The movie borrows its plot heavily from the first game in the series. A man is taken by the Abstergo corporation to delve into his past using the Animus to locate the Apple of Eden. Fans of the game rejoice - it's all there!
With that said, I have to nitpick the beginning of the movie. It opens with crawling text, introducing the concepts of Assassins and Templars and the nature of the Apple of Eden. This was completely unnecessary as the plot actually explains the conflict in depth. This scene isn't too long, but I felt it confused rather than informed. As a fan of the games, I found myself thinking if this was accurate or not from the get go (it was, but I still had to think about it). This text was immediately followed by a scene of an Assassin's initiation (was it Fassbender's Assassin? I'm still not sure). The Assassin's speak Spanish and thus their dialogue is subtitled, which is a horrible way to begin a movie and disengage your audience right from the start.
The Spanish speaking was a nice touch and I actually applaud the film for taking this route instead of having English speakers with bad accents, like the games. There were many unique cinematographic choices to note in this film, however, I have to disagree with some of them. They gave the film the feel of a student film - for example, a scene in which Fassbender's character has lighting coming in from different angles, highlighting and shadowing his face in multiple ways. I have no other complaints for this scene, since it actually fits the scene, but it did give the film an amateur feel. Other examples could be found in the delivery of the dialogue, in which sometimes it was rushed and sometimes it was too slow and lacked nuance.
The slow beginning was followed by a cohesive act, after Fassbender's character's first trip into the Animus. The result was a plot which was easy to follow for first-timers into Assassin's Creed lore. The action sequences, both in historic Spain and modern-day Abstergo, were brilliant, especially when they were faded into one another. I found myself squinting and squirming from the quick brutality of the fights, and this is a good thing. I found this to be an acceptable departure from the games; it would be difficult to show button mashing on the screen, so these fights in the film actually had style and depth. It was nice to watch.
My final complaint is with some choices in editing. Along with the rushed dialogue, the scenes in historic Spain added too much rolling and drifting sand everywhere. I'm obviously not sure how historically accurate that is, but it was quite distracting. It reminds me of the lens flares in JJ Abram's first Trek film. We get it - Spain has sand. Move on, please.
Besides my gripes, I think Assassin's Creed is an enjoyable film for the holiday season. The movie doesn't end on a cliff hanger and the ending provided closure. Some things were not explained in this move that the saavy Asssassin's Creed fan will notice, which is a nice touch as well. It's an homage to the player not knowing everything after playing as Altair their first time. The lore has always been slow to reveal itself over the plethora of games the series now has to offer, and the film took a similar direction. I will conclude by saying Assassin's Creed is the movie to watch this season if you're in the mood for some old fashion B-Fantasy with an A-list cast.
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