Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Kenneth Williams, Denis Ménochet, Ariane Labed, Essie Davis, Matias Varela, Callum Turner, Carlos Bardem, Javier Gutiérrez, Hovik Keuchkerian, Crystal Clarke, Michelle H. Lin, Brian Gleeson, Julio Jordán, Rufus Wright, Angus Brown, Kemaal Deen-Ellis, Aaron Monaghan, Thomas Camilleri, Marysia S. Peres, Jeff Marsh.
Not everything has to make sense in the world of cinema, it is the illusion after all many felt happy to fall in love with, however when it comes to making a good film, one that captures the imagination, the best way to engage with the audience is not to offer it something that is so unrealistic it hurts to watch and it is painful to conceive the planning meeting in which it was approved.
There must have been a moment in which the point of Assassin’s Creed would have been considered inspired, the life of a 15th Century Assassin being given the duty to make sure a sacred object was safe and away from the likes of historical persons such as Torquemada, it is after all the same premise that drew millions in The Da Vinci Code, albeit set 500 years later and without having Tom Hanks wield a sword and give a truly dreadful performance. That inspiration though surely found its way up a certain crevice without adequate support, good on paper, awful on its creation, Assassin’s Creed may have wielded a decent sword but the metal turned to a gloopy celluloid mess on its way into the armour, a blow that just finds itself being uncared for at the end.
There is always a point in an actor’s career in which a film of such awful quality will make everything else they do resonate with the sound of golden chimes and awards flowing out their ears, not every film an actor appears in is always of the highest quality and yet with a cast that includes such luminaries as Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Charlotte Rampling, it is a huge surprise to see it fade so badly, almost without even a whimper.
Some films don’t go easy into their own version of the afterlife, Assassin’s Creed is one such film that might struggle to get beyond purgatory, carried by its own belief, it fails to live up to any standard befitting both the times it is set in or the historical sense it is meant to capture.
Ian D. Hall