Desynchronizing the Past: Revisiting Assassin’s Creed (2016)
Hollywood has long wrestled with video game adaptations, often turning beloved franchises into soulless CGI-fests. Assassin’s Creed (2016) aimed higher, promising a serious, lore-rich experience worthy of its source material. Directed by Justin Kurzel and starring Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Irons, this film tried to balance historical fiction with sci-fi intrigue.
It half-succeeded.
Is it a good movie? Not quite. Is it the worst game adaptation? Not even close. It’s a decent attempt, although its ambition sometimes becomes a hindrance. It tries to be profound but occasionally drowns in its own self-importance, like a hooded figure trying to be stealthy while wearing neon sneakers.
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The Legacy: From Consoles to Cinema
Assassin’s Creed was born in 2007, a Ubisoft creation blending parkour, stealth, and historical conspiracies. Players leapt across Renaissance rooftops, fought Templars, and unraveled a hidden war through the Animus—a machine that lets users relive their ancestors' memories via DNA.
The games thrive on immersion, letting players lose themselves in richly recreated historical settings. The film? Not so much. It teeters between wanting to be faithful and wanting to be an arthouse blockbuster. The result? A cinematic experience that feels like an Assassin’s Creed player repeatedly failing a mission and having to restart from the checkpoint.
What Works: The Blade Still Has Some Edge
The film respects the franchise’s core themes: free will vs. control, history’s hidden battles, and the clash of Assassins and Templars.
Fassbender commits to the role, delivering a physical, brooding performance—though even he looks confused at times.
The Spanish Inquisition setting is visually stunning, with beautifully choreographed fight sequences that feel like a highlight reel from a better movie.
The Animus redesign (a robotic arm instead of a VR chair) makes for dynamic action, though it deviates from the source material in ways that will irk purists.
The soundtrack by Jed Kurzel carries a haunting, atmospheric weight that elevates the film beyond its script.
The film takes itself seriously, and that’s a rare virtue in video game adaptations. However, sometimes it takes itself too seriously—like a man in a hooded cloak whispering about destiny while standing in line at Starbucks.
What Falls Flat: The Hidden Blade Misses Its Mark
For all its reverence, Assassin’s Creed fumbles some key aspects:
Too much present-day, not enough past. The game’s best moments happen in historical settings. The film spends too much time in the lab. It’s like playing Assassin’s Creed and being forced to walk around Abstergo for hours before getting to the good stuff.
A convoluted plot. The story, buried under philosophical mumbo-jumbo, lacks emotional punch. Half the time, it feels like the characters are explaining the movie to each other instead of living it.
Underused talent. Cotillard and Irons feel wasted, delivering exposition-heavy dialogue instead of compelling drama. They could be replaced by two narrators reading a lore wiki, and little would change.
Action that cuts itself short. The fight scenes have solid choreography but suffer from hyperactive editing, never letting us enjoy the spectacle. It’s like trying to watch a sword fight through a strobe light.
The film's biggest sin? It forgets to be fun. The games balanced intrigue with sheer joy—leaping off a tower into a haystack, outwitting guards, blending into crowds. The film trades that for a gritty, joyless experience, like an assassin who’s read too much Nietzsche.
The Science Behind the Animus: Could It Work?
The Animus is a sci-fi marvel—genetic memories extracted and relived like a historical VR experience. But is there any basis in reality?
Sort of.
Epigenetics suggests that experiences can influence gene expression and may pass down traits through generations. Some studies hint at trauma being carried through DNA—Holocaust survivors' descendants exhibiting stress responses, for example. But reliving full-blown, detailed memories? That’s pure fiction.
Dr. Brian Dias, a neuroscientist at Emory University, conducted a study where mice exposed to a particular scent associated with danger passed down an aversion to that scent to their offspring. This suggests that some form of biological memory transfer exists, but it’s a far cry from Fassbender hopping into an Animus and suddenly knowing how to parkour like Ezio Auditore.
Neuroscience does show that the brain can be stimulated to recall buried memories. Techniques like deep brain stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation can evoke forgotten details. However, memories aren’t stored like movies—they’re fragmented, reconstructed each time they’re recalled, and highly susceptible to distortion.
The film’s historical setting isn’t pulled from thin air. The Assassin Brotherhood is inspired by the Hashshashin, a real-life sect of assassins active during the Middle Ages. They were an Islamic sect that used espionage, targeted killings, and psychological warfare against the ruling powers. Their name eventually evolved into the modern word “assassin.”
However, while the Hashshashin were formidable, they didn’t possess superhuman acrobatics, retractable wrist blades, or the ability to synchronize viewpoints from tall buildings. That part, sadly, is pure Ubisoft magic.
Final Verdict: A Leap That Falls Just Short
Assassin’s Creed had the potential to redefine video game movies. It aimed for prestige, but got tangled in its own cloak. The dedication to lore is admirable, but at times, it’s too dense for newcomers and not rewarding enough for fans.
It’s watchable. It’s stylish. But it’s not the great Assassin’s Creed movie we were hoping for. A decent leap, but not a perfect landing.
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