Assassin's Creed

Plot synopsis:
Spain, 1492The Knights of the Templar Order are seeking out the Apple of Eden, which legend tells contains the seeds that led to the first sin. The Templars wants to seize the Apple for control over free will in a violent world. The Brotherhood of Assassins were the ones set out to destroy the Templars. Aguilar de Nerha (Michael Fassbender) is tasked with stopping the Templars from taking the Apple. He recites the Assassin's Creed: "We work in the dark to serve the light. We are Assassins."We jump to the 20th century where a young Callum Lynch (Angus Brown) trying to ride his bike across rooftops. After he fails, he goes home and finds his mother Mary (Essie Davis) has been murdered by Cal's father Joseph (Brian Gleeson), who is dressed as an Assassin. Cal runs away from home as his father is pursued by modern day Templars.It is now the present day. An adult Callum (now played by Michael Fassbender) is headed to his execution after being convicted of murder. He is hooked up to a chair for a lethal injection. Cal experiences trippy imagery before passing out.Cal wakes up to find Dr. Sophia Rikkin (Marion Cotillard), who tells him that he is legally dead, but has been brought to a facility. Cal runs out of his room and comes across a window overlooking the city in a massive building. Sophia tells Cal that the building belongs to Abstergo Industries. They need Cal for an important experiment.Callum is taken to a room with a large claw-like mechanism called the Animus. Sophia explains that the Animus will allow Cal to see the memories of his ancestor, Aguilar. After getting hooked into the Animus, Cal finds himself in the Spanish Inquisition as Aguilar. He and his partner Maria (Ariane Labed) are tasked with rescuing the son of Sultan Muhammad XII (Khalid Abdalla), Prince Ahmed of Granada (Kemaal Deen-Ellis), who has been kidnapped by Templars under the order of Tomas de Torquemada (Javier Gutierrez) in order to obtain the Apple from the Sultan. Aguilar strikes when he kills the Templar group's leader with a Hidden Blade concealed in his sleeve. Aguilar and Maria chase after a chariot where Ahmed is being taken. They run the chariot off the street, causing it to slide over a cliff. Aguilar grabs Ahmed and is left dangling before a Templar leader named Ojeda (Hovik Keuchkerian) approaches him. Sophia then takes Callum out of the Animus, leaving him on a literal cliffhanger.Cal meets other people in the facility who are descendants of Assassins, including Moussa (Michael K. Williams), whose ancestor Baptiste used voodoo against his enemies.Cal begins to experience hallucinations of Aguilar fighting, at times appearing as though he is attacking Cal. Sophia explains that these reflections are normal as part of being put in the Animus. She states that the Animus is meant to show people who made them what they are.Sophia and her father Alan Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) are followers of the Templars. They both claim to be seeking the Apple of Eden in order to rid the world of violence. Rikkin meets with a higher-up, Ellen Kaye (Charlotte Rampling), who wants to shut down Rikkin's project due to the lack of success in locating the Apple.Cal experiences more hallucinations, seeing Aguilar attacking him. Cal dodges Aguilar's attacks, but he ends up striking several Abstergo officials. He is subdued and taken back to the Animus. Now, Aguilar and Maria are captured and detained in a cell with their mentor Benedicto (Carlos Bardem). The Assassins are set to be publicly executed. Benedicto is burned alive, but Aguilar manages to free himself and Maria. They cause explosions by setting off oil barrels and then run over rooftops as the Templars chase after them. Aguilar performs a Leap of Faith, but it causes Callum in the present to be caught in a malfunction with the Animus.Cal and Sophia discuss the project as they both hate the Assassins as it was they that killed both their mothers.Cal reunites with Joseph (now played by Brendan Gleeson). Cal still hates Joseph for killing Mary, but Joseph explains that Mary had willingly allowed herself to be killed so that Abstergo would not experiment on them.When Callum returns to the Animus, we see that Aguilar and Maria found the Apple about to be exchanged between Torquemada and the Sultan in order for Torquemada to return Ahmed to his father. The Assassins fight the Templars and kill them all except for Torquemada and Ojeda. Aguilar gets the Apple, but Ojeda holds Maria with a knife to her neck. Ojeda demands the Apple, but Maria would rather sacrifice herself than to let Aguilar give up the Apple. Aguilar holds onto the Apple, and Ojeda drives the knife into Maria's neck, killing her. Aguilar fights Ojeda and stabs him to death with his Hidden Blade before making off the with Apple.The Rikkins learn that the Apple is currently in the tomb of Christopher Columbus. After retrieving it, they head to a temple in London for a grand ceremony. Sophia learns that her father cares more about completely eradicating the Assassins instead of their strive for peace.Callum has fully synchronized with Aguilar and has accepted his role as an Assassin, especially after seeing Mary dressed as an Assassin as she speaks to him. He leads Moussa and several other modern day Assassins against the Templars, slaughtering nearly all of them. Cal and Sophia come across each other. She threatens to expose him, but he knows she won't do it. They make it to Rikkin and kill him before taking back the Apple.The Assassins are now free from Abstergo, but Sophia appears to conspire against Callum in retaliation for her father's death.

