Assassin's Creed

As a young boy Callum Lynch witnessed his father murder his mother. Now, 30 years later, he is being executed for murder. However, the execution is faked and, instead of dying, he is transported to a special facility. It turns out that he is descended from a 15th century master-assassin, Aguilar, a member of the Assassin's Brotherhood. The plan is to train him in the ways of his forefather. This will enable him to fight the arch-enemy of his forefather, the Templars.

Great cast, very weak script. Plot is very basic and much of the movie consists of predictable, well-choreographed fight scenes. The writers try to throw in some intrigue and purpose by introducing the Apple of Eden but it is a fairly weak plot device.

Great cast - Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling - but these talents are all wasted due to the action-driven, no-substance script. Michael Fassbender can only blame himself for appearing in such a piece of crap - he co-produced the movie.

This movie was just confusing, man.

I understood most of it due to me having played the games, but even some of the sequences that were flashing back and forth had me super confused. It was clearly made with the intent of becoming a series, which left it with such an unsatisfying ending to the story.

I felt like it was short for how much they put in there; I really liked the way Fassbender was playing the main character of Cal, with a sort of insane twist to him due to the Animus side-effects. However, this was not explored enough and the connection between him and his ancestor made no sense, especially with its culmination toward the end. In the game series, this connection between the Animus user and the ancestor is explored in much more depth, and I feel like the film attempts to capture some of that emotion and condense it way too much to come across as anything meaningful.

I have not played the Assassin's Creed games. However, this movie did not make me feel as though I needed to have played them in order to understand or enjoy the film.

The cinematography was great, and there were some magnificent aerial views of 15th century Spain along with modern day. Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard both gave excellent performances, managing to deliver the occasional corny, melodramatic dialogue with poise, and the supporting cast were equally great in their roles. Despite the occasional cheese, this film had some excellent dialogue that were thoughtful and poignant - unexpected in a fantasy action movie! Speaking of action - this was the best part of the movie. Gorgeous choreography, and I loved all the various weaponry and free running.

This is by no means an award winning film, but overall it was incredibly enjoyable, and I don't think it quite deserves the negativity critics and fans of the games are giving it.

Assassins Creed is by no means perfect, but I did enjoy it. The film has the classic setting from Assassins Creed games, a modern day protagonist enters the Animus to relive the memories of his ancestor. The film does a pretty good job explaining the series mythos to those unfamiliar with the games. Sadly, we don't spend as much time with the ancestor Aquilar as we do with the present day Cal, and Aquilar feels under developed as a character. The movie also felt a bit short. It really could have benefited from a longer run time, to give more character development to the ancestors, and explain some of the characters motivations better. The action in this movie is great, the story is solid, and the characters (that are properly developed) are interesting. Both Fassbender and Irons play their roles well. Overall a decent movie any Assassins Creed fan would enjoy. The critics like to bash it because it's a video game movie, and it's cool to hate video game movies, but it's not bad at all. 8/10

Following a somewhat parallel story to the original game, I do wish they would've stuck with original characters. Despite that, the film remains a fun and intriguing watch. The change of the Animus from a bed-like system to the VR style arm was something I originally disliked, but that change ends up playing well into the film visually and aids in parts of the story. The action scenes are well choreographed and exciting, countered with what may be a few too many close up facial expressions and dialogue that might easily confuse someone less familiar with the base plot of the franchise. As far as movie adaptations of video games, this is a far better rendition than many other attempts. As a standalone film it needs some work. But I know they intended to produce a trilogy so I'd like to believe the opportunity to release sequels will give the audience more of what they're looking for, while this movie may have been a bit too much set up rather than development. Personally I generously offer it 7/10, and would recommend seeing it. I hope it is successful enough for them to finish the intended trilogy.