ASSASSIN'S CREED (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

assassin's creed (2017) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   115 minutes

Released         |   1 January 2017

cast

Michael Fassbender ... Cal Lynch
Marion Cotillard ... Sofia
Jeremy Irons ... Rikkin
Brendan Gleeson ... Joseph Lynch
​Charlotte Rampling ... Ellen Kaye

director

Justin Kurzel

writer

Michael Lesslie ... (screenplay by) and
Adam Cooper ... (screenplay by) &
Bill Collage ... (screenplay by)
 
Corey May ... (based on the video game series created by) (uncredited) &
Jade Raymond ... (based on the video game series created by) (uncredited)
 
Patrice Désilets ... (based on the video game series created by) (uncredited)​

cinematographer

​Adam Arkapaw

music

​Jed Kurzel

film editor

Christopher Tellefsen ​

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box office result

Worldwide               $240,697,856  

Australia                 $​​7,215,369

North America        $​​54,647,948

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the best dialogue

Callum Lynch: We work in the dark to serve the light. We are assassins.

Ellen Kaye: It's 2016. No one cares about freedom.

Callum Lynch: What kind of prison is this?

Sophia Rikkin: It's not a prison. You're about to enter the Animus. What you're about to see, hear and feel are the memories of your ancestor, who has been dead for five hundred years.

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ASSASSIN'S CREED (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

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ASSASSIN'S CREED (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Cal Lynch travels back in time to 15th-century Spain through a revolutionary technology that unlocks the genetic memories contained in his DNA. There, he lives out the experiences of Aguilar de Nerha, a distant relative who's also a member of the Assassins, a secret society that fights to protect free will from the power-hungry Templar Order. Transformed by the past, Cal begins to gain the knowledge and physical skills necessary to battle the oppressive organization in the present.

ASSASSIN'S CREED (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 29 December 2016
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐½

ASSASSIN'S CREED is a visually arresting film that will please fans of the game but the film’s time travel Macguffin will leave casual moviegoers wondering what to make of the back and forth between the near future and the 14th Century Spanish Inquisition. Director Justin Kurzel used his Macbeth scribe Michael Lesslie to deliver the initial script, but EXODUS: GODS & KINGS (2014) writers Adam Cooper & Bill Collage were brought in for rewrites and the film suffers a similar fate to Ridley Scott’s biblical epic. ASSASSIN'S CREED is a movie that itself far too seriously in the context of the source material upon which it’s based.

The film’s humourless tone is exacerbated further with Michael Fassbender in the lead role of Cal Lynch/Aguilar. Fassbender is a wonderful actor and there’s no doubt his work with Kurzel on the aforementioned MACBETH in 2015 resulted in the desire for further collaboration with the Australian Director. However, he, and the majority of his co-stars, deliver such dour performances, there’s no fun to be found in what should have been a rousing action film.

ASSASSIN'S CREED establishes its humourless approach from the get-go with a prologue sequence, where young Cal (Angus Brown) is confronted with his mother Mary’s death (Essie Davis) at the hand of his father Joseph (Brian Gleeson). At his father’s encouragement and despite what he has just witnessed, young Cal takes flight from his home as a team of black-clad operatives arrive, revealing Jeremy Irons’ Rikkin character, who becomes central to the film’s plot.

The story jumps forward to the older Cal (Fassbender), whose life seems to have taken a turn for the worse in light of childhood events and is now in a high security prison facility awaiting execution for his crimes committed in between then and now. Despite being strapped into a chair and administered a lethal injection, Cal, to his surprise, awakens in a high-tech facility and is greeted by Doctor Sophia Rikkin (Marion Cotillard), the daughter of Jeremy Irons’ character. Rikkin informs Cal that he has been transferred to a facility run by Abstergo, an organisation that is the modern-day form of the ancient Templar Order. She goes on to explain that Cal is the descendant of Aguilar de Nehra, an assassin who was opposed to the Templar Order and the last person to know the whereabouts of the Apple of Eden; an object that can bring order to humanity by subjugating free thought!

The amount of exposition that’s been delivered by this point is enough to exhaust even the most enthusiastic film watcher, but ASSASSIN'S CREED isn’t done with the audience yet. Critical to the rest of the story is the Animus, a device that has the capability for its user to delve back hundreds of years into the memories and feelings of their ancestors. This plot device allows Cal to relive events from Aguilar’s life that will help the Rikkin’s cement their reputation among the Templar Order in the present day by securing the Apple of Eden.

Through a series of ever-increasingly elaborate, CGI-enhanced action sequences ASSASSIN'S CREED becomes a cinematic version of the computer game upon which it is based writ large on the big screen. The remainder of the film plays it reasonably safe in terms of plot, with Cal forced to decide whether he will work with the Templar Order to secure his own freedom, thereby betraying the Assassin’s Creed, or find a way to protect the Apple of Eden and honour hundreds of years of his ancestor’s legacy…

Besides the presence of Fassbender, Cotillard and Irons, Assassin’s Creed also features Brendan Gleeson, Denis Minochet and Charlotte Rampling in key supporting roles. Despite their combined talent, the supporting cast don’t imbue their characters with the spark of energy required to lift the film from its all-too-serious tone.

With ASSASSIN'S CREED, Kurzel has delivered 115 minutes of competent action film-making, but technical skill alone is not enough to warrant seeing this film at the cinema. There are other films that are as technically-proficient as this one that offer the audience a greater sense of adventure, resulting in a better viewing experience.

Case in point, ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016)...

ROGUE ONEis a far darker story than Assassin’s Creed, but the characters and their dialogue provide shades of light throughout the film that engage the audience so that viewers actually care about what happens to them.

At the end of ASASSIN'S CREED, it’s questionable whether anyone really cares whether or not they see Cal Lynch or his 14th Century alter-ego ever again…

ASSASSIN'S CREED MOVIE (2017) USEFUL LINKS

Assassin's Creed (2016) - IMDb
​Assassin's Creed (film) - Wikipedia
Assassin's Creed (2016) - Rotten Tomatoes

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