Assassin's Creed (2016)

Video game adaptations have had a rough time of it in Hollywood, and by 2016 the graveyard of failed attempts was already fairly well populated. Into that context stepped Assassin's Creed, based on Ubisoft's long-running action series that had sold tens of millions of copies since its 2007 debut and built a devoted following around its blend of historical settings, parkour-heavy action, and a mythology pitting a secret order of Assassins against the authoritarian Templar Order across centuries. The premise, for a film at least, is not without promise: a modern-day frame story allows the action to jump to 15th-century Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, giving the production licence to stage period action set pieces while keeping a contemporary, science-fiction thread running alongside it. The film was a co-production between New Regency Pictures, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, and Ubisoft's own film and television arm, making it one of the more direct examples of a game publisher taking an active hand in bringing its property to the screen.

Behind the camera is Justin Kurzel, the Australian director whose previous feature, a 2015 adaptation of Macbeth, had earned considerable critical respect for its visual ambition and its willingness to treat its source material with a certain uncompromising seriousness. His casting of Michael Fassbender in the lead role of Callum Lynch continued a working relationship from that same production, and Fassbender is no stranger to franchise territory (fans of his earlier superhero work might recall his appearances in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, and those curious about his range in smaller, more grounded work might look at Fish Tank). Alongside Fassbender, the film assembles a cast that looks, on paper, genuinely impressive: Marion Cotillard as the scientist running the programme, Jeremy Irons as her cold and calculating father, Brendan Gleeson in a supporting role, and Charlotte Rampling bringing her customary air of composed menace. It is, by any measure, a polished but unremarkable roster of serious actors attached to what the studio clearly hoped would be the launch of a franchise.

The film runs 116 minutes and carries the tagline "Your destiny is in your blood", which tells you something about the register it is aiming for. Whether it manages to hit that register is, of course, the question. Action film fans looking for a point of comparison in terms of what the genre can achieve at its best might find it useful to consider something like Mad Max: Fury Road as a yardstick for how kineticism and world-building can work in tandem.

Assassin’s Creed (2016) is a textbook case of how not to adapt a beloved video game. With its stunning visuals, Michael Fassbender’s committed performance, and a promising concept (using genetic memory to relive the lives of ancient Assassins) it had all the pieces. But instead of crafting a thrilling origin story or a cerebral sci-fi thriller, it delivers a rushed, emotionally hollow mess that betrays the spirit of the franchise. Fassbender plays Callum Lynch, a death-row inmate forced into a modern-day experiment by a shadowy corporation using the Animus to unlock his ancestor Aguilar’s memories from 15th-century Spain. The premise is solid, but the execution feels off from the start. The pacing is erratic (rushing through world-building, underdeveloped characters, and clunky dialogue) while the deeper lore of the Assassins vs. Templars is reduced to vague mumbo-jumbo about “free will” and apple-shaped artifacts. The iconic parkour is barely there. The creed itself is mentioned once and forgotten. Worst of all, they ruin the story. The emotional core (the connection between past and present, the weight of legacy) is completely severed. You’re meant to care about Aguilar’s fight, but the film never lets you live in that world long enough to feel it. And the modern-day plot is so generic and lifeless, it makes the whole enterprise feel pointless. Rushed, soulless, and utterly disconnected from what made Assassin’s Creed special. Not just a bad movie. A betrayal of the fans. Stay in the Animus, Ubisoft. Hollywood isn’t ready.

I came away from Assassin's Creed genuinely frustrated, because the raw materials were there and the people involved are, by any reasonable measure, talented. A director with Kurzel's eye for atmosphere, a lead as committed as Fassbender, a supporting cast most films would envy, and a source mythology with more lore than most screenwriters could use in a trilogy. And yet none of it coheres. The Animus sequences feel like interruptions rather than the heart of the film, and the modern-day scenes carry all the weight of a corporate memo. For me, that is the real sting of it: not that it is a bad film, though it is, but that at every turn you can see the shape of a better one that nobody made. A disappointing night out, even on a small screen.

Rating: ★½  | Year: 2016  | Watched: 2025-10-21

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Trailer

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