Tags: suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, historical fiction, psychedelic, revenge, sci-fi

Review:
The corporation is run by the Templars and their counterpart are called the Assassins.Having played most of the games in the video game series, I felt this was a pretty lack luster attempt at capturing the story.
Nothing is really explained in great detail like in the games, which was unfortunate but I can give it a pass since I shouldn't expect a movie that is only two hours long to explain too many of the secrets.
They pretty much even said before the movie was released that Assassin's Creed will not be a great film.
That is my take away from this movie, Assassin's Creed is so vague in the story and characters that casual movie goers will be thinking "you know what, I didn't learn anything from this movie but I want to.
If I were to put the movie on the video game scale, I would say it was better than Unity (by far) and would be even with Syndicate.Assassin's Creed is definitely not a movie that you need to see in the theaters.
The writers try to throw in some intrigue and purpose by introducing the Apple of Eden but it is a fairly weak plot device.Great cast - Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling - but these talents are all wasted due to the action-driven, no-substance script.
As many others I played the Assassins Creed games and was looking forward to this film however it is safe to say that I was extremely disappointed.
The film has the classic setting from Assassins Creed games, a modern day protagonist enters the Animus to relive the memories of his ancestor.
The action in this movie is great, the story is solid, and the characters (that are properly developed) are interesting.
The big problem that I think is not going to brake the video game curse is the fact that it isn't possible to cover the whole story in such a short amount of time and appeal to critics and people who haven't played the game and never will while satisfying gamers in a way that won't scare them away from the video game itself.
So the new year has kicked off and many were hyped to see the video game turned movie.Let me just say save your money this flat movie is designed to get the gamers' to the movies and then be bored for the entire time.Save your money for something else that won't have you checking for the exits within 30 minutes and kicking yourself at 50 minutes for not running to the nearest exit.The actors and director have done well with a script that should have been better and is more about trying to set up a franchise rather than providing the movie goers with a action packed movie..
The change of the Animus from a bed-like system to the VR style arm was something I originally disliked, but that change ends up playing well into the film visually and aids in parts of the story.
But I know they intended to produce a trilogy so I'd like to believe the opportunity to release sequels will give the audience more of what they're looking for, while this movie may have been a bit too much set up rather than development.
Being that I have previously played many of the Assassin's Creed video games, the plot proved easy to follow, flowing from one concept to the next easily.
For those who have no background on the franchise, any confusion that might result from the movie's plot can be cleared up by a quick brush-up on the story-line of the Assassin's Creed games.
Nevertheless, anyone who is already familiar or is willing to take 30 seconds to familiarize themselves with the Assassin's Creed story will watch an excellent film--surpassing most of the recent releases this year..
Would like to have seen more scenes from the historical period included as they were so good.Look forward to seeing more from the Assassin's Creed Franchise on the big screen..
The depth of the story can be better as well.The actors do a good job, but there isn't much time to really get to know them.All in all, a movie that did not disappoint me as an Assassins Creed fan, but not the best movie of the year either..
Also if you are a veteran of the games, you wouldn't want to sit through the whole Templar vs assassin's and their creed explained for the fifth time anyways, this movie cut to the meat of the games, and I was glad that they did like this, not a lot of video games adaptation are bold enough to skip very key plot points.
Most of the overly critical reviews seems to be from gamers who have played the assassins creed games.
Believe me this movie is by far the best Assassin's Creed movie ever ever and that is why I enjoy the most fit and I mean every scene and believe me this is new history Line new characters new cinematic experience.
(Given there are times when in game knowledge is required for complete understanding such as the ring finger in the start of the film.) Fassbender's performance was amazing and he truly did bring synchronization between the two roles he played.
Seriously this is it, the movie that breaks the video game movie curse (that said I still enjoyed Warcraft: the beginning and the angry birds movie) perfect runtime (not too long, but not too short either) excellent casting choices (they nailed it when they cast Michael Fassbender) and the perfect amount of character development, and some flawlessly choreographed action scenes with some epic stunts.
