Assassin’s Creed movie reviews are out and we have to ask, when will things change? There have been a number of different films released over the years that were based on video games. Assassin’s Creed is one of these films but once again it failed to live up to expectations, at least for the critics.
Assassin’s Creed reviews are underwhelming and critics are bashing the game for its thin plot. The highlight of the film are its action sequences but apart from action, there is nothing much to discuss. However, of course, opinions differ and some are actually liking the movie, even going as far as calling it the “only blockbuster of 2016 that leave you desperate for a sequel.” But such opinions are in the minority.
Few studio offerings of this scale so proudly express the violence of their creative process, so openly confront their genetic makeup in order to become something better than what was written for them. Declaring “Assassin’s Creed” to be the best video game movie ever made is the kind of backhanded compliment that sounds like hyperbole, but the description fits the bill on both counts. Regardless of what you call this peculiar, arrestingly uninviting nonsense, the fact of the matter is that it’s the only blockbuster of 2016 that left me desperate for a sequel.
past/present nature of the Assassin’s Creed games suggests the difficulties that blight this adaptation would dog any future film. Still, credit Kurzel and his regular DoP Adam Arkapaw for recreating the spirit of the series. In an age when Hollywood has apparently little regard for video game tie-ins, Kurzel’s team – along with Ubisoft – has tried admirably to protect fan interests. If only they’d had a better script…
If a videogame movie’s primary purpose is to drive attention and sales back to their console franchises, Assassin’s Creed represents a welcome new benchmark for formal authority in the genre. But if they are attempting to translate the main reason one picks a controller — the sheer fun of the experience — it’s rarely been this hostile. On paper, the plot of Assassin’s Creed is insanely goofy, but you’d never know it when executed with this much self-importance.
Like that Shakespeare adaptation, Assassin’s Creed is most compelling when Fassbender and Cotillard whisper at each other in close proximity. Both actors have such adult intensity that their participation in a juvenile fantasy (replete with simultaneous hood-flipping and at least a half dozen dramatic dives from great heights, along with the aforementioned self-satisfied libertarianism) becomes a source of bizarre fascination—for a little while, anyway. Assassin’s Creed pushes their charisma to the limits, then stabs it bloodlessly and jumps off a building.
Even Michael Fassbender can’t make this junk leap off the screen
Michael Fassbender game movie achieves transcendental boredom
Do you think video game movies can ever change for the better?
