Assassin's Creed

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.

Assassin's Creed is about a corporation who wants to unlock history's dark secrets. They plan on achieving it by using a device called the animus that uses the blood of the target's descendant to create a virtual environment of the ancestor's memory. The corporation is run by the Templars and their counterpart are called the Assassins.

Having played most of the games in the video game series, I felt this was a pretty lack luster attempt at capturing the story. Nothing is really explained in great detail like in the games, which was unfortunate but I can give it a pass since I shouldn't expect a movie that is only two hours long to explain too many of the secrets. What I can't forgive is the fact they continually addressed the apple over and over again but never explained its full significance. The scenes that took place in the past almost felt unnecessary as it never really furthered the plot.

All of the characters seemed pretty uninteresting... well at least compared to their video game counterparts. I honestly can't go into detail about them as most of their dialogue was just short sentences. They never became good three dimensional characters but instead cardboard cut outs of Desmond, Lucy, and Warren. The movie was just one long trailer for the games which granted was Ubisoft's intention and they didn't hide that fact. They pretty much even said before the movie was released that Assassin's Creed will not be a great film. The main goal is to get more people into the game series. That is my take away from this movie, Assassin's Creed is so vague in the story and characters that casual movie goers will be thinking "you know what, I didn't learn anything from this movie but I want to. Maybe I should try the game."

If you are a fan of the series, especially if you enjoyed the events that took place in the present. I expect you will be disappointed in the movie. If I were to put the movie on the video game scale, I would say it was better than Unity (by far) and would be even with Syndicate.

Assassin's Creed is definitely not a movie that you need to see in the theaters. It is more of a movie that should be rented but even that I am unsure about as I type this.

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

It's a movie based on a game so it will never be good anyway. In that respect then, it features a cast that is too good, and a thoroughly confusing plot. Given Ubi Soft and their involvement, a broken and unfinished product is something they are fantastic at giving us and this film doesn't disappoint in that regard.

I enjoyed this film and would like to see a sequel. I'm not familiar with the game, but the plot was easy to follow and it had good action sequences.

Although somewhat predictable, it had its moments where we were kept guessing. A follow-up could develop some of the minor characters more.