Assassin's Creed

ASSASSIN'S CREED

Director : Justin Kurzel

Year : 2017

Genre : Action

Rating : *

One of the unexpected treats of 2015 was Justin Kurzel's brutal and beautiful 'Macbeth' - a film that somehow managed to breathe new life into William Shakespeare's immortal story of murder and mayhem, revenge and retribution. Starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotilliard, the movie may not have been a massive commercial success but critically, it was quite rightly lauded as a visually stunning and narratively unique adaptation of one of the Bard's most famous plays. So, it was with high hopes that the same directing and acting trio could work wonders with 'Assassin's Creed', the latest attempt to bring a popular video game to the big screen. 

It was meant to be the video-game movie that finally proved cinema-goers wrong but this sloppily made and badly acted adaptation of Ubisoft's multi-award winning action franchise is definitive proof that game to film adaptations will never, ever be anything but rubbish. Replacing Macbeth's usurped crown with the trademark cloak, Michael Fassbender (who also serves as producer) stars as Callum Lynch - a former death row inmate who, after his supposed execution by lethal injection, is genetically linked, through the use of a machine known as the Animus, to his 15th century Spanish assassin ancestor who spends the entire movie jumping and running around the sandy streets of 1490's Andalusia, slashing wildly at nameless baddies while looking for a piece of long-lost treasure. 

Visually, 'Assassin's Creed' looks quite good, even if the shoddy 'Bourne'-esque editing during the poorly choreographed fight sequences will make you want to vomit up your half-digested popcorn. The vistas, shot by 'Macbeth' cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, look rather nice and the many anticipated parcour scenes, while done with obvious stunt doubles, are pretty impressive to watch. But what is so surprising about 'Assassin's Creed' is just how knuckle-chewingly boring it is. As he has proved time and time again, Fassbender is an actor of great talent and power but here is stops just short of being terrible - delivering a performance that is so lacking in effort or discernible personality that it is unbelievable that he doesn't spontaneously nod off throughout the many lackluster action scenes while Marion Cottiliard is fine but completely forgettable as Sophia, the creator of the Animus. Throw in a completely ridiculous story that makes Ron Howard's Dan Brown film adaptations look somewhat plausible and you have yet another movie that really could have been great but one that ultimately falls into the same plot and character traps as every other video game to film made before it. If Duncan Jones (director of last year's CGI heavy box-office bomb 'Warcraft') and Justin Kurzel can't do it successfully, then the whole idea should just be laid to rest. Let's hope that the much-talked about big screen version of Naughty Dog's 2013 videogame magnum opus 'The Last Of Us' never sees the light of day...