Assassin's Creed has been an interesting film for me. I was really excited to see it because of how great the concept and world sounded and the extremely talented cast and director (At that time, I hadn't played any of the games. I've since played some of the first one.). I saw the film on opening day last year after reading and watching a lot of the awful reviews and went in with lowered expectations. But surprisingly, me and my grandmother (Who knew nothing about AC) kind of enjoyed it. I still remembering feeling a little disappointed though and I gave the film a 2.5/5. But the film never left my head and the more I thought about it, the more I appreciated it despite it's problems.
Back in October, I rewatched the film on HBO to do this review and posted it on my Reddit account. Now I'm ready to post it here. I want to talk about what worked, what didn't work, what was cut, and the future of the franchise. Before I start though, I want to make something clear. My goal with this post isn't to say "I'm right and all the haters just didn't get it". I'm just posting my personal opinion and explaining why I feel this way. You can agree or disagree with it and that's fine. All film is subjective.
With all that said, let's get started!
The film starts off really well with an opening text crawl telling us all about how the Assassins have protected the Apple Of Eden from the Knights Of Templar for centuries. We also get our first taste of the fantastic score by Jed Kurzel (Brother of director Justin Kurzel). It goes from a very haunting theme (Similar to his Macbeth score) to a drum beating action suspense theme throughout the film and it's really well done. We then get are first scene with Aguilar being accepted into the Creed and we sense that he and Maria have a very close and romantic relationship.
Once we cut to 1976, I felt that the choice in music felt really out of place. Entrance Song by The Black Angels isn't a bad song, but it doesn't feel like a good fit for this type of film. I would've preferred if they used a score instead of a song. I also feel like there was a big missed opportunity in this scene to show what happened to Callum Lynch after he escaped from the Abstergo team. We find out later in the film that he was a big troublemaker as a teen and that he was arrested for killing a pimp. Why didn't they show us that? And why did he kill this pimp? According to the AC Movie Novelization, Cal developed a deep hatred for men attacking women because of his father killing his mother and he murdered a man who was abusing an underage prostitute. Because of that and his previous record, he was sentenced to death. They shouldn't have cut that out.
When I originally saw the film, I thought all the performances were very good except for Marion Cotillard's Sofia Rikkin. It surprised me because she's obviously a great actress, but I felt like she was just going through the motions. But rewatching the film, I feel like her performance and the character weren't the problem, I feel like it was the script having her being an exposition machine (Mainly when she's first introduced). Exposition dialogue isn't always bad and it's sometimes needed in films like this, but if you overuse it, it can start to feel annoying/tired.
One character that I feel was very underused was Moussa. Michael K Williams is great in the role and has a lot of charisma, but I wish that we got to see Moussa and the other Abstergo prisoners interact with Lynch more so that when they come together at the end of the film and protect the apple, it feels more real and believable. In the novelization, you get a couple of more conversations between him and the other Abstargo prisoners that I wish were kept in the final cut of the film.
Most people agree that the best scenes in the movie are the scenes in 1492 where we get to see all of the big Assassin action and lore and that more of the film should've taken place there. I agree. These scenes are really well done. Adam Akrapaw does a great job with the cinematography and Justin Kurzel's visual style that he used in Macbeth works really well in these scenes. Most of the fights and chase scenes are also really impressive (All of it is real BTW, no CGI). I used to have a problem with the film cutting back in forth to Aguilar being a badass to Callum in the Animus, but I've grown t appreciate the choice more. Yes, some of the action scenes in the past to have the quick cut editing that I hate, and that bothered me, but there's still a lot of terrific action to make up for that. I also really liked the romance between Aguilar and Maria. It felt genuine and the actors had really good chemistry. You do feel something when Maria tells Aguilar to let her die so that the apple can be protected and the Creed can live on and when Aguilar just starts beating the Templar who killed his beloved (And his entire family according to the novelization).
