Review of Assassin's Creed (2016) by Horsey007 — 02 Jan 2017

What a sorry state of affairs when critics don't know or understand the source material and base their reviews on their own ignorance, such is the case with Assassin's Creed.

I have read so many reviews where they get so much wrong, one thought the Assassin Brotherhood is the Assassin's Creed, (I had to point out it was a motto!) and others thought it was the Brotherhood and not the Templars who operated the Animus.

As they understand so little, I can tell you they are wrong about this movie, it delivers with gusto and stays true to the feel of the games and improves upon it, it has a cross combination with the Matrix meeting Jedi Knights.

I was sceptical, the association of game to movie is a known hoodoo to many, but this would've worked had the game not ever existed, sadly, many of the critics lack the intelligence to understand the story, which in essence is not difficult to comprehend, Abstergo (Templars) seek an ancient artefact (similar to Nazi's looking for the Ark of the Convenant in Raiders) called the Apple of Eden, it possesses the ability to eradicate free will (so a mind control device), they can only find it by tracing the memory of an assassin called Aguilar and do so by looking at genetic memories of his descendant Callum Lynch, however, each time they access said memories Callum learns the skills of the assassins and finally comes to realise he is being used...simple and straightforward plot, or so you would think, however, this seems to have bamboozled critics who don't have a clue what is going on and in their frustration at their own ineptitude to understand, they give it negative marks.

Make no mistake, the Oscar nominated trio of Fassbender, Cotillard and Irons give solid performances and the fight scenes and feel of the movie are a joy to behold, sadly, much of the negativity generated is from those who either a: never liked the games b: never played the games c: just don't like games at all (which covers a lot of critics) or d: not happy that Ubisoft did not include references to Altair, Ezio or any other assassin used in the games.

It's a shame this movie has been derided by a few, but this is evidence of yet again that many critics feel the only way to get their views noticed is to provide a negative review because they were too lazy to at least find some context in the source material, i.e. they knew that AC universe was big in the games arena, but because of their dislike of games intruding in the film world, they went into the movie with their minds already made up....and those who did try to have an open mind, quickly deciding that because they lack understanding of the story the film was stupid...when in fact the stupidity was of their own making.

A very good movie, plenty of action and a solid retelling of the core Assassins Creed ethos, the sequences of Callum and Aguilar mirroring each other's action are breath-taking, as is the feel of the Spanish inquisition, the games often captured the feeling of the era they were set in, and the same is true of the movie, a lot of rich and glorious detail went into the recreation of the year 1492.

And those who know Assassins Creed know that the assassins fighting skills gave them the edge, and this is not overlooked in the movie, some amazing set pieces utilising the parkour skills of the assassins which you can clearly associate with the game world, think Jason Bourne mixed with the skills of Egsy (Kingsman) and you get an idea of the visual treat the well choreographed fight scenes do provide.

The acting is very good, Fassbender pulls off a very disinterested Callum to begin with, choosing not to believe the world he has found himself in, and more concerned with being free (he was convicted of murder) than stopping the plans of the Templars, that is until he finds the truth of why he witnessed his mother dead at the hands of his father, he then realises that not everything is as it first seemed.

Sadly, in a world now where so many movies are put down with consummate ease and the critics can sway your decision, so many will miss out on a terrific movie that doesn't deserve the negativity and subsequently the lack of box office appeal due to the ignorance of the critics and their unwillingness to at least find out a little of the story, I am quite sad to realise this may not see a sequel, but I am glad it got made all the same, so thank you Mr Fassbender and Mr Kurzel for doing Assassin's Creed the justice it deserved.