But enough about that, lets talk about the movie and the movie (in my opinion was great), to be honest, it was way better than I had originally expected, there was enough action inside and outside of the Animus, to me it seemed like they balanced it well.
I'm a fan of the video game series and I can say I'm glad they didn't use Desmond Miles as the main character and went for Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) who is now the lead for the movie.
It's a very cool movie, great action scenes and even my daughter who has played all the games loved it.
All the negative reviews for AC are from people that played the video game and are unhappy with the fact that this movie is not 100% like it.
Apparently if you have played the game, then don't bother watching the movie; but for those of us that haven't, this film is amazing.
The creators played it safe to the sentiments of the games' series fans as the story features pretty much the same elements as the first of the assassin's creed games.
I was going to go and see this movie anyway since i have played all Assassins Creed games, but i also wanted to prevent a huge disappointment, so luckily my girlfriend convinced me to go, after i showed her the Assassins Creed I game story on YouTube.About the film, the cast and acting are no less than great, the play just flows naturally and logically, the special effects are amazing, and the fighting and chasing around kept me tense.
However, this movie did not make me feel as though I needed to have played them in order to understand or enjoy the film.The cinematography was great, and there were some magnificent aerial views of 15th century Spain along with modern day.
Gorgeous choreography, and I loved all the various weaponry and free running.This is by no means an award winning film, but overall it was incredibly enjoyable, and I don't think it quite deserves the negativity critics and fans of the games are giving it..
You will not understand or appreciate it, just like the critics who have probably never played it either.WARNING TWO: This review contains no spoilersI went into the cinema waiting for two things: for this movie to appreciate the material it was taken from, and for it to present it in an adequate way.
I have trust in Ubisoft though, that, quite like the first AC game, it'll learn from its mistakes.Overall: A great action film, definitely the best of its genre (video game adaption), but nothing that will earn Oscars.
I played it since the first one came out and to this day after 10 years I played Syndicate.Not all the games were great, but this movie stuck to its origin and I couldn't be happier with the way it came out.The acting felt real, the feelings, and I totally could see the characters as assassins doing what they did in the movie.
The Assassins Creed is series is by far one of my favorite game franchises of all time, so as you can imagine I was very excited to hear about the movie.
With it's stunning in game visuals, beautiful locations & action sequences I figured that a movie would have unlimited potential and could truly be a sight to behold!I stand by that statement, but place emphasis on the word "Potential" and this film doesn't come close to meeting it.First of all I was skeptical when I heard that Fassbender would be taking the mantle, it's not that he isn't a talented actor it's simply that I couldn't see him as an Assassin.
As I expected he doesn't do the role justice, he's not bad he's simply poorly cast.Next the writing and general creation of the movie is as such you can imagine the writers having the Assassins Creed game series explained to them for 10 minutes and basing the movie entirely on that.
VFX is great THE EAGLE (I loved it) no matter what they say they guys did really fantastic work on this as a assassins creed series fan i have no issues with it everything from top to bottom is MARVELOUS the end of the movie opens up possibility of sequels and Games everyone should watch this movie its worth watchingi missed the starting half hour anyway of which i will be disappointed its not a one time movie ..
lol can see half of the reviews here ..as gamer i played all titles of AC and i could only feel that this movie tried to compress the storyline by taking out the necessary introduction of almost half of the characters mostly the assassins and some low end script dialogues ...
Some fans might feel a little disappointed but I assure you it is epic even though towards the end it probably could've been a little better...but hey they can't appeal to only fans of the video game they tried to also make it appeal to the common folk...I thought the story was pretty solid even though the time spent inside the animus was not that much at all but it was worth the wait....I believe it deserves an 8/10 but because I know people will be giving it on average a 6.5 I want to balance it out if I can....All in all, great acting, great choreography as well as music make it into a very enjoyable and as a big fan of AC games, a very fulfilling experience considering the only other video game adaptation I thought was great was silent hill and maybe prince of Persia was also decent....go watch this movie especially if you are a fan, hopefully you won't regret it.
I LOVED IT!Good: -The Cast -The Directing -The Action -The Plot (which I liked a lot but others didn't) -The Characters -The Writing -The Music (composed by Justin's brother, Jed Kurzel) -The Cinematography -The Supporting Characters -Balance of Present and Past AND -Pefect set-up to future sequels.