Another one of the films best scenes is when Cal reunites with his father and the heartbreaking truth is revealed. Joseph Lynch was asked by his wife to murder both her and Cal so that Abstergo couldn't capture them and locate the Apple. But killing his wife was just too much so he told Cal to run away. Fassbender and Gleeson are incredible in this scene and it shows how damaged Cal really is.
One scene that felt really out of place though was Callum singing "I'm Crazy" by Patsy Cline right before he's hooked up into the Animus. I get that's the song that played when he saw that his mother was dead. But it just feels really out of place in a movie about Assassins and Templars. And if you want to hear Fassbender sing, go watch the movie Frank on Netflix.
Speaking of Michael Fassbender, I already mentioned that everyone does a really good job in this film, but Fassbender really sells being both a mentally disturbed man and a badass master Assassin. One small moment in the film that I didn't notice before was that when Sofia is explaining where he is, he just starts to smile and laugh and have that "What the F am I listening too?" face. He's one of my favorite actors working and got me to really care about a kind of underdeveloped character.
About the last scenes in the film, some people thought it felt too quick. I do agree with that. I feel like it could've been extended a bit and show us Cal, Moussa, and the others getting to know each other more while tracking down Jeremy Irons's Alan Rikkin. I don't have a problem with the way Alan is killed though. I know some people wanted a bigger final battle, but in reality there's no way Alan could beat Cal and the others in a fight. And with the shot of Cal jumping of the building, I prefer the deleted scene version where the other assassins jumped first and and Cal stands still, looking a little unsure, but then he sees a vision of his mother and is reminded about his destiny and finally jumps of the roof and accepts it. Great ending and the one that should've been in the film IMO.
Speaking of deleted scenes, let's talk about some of them.
The biggest surprise was that they removed a character from the film. A teenager named Lara, a descendant of Maria and an adoptive daughter to Sophia. I felt like this character added a lot of nice emotional moments in the film with Cal and shouldn't have been cut.
There's also a scene where The Bleeding Effect (Which works very well in the film BTW) causes Callum to not only see his ancestor, but the ancestors of Moussa and the other prisoners. Pretty cool and a nice scene for fans of the games.
There's an alternate ending where all of the prisoners are killed except for Cal and he escapes alone. I feel like i was a good idea to change this because it would've felt very abrupt.
And finally, there's one where Joseph actually fights off the guards at the end, dies in front of his son, and Cal (Now knowing the full truth) forgives him. Cal and the others than say the oath of the Creed. I feel like this was a better death scene for Joseph than the one in the final cut. We get to actually see him fight, it's a better way to end Cal's hatred of him, and gives Brendan Gleeson more to do in the film.
Could we ever see an extended cut of this film? I wouldn't bet my money on it, but it's possible. Justin Kurzel revealed in a Reddit AMA that the original cut was close to 2 hours and 25 minutes. The actual film is an hour and 48 minutes (With credits). I heard from some fans who went to one of the premieres that the film was originally 20-25 minutes longer. Wonder why they cut it down at the last minute? Some might say that an extended cut won't happened because of the film being panned, but that didn't stop films like Kingdom Of Heaven, Sucker Punch, or the Halloween remake from getting director's/extended cuts.
As far as sequel chances go, it's unlikely. Most people hated the film and while it made 240 million worldwide, it cost 120 million to make and that means the film either broke even or lost some money. So I guess we'll never know for sure if that Sofia look alike ghost assassin means that Cal and Sofia are related. Than again, stranger things have happened, so you can't say never. We do know that Adi Shaker is working on an AC anime for Netflix. That could be interesting.
So overall, I really like this film. It has problems, but for me the good outweighs the bad and I don't think it deserves the hate it gets. It's defiantly one of the best video game films ever made and compared to films like Super Mario Brothers, House Of The Dead, and Mortal Kombat Annihilation, it's a masterpiece. I feel like this movie could've been better though if some tweaks were made the the script some scenes were put back in, and we had some more scenes set in the past, but I still enjoy it.
My score has gone up to a 3.5/5.
What do you think of the film? What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? Please let me know in the comments and thanks so much for reading. :0)
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