Michael Fassbender plays Lynch. Picture: © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox and Ubisoft Motion Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
It’s shallow. The fight and action scenes are below average and the plot is less than intriguing. Justin Kurzel’s Assassin’s Creed, which is based on the video-game series with the homonymous name, doesn’t live up to its fame. Films based on a console game often lack depth and, even if I very much wanted, the screenwriters Michael Lesslie and Adam Cooper haven’t managed to add any difference to the concept.
In Assassin’s Creed, there’s the protagonist, Cal Lynch (Michael Fassbender), who for all we know has a violent past and a sad and violent childhood. Then there’s Sofia (Marion Cotillard), a scientist who has sworn to cure violence in the world. Lynch is supposed to dig into the past of his ancestors with a futuristic machine to find a mysterious apple, which according to Sofia is the key to curing the violence, but which also was sworn to be protected by Lynch’s forefathers. From the past, Lynch is missioned to dig up the events leading to the hiding of the apple (surprisingly wanted by many), so that the coordinates for the magical fruit could be traced to the present day.
During the events, despite an occasional grunt, it’s hard to see any emotion on Fassbender’s face. Cotillard doesn’t impress either with her frozen face even if she tries to perform like she cares. And then there’s the classic antagonist, Cotillard’s father, Dr. Rikkin (Jeremy Trons) who feeds Lynch with poisonous thoughts, adding no favors to the mix.
Justin Kurzel is the director known for Macbeth (2015), a film that was simply too weird and bumpy for my taste. It doesn’t surprise me that the screenwriter Michael Lesslie was also the screenwriter of the Shakespearean disaster.
Fassbender (who played Macbeth) has seen better days in his wonderful portrait of Steve Jobs last year. But in Assassin’s Creed, he seems to have lost his edge.
It’s better advised to spend the money on the video game instead.
Assasin’s Creed premieres in cinemas December 28.
