By Assassin’s Creed has been in the works for a long time. The videogame series’ developer Ubisoft has been trying to get the project off the ground since 2011, but was marred with production and release date delays. When Michael Fassbender was cast as lead in 2012, he took it on as sort of a passion project. It was always so strange to me he’d choose a videogame adaptation to throw his weight behind, but the eventual additions of Marion Cotillard and Macbeth director Justin Kurziel gave the film a credibility other adaptations do not have. It’s a shame we’re left with such a huge disappointment.
There’s one point in Assassin’s Creed where Fassbender’s Callum Lynch says “What the fuck is going on here?” and I can’t think of a better phrase to hang this review on. Assassin’s Creed is such a handsome mess, it almost seems like a direct-to-video film with a good budget.
Assassin’s Creed
Directors: Justin Kurzel
Release Date: December 21, 2016
Rating: PG-13
After being executed in a Texas prison, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) is held under the control of the Abstergo Foundation, a company that wants to “end violence.” His caretaker, Sofia (Marion Cotillard), explains one of his ancestors was an assassin in 1400s Spain (named Aguilar) and wants to use his memories to help Abstergo locate the Apple of Eden, a magical macguffin that would eliminate free will. Lynch is then plugged into the Animus, a machine that allows Lynch to live his ancestor Aguilar’s life and gain his abilities. As more of Abstergo’s plot comes to light, Lynch has to decide whether or not to carry on the creed of an ancient assassin’s group and fight the coming evil.
As you can most likely gauge from the synopsis, there’s a lot going on in Assassin’s Creed. Like its smooth action scenes, the film’s plot and premise move along with a breakneck pace. There’s a bit of plot-specific terminology thrown into the film’s dialogue, but it never rests enough within its character interactions for these terms to make sense. It’s almost as if the film expects its audience to be familiar with the game series, so cool ideas like The Templars and the Creed don’t have enough development. Despite the film running over two hours, things just kind of “happen” and often don’t get enough follow through to make sense. Which is even more of a shame since the premise does inherently have a religion versus science debate in the root of it all. But the film does succeed when it takes the time to develop its world.
If you’re a fan of the videogame series, you’ll be glad to know Assassin’s Creed translates one of the series’ core elements, the Animus, extremely well. Lynch plugging into the Animus leads to some of the coolest scenes in the film as the machine translates Aguilar’s flashly assassin movements in real time. Cutting back to Lynch every few minutes during the film’s well choreographed fights may get annoying later on as they take you out of the action, but it’s still an initially intriguing and distinct look only capable here. That’s also because the film took a moment to establish the Animus which is, as mentioned earlier, a luxury only briefly afforded. But although most of the story is a befuddling mess, it’s visually appealing. Andalucia in 1492 is an incredible display of set and costume design, which makes its short time in the film even more egregious. When not covered in a notable amount in dust storms, Assassin’s Creed spends the bulk of its time in yet another in a long line of plain, white science fiction sets.
Director Kurziel also films some impressive battle scenes. Although the point-of-view sometimes get lost in the fight choreography (as Kurziel at times can’t fully grasp the geography of the setting), they flow well and incorporate many tactics and weapons (which is reminiscent of the game series, also). But Assassin’s Creed doesn’t have much going on for it beyond its look. Fassbender is, undoubtedly, the standout but even he struggles with the film’s script. Failing to give Lynch’s words the proper amount of weight as the film speeds on, Fassbender is just trying his best to push on. His scenes with Cotillard’s Sofia are also a highlight, but that’s only because he has Cotillard’s near-deadpan delivery to bounce off of. In fact, you could’ve scrapped the bulk of Abstergo-set scenes altogether and the film would’ve been a triumph. Aguilar’s romps through a mid-Inquisition Spain are the best the film has to offer, but there’s never enough time to develop either Aguilar or Lynch to make any of this matter.
In a film where a man defies the laws of time and space, time is ironically Assassin’s Creed‘s biggest enemy. A lack of time spent with its characters, lack of time spent with its ideas, and lack of follow through muddy the film’s experience. In fact, the film seems to only want to translate the videogame series to film without caring whether or not it succeeds as a film. Much like direct to home video videogame adaptations like Dead or Alive and Tekken, Assassin’s Creed captures the spirit of the videogame series but won’t have the appeal for those outside of its fan base.
Assassin’s Creed is such a good videogame adaptation, hilariously enough, it already expects to come back for yearly outings.