Bad: ~Nothing I Found~Conclusion: A lot of people (critics) hated this film calling it silly (It's based off a video game), CGI- overuse (all the stunts were real besides the background settings of the past and present + what movie isn't CGI-Overused in 2016?), "Dull" (People want dark/gritty + I didn't find it like that) and "A hard to understand plot" (I could follow it and it was easy for my family to understand + How is it "Hard to follow"???).
Do a trilogy and I want to see more video game to film adaptations like: "Watch Dogs" OR "Splinter Cell".Thanks..
Michael Fassbender, Justin Kurzel and Marion Cotillard, alongside director of photography Adam Arkapaw and composer Jed Kurzel, had the infinite credit of trust after the terrific Macbeth.The goal was enormous: to destroy the wall created by a great lot of mediocre adaptations of video games, and punch the way to the heart of the audience.
We have become so spoiled by the last 20 years that if a movie isn't blow-your-socks-off awesome, we view it as a failure, which shouldn't be true.That out of the way, I enjoyed the story, found the premise for the plot fascinating, and though the characters weren't as developed as they could have been, it laid the groundwork for some excellent sequels in the future, which I very much hope they make.
From an AC gamer, I would say the movie was great, I was a little disappointed that the story doesn't 100% match the game's one but as a whole, I enjoyed it very much, the combat scenes and how they imitate the assassin's moves in the game show how a great effort was exerted during the making of this movie, the music, the cinematography, the visual effects, the acting and directing were all perfect.
The movie definitely needs a sequel to introduce more characters specially from the game and tie them to the story and to continue the historic fierce combat between the Assassins and the Templar's around the Apple of Eden and many other which cannot be covered in a single part.
But i must say AC World includes many dimensions and details with reference.As a player WHO played most of AC games, i can easily say, production team did a great job how to put all AC concept in such a revolutionary way that even AC based people could find a taste of progress in the movie because it makes you feel everything very familiar but also new at the same time..
As someone who played the AC games and dedicated to the AC universe and all the related stories, I found this movie great.
For those who have never played the game, you'll get as much information as necessary to understand the story line, although you may still have questions afterwards, however, if the series continues, my assumption is that they will go further into detail about the Templar v Assassin war as the films progress.
In addition, they needed to give a back story on Callum so that casual moviegoers would have a reason to like the guy, while the rest of us just want to watch him go back in time and assassinate the bad guys.
It's not the Video Games but for Movie Fanatics who don't play Video Games will Enjoy this Movie and I actually watched it Twice to enjoy it hopefully we get sequels or a Series on Netflix would love to see the Live action story of the Frye Twins and the other assassins It Might be the 1st Film but for The Common movie fanatic to actually understand the franchise than the typical gamer they must make more films it was a Good Adventure and I watched it in IMAX.
Having played all of the games I thought this captured the look and feel of the games perfectly ,watched it a couple of times and both times I enjoyed it and didn't get the negativity,must admit the ending was a little anticlimactic and wish there were more references to the games but overall a good movie .....in my opinion of course..
Never played an Assassin's Creed game so I can't make a comparison, but I'm glad I was able to better judge the film on its own merits without feeling let down because they didn't include X character or premise..
But if you see this film as a movie and not the following video game of Assassins Creed it is a great movie.
Imagine if this beautiful story was played in 5 seasons or so.You simply can't "squeeze" this big and awesome Creed story in two hours, you just can't.If you liked the games you have to watch the movie for the developers respect.I give it a seven because I loved the games..
You have to know the basic story line and lore of Assassin's Creed in order to understand the movie.
Either way, basic video game knowledge is definitely needed in order to understand Assassin's Creed.
The free running is perfect, the fighting is perfect, the fact that there isn't much dialogue is perfect!Some reviews would have you believe that everything is CGI but with a 30 sec google search you can find that one of the best gymnasts turn free runners was a stunt man for this film and the iconic Leap Of Faith was actually done by him, not CGI!Anybody who is a fan of the game series from Assassin's Creed 1 to Revelations will enjoy this film!.
Going into "Assassin's Creed", I had hopes that this would create a new model for how Hollywood approaches video game movies.
So yeah, "Assassin's Creed" is most definitely not the savior the video game movie genre needed, not even close..
"Assassin's Creed" is a great action movie with a preposterous premise..
I truly do not understand why the critics bashed this movie, perhaps its because they have never played the video game before.
It had the elements of the games I loved to play with new characters and new story-lines, so i found it quite fun and enjoyable to watch.
And when I was watching the film I felt like I was playing the games.