Video game adaptations are hit and miss, but still offer up some of the most original stories. When they work they are pretty awesome, but sadly more often than not they miss the mark. The latest Assassin’s Creed features a great cast including Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, Michael K. Willaims, and Khalid Abdalla, but does it do the game justice and deliver the great action it promises or will it fail to make history?
 

In the film, through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain.  Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day. I was looking forward to seeing how this film transition on the big screen with such a big idea. I have little knowledge of the game itself outside of the visuals of the character and the time travel aspect. The idea of this film is cool the execution here is just not as strong as it could have been. When the film shifts to the 1400s and showcases the assassin’s doing their thing is when this film shines. There is some great action here and an interesting story building around it all, but you are sadly not ever given the chance to really spend much time there other than for the action pieces.

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The present day portions of the film are interesting, but more often than not so slow paced that it becomes a bit boring at times. Thankfully it fights hard to try to get back on track, but fails to ever really find a way to make this bulk of the film work in the way it had hoped. I loved the idea of it all and seeing such great action executed made me want to love this film, but I just could not stay invested enough to make it so. All of the cast do a fine job, with nothing overly standout, but  all working for what they set out to do. I love that they tried to take this really seriously to make you buy into the pretty farfetched aspect of the science fiction of it all, but something needed to be tweaked with the story to really make it work overall.

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Fans of the game will no doubt be excited to see this popular game come to life on the big screen, but I for one would love more to see a full film on just the 1400s assassin’s which would have made for a way better film. In the end this isn’t a horrible movie, but one that some may find too slow to really stick around for the great action sequences and epic visuals it fights so hard to set up in hopes for a new franchise.