Assassin's Creed. Absolutely worst video game adaptations
- Absolutely Worst Video Game Adaptations – Uwe Boll Would be Proud!
- Super Mario Bros.
- In the Name of the King (Dungeon Siege)
- Assassin's Creed
- Doom: Annihilation
- Alone in the Dark: Shadow Island
- BloodRayne
- Street Fighter
- Silent Hill: Revelation
- Double Dragon
Assassin's Creed
- What it is: a costume action drama with elements of sci-fi
- Where to watch (at your own risk): Netflix
The Assassin's Creed series is ostensibly the perfect source material for a great movie. There are some brilliant sci-fi themes, charismatic protagonists, complete flexibility in terms of the setting, and epic intrigues and conspiracies at the core. It seems everything is right there. Before the premiere, I'd always though it would be pretty difficult to spoil such potential. But there apparent are some filmmakers, who rose to the challenge. Oddly enough, it was done by the director of a decent adaptation of Macbeth, Justin Kurzel.
The cast is impressive – we have Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Irons, Marion Cotillard, and Brendan Gleeson. Ariane Labed was probably the only less recognizable name. But it was all in vain. With a budget of 125 million dollars it barely grossed $240 million worldwide, and merely 54M in the United States. Given the potential, it really seemed bad. Even more so because the critics were, well, rather critical.
It's hard to comprehend why directors feel absolutely obliged to mettle with the original story, for rights to which they paid through the nose. Too bad it wasn't set in Italy, with Ezio Auditore as the protagonist. Too bad it didn't make any use of some of the exciting side stories and locations. The final insult, however, was losing the very spirit of the original.
The narrative was boring and meaningless, dialogues irritating rather than intriguing, and characters are bland and without expression. Michael Fassbender performs poorly in the double role, only thriving in action sequences, but that's not what character building is about. On the up side, there are some decent combat sequences, one dynamic escape and a few good shots. Unfortunately, that's not enough to match the original.
