On January 5, 2016, Justin Kurzel’s long-awaited sci-fi action film “Assassin’s Creed” was released on domestic screens. An impressive cast, an impressive budget and intriguing statements from Ubisoft representatives that this film will break the unfortunate series of failures of those films based on the “game” source material.
What could go wrong?

The first bell rang when the film received far from flattering reviews from many authoritative publications from all sides. They criticized both the sluggish plot and the excessive abundance of action moments.
Even the critics did not spare harsh epithets for the acting (although, it would seem, such and such a cast).
Is it really that bad??
“Noooo. “Warcraft” was also criticized, but it bothered me. Maybe it’s the same situation here?»
And indeed, despite the frightening number of shortcomings, the film adaptation of the cult creation from Blizzard Entertainment brought considerable pleasure to fans and simply amateurs
fantasy genre. Although not for everyone, the fact is clear..

And so, the next day, “Assassin’s Creed” is released internationally, and the audience is already dumping another bucket on the heads of the creators. At the moment, the User Score is no longer so scary, but a user rating of 6.5 points on IMDb is a reason to be wary.

By the title of the article, you already guessed that your fears were not in vain, and your expectations (if you had any) were not justified.
In order to protect your wallets, already thin after the New Year’s festivities, I will try to explain..

Why you shouldn’t go to Assassin’s Creed

Nothing is true

Let’s start with a more unprincipled, but certainly important, especially for fans of the series, moment.
The film is not canon
Despite Ubisoft’s assurances that the film is part of the original universe and the events of the games take place in its chronology, the action of Justin Kurzel’s film takes place in an alternative reality to the game franchise. No Altair, Ezio, Connor and other representatives of the ancient order for you. And the plot segment, which tells about the modern confrontation between the assassins and the Templars, cuts off Desmond’s line in the bud. It wasn’t there and forget it.
Maybe it’s for the better, of course..
But they named themselves canon loaded with milk – you are welcome in the box.
The minus is forgivable and, for viewers unfamiliar with the games, insignificant, however, it is far from the only one.

Say a good word for the https://independentcasinosites.co.uk/review/madcasino/ poor villain

Since I touched on the topic of the confrontation between the Templars and the order of assassins in the title of the film, whose infighting is the main backbone of the plot, I’ll write a few words about this too.
From the third part of the game series, Ubisoft began to actively dilute the “black and white” conflict of ideologies with gray tones and the absolute evil in the person of the “templars” did not seem so absolute. In turn, the “white-fluffy” assassins no longer embodied the ideal of virtue, and the authors began to position both orders rather as “two sides of the same coin”, and abandoned the banal division into “good-evil”
In the film, everything is back to normal. The Templars look like villains from some B-movie from the 80s. Pretentious speeches, and insidious plans to take over the world, as funny as the villains of the “cult” films of Joel Schumacher.

By God, these are the analogies that arise in my head, looking at the master of the Templars, holding an ancient artifact in his hand, and delivering the most amusing villainous monologue. And it’s okay that there are two people in the room.
Oh yes, I will once again tell you my plans to “destroy free will and thought”.

The Templars, who appear in games as a secret conspiracy community with large-scale and far-reaching plans, cause laughter in the film, and that’s all! We thought the colossal Abstergo complex in the center of Madrid, shown in the trailer, looked absurd?
No matter how it is! A huge building in the center of London with equally huge crosses above the facade is the secret headquarters of scoundrels. Dracula’s Castle doesn’t seem so sinister anymore..

Back to the past

“We haven’t seen many merged villains? Look, in Marvel films, every first one is like this. What’s up with traveling through space and time??» – you ask.
It’s a bad thing.
Many fans of the series have long wanted to sneeze at all the plot twists and turns concerning modern times. Claims for a sci-fi thriller turned out to be nothing and the Desmond storyline turned from the main skeleton into a rudiment. We fell in love with Assassin’s Creed primarily as an interactive history textbook. Absurd, ridiculous but exciting, like the novels of the notorious Dan Brown. With the grace of a bull in a china shop, the authors intertwined elements of an action adventure into the historical periods touched upon in the plot of the games, which, oddly enough, was interesting to follow. The characters were revealed, the villains were memorable. And although this cannot be said about all parts of the series, we still remember Altair, Ezio, Borgia… and our knowledge about the times of the Renaissance has significantly increased, thanks to the pop-up historical references.
What do we have in the cinema??

15-20 minutes from the total timing.
The heyday of the Spanish Inquisition has been revealed in approximately no way. Seriously – you won’t even know the name of the main villain if you don’t remember your school history course.
The same goes for Aguilar de Nerja. If the “hero of our time” Callum Lynch is revealed during the course of the plot, then we learn absolutely nothing about the ancient assassin ancestor except his name.
Total in the past: two fight scenes, a chase, a leap of faith and a small cliffhanger, the value of which is very questionable.
That’s probably all.

Oh yes. Villain: Tomas de Torquemada. Don’t thank.

In a beautiful wrapper.

To justify the film, I want to say that it looks good. The fight scenes are without any flair, but they are staged tolerably. Parkour does not reach the level of the original source, but it still looks impressive. The cinematography, although reminiscent of Bourne in the action moments, is otherwise of standard quality. Among the shortcomings of the visuals, I note that the color scheme of the film is rather dull and the film cannot boast of a “juicy picture” even if it wants to.
And don’t expect the reason for the Animus redesign to be adequately explained to you. This was done only for the sake of variety of action moments. Apparently the game couch seemed boring to the creators. Although brothers The Wachowski sisters, at one time, were able to show us an action movie on the couch.

Jump to nowhere

We can talk for a long time about the fact that the film does not convey the atmosphere of the game. That the “topic of the past” has not been revealed. That it’s not canon and similar arguments… But!
Even as a standalone piece, the film is simply boring, because the misadventures of Callum Lynch are not interesting to follow. The characters are sets of standard cliches that you don’t want to empathize with. Critics criticize the acting? It’s clear – after all, there’s essentially nothing to play..
It’s difficult to say anything else about the film without spoilers, so let’s summarize.

Everything is permitted

From the article you might think that the film is unbearably bad and viewing is highly undesirable. But that’s not entirely true. I just want to say that with a source material with such high potential, Ubisoft could create a truly interesting and exciting blockbuster. Moreover, they had experience in the form of “Prince of Persia”, which, although it did not become a masterpiece, is nevertheless worthy of your attention.
Unlike Assassin’s Creed.

Pros: good special effects; parkour and combat scenes look interesting; Directing and cinematography are not negative
Cons: dull plot; cardboard characters; inconsistency with the canon; the events of the past are given a minimum of screen time.