Assassin's Creed (2016 film)

 Ubisoft took a year off from releasing Assassin's Creed games to instead release a film based on the series. Assassin's Creed premiered in New York on December 13th, 2016 and went into wide release on December 21st, 2016. It made $240 million on a $125 million budget, which was roughly a break even total. 

Plot

In 1492 Spain, the Assassin's Guild initiates a new member, Aguilar de Nehra (Michael Fassbender), who are sworn to protect the Apple of Eden in the possession of Sultan Muhammad XII of Granada, and his son Ahmed from the Knights Templar who are using the Reconquista to try to claim the Apple. 

In 1986, a teenager named Callum Lynch is living in Mexico with his parents when his mother (Essie Davis) is assassinated by his father, Joseph (Brendan Gleeson). His father tells him to run as Templar gunmen led by Abstergo CEO Alan Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) shows up to abduct the family. 30 years later, Callum is set to be executed for capital murder when Abstergo fakes his death to move him to their facility in Madrid. 

Callum awakes and meets Sofia Rikkin (Marion Cotillard), who is in charge of the Animus program for Abstergo in Madrid. Reluctantly, Sofia puts Callum into a redesigned Animus to make him relive Aguilar's memories. In 1492, Aguilar and fellow Assassin Maria (Ariane Labed) attempt to stop the Templars from abducting Prince Ahmed, but are unsuccessful. Callum is overwhelmed by the experience and starts suffering hallucinations of Aguilar. 

Other Assassins are held captive by Abstergo and Callum interacts with them before being dragged to the Animus again. Aguilar and Maria was set to be burned at the stake as heretics, but escape and lead guards on a rooftop chase before jumping from a high building. The shock of the jump causes Callum to desynchronize from the Animus and becomes temporarily paralyzed. 

After he recover, Callum is led to his father, who lives in the facility as well. Joseph explains that he killed Callum's mother to prevent her from being captured by Abstergo. Callum is angered by his reasoning and vows to get revenge on the Assassins. He returns to the Animus to relive Aguilar's final memories. Aguilar and Maria intercept the Templars, who are led by Tomas de Torquemada (Javier Gutiérrez), as they take the Apple from the Sultan as ransom for Prince Ahmed. Maria is killed, but Aguilar escapes with the Apple. 

Aguilar gives the Apple to Christopher Columbus for safe keeping. In the present, Callum fully synchronized with Aguilar's memories, breaking the Animus in the process. As Sofia and Alan leave to retrieve the Apple from Columbus' grave, the other Assassins in the complex launch a revolt and swiftly defeat the guards. During this, Callum is approached by Assassins from the past and is inducted into the Brotherhood. 

With the Apple in hand, Alan Rikkin and Sofia go to a gathering of Templars to unleash its power. Callum and the other Assassins are able to infiltrate the meeting and assassinate Alan, taking the Apple in the process. Sofia vows revenge on Callum for her father's death as the Assassins take off into the London night, the Apple safely in their possession. 

Thoughts

This movie is apart of the canon of the game series and there are many easter eggs in the movie itself, such as items in the games shown in Abstergo's possession, the other Assassins that Callum interacts with are descendants of characters from the game, and so on. What's weird about this is that not much of the lore that had been created in nine games up to that point is shown in the film at all. Yes, there is a fine line between too much exposition and not enough, but the film would have made a lot more sense from a newcomer's standpoint if events shown in the games, like Juno's existence in Abstergo's servers or any existence of the First Civilization at all, had been mentioned. It's not like the movie was ignored in the games; the modern day character in Assassin's Creed: Origins, is shown to have designed the Animus used in the film and offers condolences to Sofia when Alan is killed. 

Most of the movie was set in the present day, which is the exact opposite of the games, where the modern story makes up a fraction of the gameplay. If the movie had taken more of that route, it probably would have been much better. The scenes in the past were the best parts of the movie, with good action, mostly practical effects, and showing the religious and political tensions of the Reconquista as well as could be expected for such a film. If you were aware as I was that the Reconquista is set during the events of Assassin's Creed II, you may have expected an appearance by Ezio Auditore. It may just be fan service, but it would have been awesome to have such a cameo. 

From a movie standpoint, there were parts that did not make much sense. The most obvious example of this is towards the end of the movie where Callum, who goes into the Animus hellbent on helping the Templars than seemingly out of nowhere decides to become an Assassin after all. With the exception of one scene where Michael Fassbender acts like he lost his mind before he goes to into the Animus the second time, everyone in the movie played their roles in serious tones and I could not connect to any of them like I could Ezio or Shay Cormac. 

It was a forgettable experience that killed any chance of further movies in the series. It confused newcomers and long time fans of the series alike, making very few people happy. However, it is not like the entire fortunes of the franchise rested on the move to the silver screen. The game series would return the following year in a completely different way.