The AC movie is a film from the storied franchise of Assassin’s Creed. It’s also full of memorable and impactful characters, like Ezio Auditore and Captain Kenway. From historical figures to real-life locations, AC is a love letter to players who love history.
Ubisoft’s direction is expanding the franchise as a free game from an outsider’s point of view. Apart from their main games, there are other means of expansion.
Ubisoft makes narrative expansions via downloadable content for their main title games. Other creations also include games on console and mobile platforms. These games offer a unique perspective to the story universe, but Ubisoft also has written content.
But the interesting collection of expansions is the media and shows of the franchise. These give us a paced depiction of the assassins. One of these shows is the live-action movie titled “Assassin’s Creed.”
Plot and References
The AC movie is set in the present era, following Michael Fassbender as Callum Lynch. After his mother died and his father was caught by Templar-run Abstergo, Callum escapes. Years later, Callum is sentenced to death for killing a pimp, but he is intercepted by Abstergo.
The movie follows him reliving the memories of Spanish Master Assassin, Aguilar de Nerha. With other allies around him, Callum reveals the truth of the Apple of Eden, while toppling the Templars.
Assassin’s Creed depicted the iconic video game mechanics and occurrences well. The bleeding effect is a symptom of being in the Animus. Callum experiences hallucinations of Aguilar attacking him in his cell, hysterically declaring himself “insane.”
A Leap of Faith is an action performed when jumping high and into a hay bale or water. Desynchronization happened in the movie when Callum did the leap of faith from a tall building and failed to see it through.
What Happened to the AC Movie?
Assassin’s Creed’s reception from critics and fans veered towards negative than positive. The main reason why has to do with how the movie is paced. It is prevalent across the story that there are too many things set up with poor returns.
For a movie to work, everything built from the start had to pay off in the end. Story-wise, it tried to create so many for so little and made references for fan service instead. Critics hit the movie’s incoherence, with stakes that do not make sense for the overall movie’s goal.
A great gripe both critics and fans have is the roster of actors. Both highlight the surprise of having such storied actors create so little impact. Michael Fassbender works on good movies, and it was a pity for viewers to see him perform so well for none.
The redeeming factor of the movie for both is the action sequences and the mentioned fan service. These iconic elements of the franchise made viewers rave for their accuracy.
The AC movie leaves many to be desired, but it also had moments of greatness. For a first live-action, it had good intentions but its execution could be better. Looking forward, Ubisoft announced a live-action series to be shown on Netflix.
There is hope it is better, due to series having more narrative space over movies. But for this AC movie, it was an unsteady first step towards more Assassin’s Creed on-screen adaptations in the future.
