposed to be the film to end all crappy video game to movie conversions.. too bad it wasn’t, and will be added to the same list of disappointing video game movies. Sigh.
Assassin’s Creed is a 2016 action/adventure film directed by Justin Kurzel, and is based on the video game franchise of the same name. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Irons, and follows the quest of the Templars searching for the mysterious relic called ‘the apple of Eden’ which holds the key to controlling mankind’s free will itself and an assassin’s attempt to stop them.
So I’ll be honest with you all. I went into this movie knowing that it would be bad, so I guess I wanted it to fail from the start. Although that is a bit of bias, I did have my reasons for giving this film the rating that I will eventually give this film further on in the review.
But lets first open with what I thought was actually pretty good about this film. So unlike the video game, this film takes place mostly outside of the animus, meaning we see less of Spain, and more of wherever the hell Fassbender’s character is being held (yes I know it is Abstergo, but I actually can’t recall where in the world he is). Anyways, almost everything that happened within the animus was actually extremely entertaining. The fighting scenes were pretty good, and even when the movie would take you out of Spain to show you what was happening in the real world, I still could enjoy the Spanish parts to this film. Note, I hated how they continuously took the audience out of the animus to show what Fassbender was doing in real life. Horrible idea. Horrible execution. But other than the fighting scenes, and the majority of the scenes spent inside the animus, that was all I really enjoyed about this film.
The thing that I couldn’t stand the most about this film was its god-awful acting. Literally, Fassbender is an amazing actor, and even Cotillard was fantastic in everything I’ve seen her in, but this movie was just horrific when it came to their acting. It honestly felt forced, and never felt genuine from any of the actors. I almost felt bad for these actors as you could totally tell they wanted nothing but that paycheck. Even when a lot of the characters died in the final fight inside of Abstergo, I felt no connection to these characters, and couldn’t care if all of them died anyways. But the acting was just the beginning for this horrific film, and the writing was just as bad, if not worse. I was constantly lost throughout this film, specifically during the drawn out ending. I could not for the life of me tell if Cotillard was good or bad by the end of this film. Seriously! Writers, I know you were trying to setup a sequel, but at least make it clear if one of the main characters is good or evil! I could of written a better ending on a sticky note!
One of the smaller, more personal issues I had with film was its visuals. I don’t know what it was about this director, but he kept using this zooming shot on everything. You could totally tell it was digitally done, and looked like horse crap. Also the color pallet in this film was way too over saturated. It was way to obvious, and just felt like an eyesore throughout the film.
Okay, I honestly have nothing else better to talk about with this film. It is almost sad that this film bombed so badly because if I read the general script, I probably would have loved it. The failure of this movie has to be contributed to its poor execution, since deep down inside there was a good movie somewhere. So in the end, I decided to give Assassin’s Creed a “Bad” on theVade Review Bar. Its poor execution, horrible acting, horrible writing, horrible visuals, and alright actions scenes leave this film crippling its way into fan’s hearts. Assassin’s Creed will forever be known as the movie that could have changed the good video game to horrible film conversion streak, but didn’t; because it sucked.
