BurtonReviews Assassin’s Creed: Damn Hoodlums!

(Image sourced from http://uk.ign.com/articles/2016/05/14/assassinas-creed-movie-creators-want-to-prove-to-fans-they-understand-the-game)

Videogame movies, to be or not to be? That is the question we have been asking ourselves again and again for decades now as each game-to-movie project has not seen the most favourable of results. From the damn awful Mario Bros, to the ‘meh’ inducing Prince Of Persia, and the guilty pleasure of the Resident Evil franchise (that is so far away from what the games are, it might as well be a different property at this point) we have yet to get that one film that proves to gamers that their most beloved characters and stories can be trusted in the hands of Holly Wood. And 2016 seemed to be the year that we would get proof we needed that videogames could be made into good movies. But after Warcraft’s terrible critical reception earlier last year, all of our hopes and dreams have been left on the shoulders of one lonely Assassin. So did the Assassin’s Creed answer our call for help, or simply stab us in the heart like so many other videogame movies have.

The story of Assassin’s Creed (or AC for short) is reported to actually take place within the expansive universe of the games and sees a death row inmate, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender, best known for his feats of magnetic manipulation in the X Men movies as the younger Magneto), saved from demise by Abstergo, a huge corporation who basically control the world through their monopoly of everything on this universes’ shelves. After waking up in one of their facilities, Callum is hooked up to a machine called the Animus. In this Callum experiences the memories of his ancestor Aguilar, an Assassin in the Spanish Inquisition. Caught in a great war with the Templars (an evil illuminati-esque society that is trying to sap humanity of their will), the Assassins are trying to keep a mystical weapon away from their clawing hands as it, the Apple of Eden, is the key to controlling the human race. Back in modern day, Callum is prompted to work his way through these memories by the devious Abstergo, the modern day front for the Templars, so they can learn where Aguilar put Apple and assume dominance over the human race.  

In the games you experience the game through Desmond Miles, a blank slate of a character that allows you to wholly immerse yourself in the experience and become the character as you control him. This blank slate approach seems to be one that the film has taken too, but in this case to the nth degree. When we meet Callum we don’t really know anything about him, what he’s like, why he is on death row, nothing. And throughout the course of the film we don’t really get much more information out of him thanks to his angry and detached demeanour, effortlessly acted by Fassbender, but this lack of character depth and overwhelming mystery of where his head is at makes it not only hard to connect and root for the character, but makes a pretty severe change in character at the end seem un-earned, and on top of that didn’t really make much sense to me.

(Image sourced from http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/assassins-creed)

This is a problem also felt, if not as strongly, for the main Abstergo scientist of the film, Sofia (Marion Cotillard).  Here we got a much bigger sense of who she was, a kind hand, even if it is attached to a sinister corporate body, but she is never allowed to become three dimensional. This lack in character depth once again makes a big choice made by her character at the very end if the film feel jarring and completely un-earned.

However there were some interesting and engaging characters in this film, and they mostly came from the supporting cast. One of which barely even spoke a line, but Ariane Labed’s badass Spanish Assassin’s showcases of action and contagious smile that added a much needed feeling of fun and energy to the film not only reminded me of why I loved the games through her fast and vicious movement on screen, but also gave a great insight into the Assassin brotherhood and the devotion each member feels to their cause.

On the Templar side of things, Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling as Templar big wigs Rikkin and Ellen Kaye respectively, opened a door rarely ventured into in the AC games as their interactions and tense game of dominance gave a great insight into the inner workings of this shady and mysterious organisation.

(Image sourced from http://www.heyuguys.com/assassins-creed-uk-movie-poster/)

Just as mixed as the quality of characters was also, sadly, the action of the film. Every action scene oozed great potential, not only from its source material, but also because of what was on screen. But whet ruined the flow and feel of the action scenes in almost every case (except for an awesome final confrontation that was shot and executed epically well) was the fast and confusing editing. In-fact the editing of the whole film seemed to be out of alignment. Scenes would ether hold for too long encouraging an awkward pause, or cut too quickly and not let the audience ruminate on what had just happened.

It is this fast and jarring editing that is what spoiled what could have been some really thrilling and entertaining scenes, but instead were janky and confusing action pieces. The fast editing alone may have been enough to break the all-important flow of the well-executed action of the film, but put on-top of that constant and irrelevant jumping from the 1400s to the modern day as Callum is hoisted up by the Animus’ claw to re-enact the movements of his Spanish ancestor, the film kept yanking me right out of the moment to then try and force me back into it as I’m confused to what’s happening having lost the flow and feel of the scene, never mind the locations of all the characters I had lost thanks to the three second trip back to modern day. If this technique of storytelling was used to punctuate emotional moments as we see Callum struggle with Aguilar to, for example, hold onto a falling friend on the edge of a rooftop, then sure, I would have been all for it. But here it was used what felt like 20 times a minute for utterly pointless shots of Callum being flung about an empty space filled with the washy projection of the 1400s events by the Animus.

Speaking of the Animus’ projections, the movies CGI aesthetic of a dreamlike, wishy-washy, melting oil painting just didn’t sit well with me. in concept it sounds like a stylish path to go down, but in reality it was a ugly and confusing mess at times, a lot of the times I couldn’t tell what was happening when the Animus was projecting something, which just made the action scenes even harder to follow, and by the end of the film I was bored of the dull and vague computer generated aesthetic they had chosen.

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But there were some stylistic choices that worked great for the movie, it just so happens that most of these choices basically were carried over from the game. This shared DNA comes in the form of the deadly props and music used in the film. Jed Kurzel’s score not only fit in comfortably with soundtracks from AC’s past, but was also a surprisingly cool and fitting backdrop for the film, never overstaying its welcome and rising to the forefront at the exact right moments.

And what can I say, as a big fan of the game series, seeing the iconic Assassins hidden blade inconspicuously attached to their wrists, and the inherently cool design of their hooded attire, on screen just made me happy on the inside and greatly satisfied as a fan to see these elements of games be realised so well.

It may sound like I’m giving this film a really harsh time, but it did have some real potential, there were so many story beats in this film that could have either gone in some really interesting and uncharted territories for the series, or if they had been explored and fleshed out just that bit more, would have made for a really engaging and inventive piece, but sadly the film seems to miss the mark at every juncture. Well until the ending where things seem to go from 0 to 11 in twenty minutes and most of my Assassin’s Creed daydreams come slightly true on the big screen, leaving me wanting to see more of this direction, and sad that not only will we probably not see this ending explored, but that what we got was a weird feeling origin story that just didn’t delve deep enough into the characters or story of this interesting and innovative universe. And then there was the editing, oooh don’t get me started on that editing again.

Assassin’s Creed = 5.5/10

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Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.