Review of Assassin's Creed (2016) by Vibhooti M — 31 Mar 2017

A tragically poor mishandling of its source material and waste of potential. Assassin's Creed spends far too much time in the most disinteresting part of not only the source material but of the film itself. Throughout the film it seems the film had no heart put into its production, it looks like none of the very talented cast really want to be in it. While the film meanders about in the "Abstergo facility" you may find yourself feeling that you're watching the wrong movie and always would rather want to know what is happening with the real assassin in the Spanish Inquisition portions. It feels like you could sum up the entirety of the movie in one sentence: "Assassin to be Cal Lynch is forced to take part in searching for a mysterious artifact for the villainous company, Abstergo" and that would be all you need to know about the film. Everything the movie bothers to focus on is so boring and goes absolutely nowhere by the end you just wish it would end, and by the time the movie does end it is so unsatisfactory that the entire film ends up being a perfect waste of time.

The positives of the film lie in the performances, premise, attempt to do a new story rather than adapt the game, and in the assassin sequences. The actors are good and there is hardly a cheesy moment, but as mentioned they are clearly not giving their all, especially given Fassbender and Irons' track record. Unfortunately, you end up not really caring about any of the "characters" or what happens to any of them, not even the lead, who is the most "developed" character by a landslide. Personally, I felt as though every time the movie followed the assassin, I was watching an engaging and entertaining Assassin's Creed movie, but these scenes are far and few between. The assassin sadly only gets action sequences to shine in but if the focus was on developing him and his story to balance with the modern portions the film would benefit greatly. In the end, Assassin's creed is a massive disappointment to fans of the games and to those who thought we'd finally get a satisfying and GOOD video game movie adaption.