Assassin's Creed: There Is Much to Like!

Movie Review: Assassin's Creed (2016)
Version: Library Borrow

I have always been intrigued by the Assassin's Creed video game series since it firsts emerged on the market in 2007. I've never played it, although we just got the original game from the library now that we have seen the movie. There is something interesting and invigorating about the concept of stealthy assassins, and these came into being during the Crusades.

But the film version of Assassin's Creed takes place in the present day when a corporation develops technology that can unlock someone's genetic past. Michael Fassbender plays Cal Lynch, a killer on death row, and his assassin ancestor, Aguilar. Lynch is given the lethal dose to take his life before witnesses, then is whisked away to a remote location, where he is brought back to awareness and hooked up to a machine and injected with chemicals that tap his genetic past.

Marion Cotillard plays Sofia, the scientist behind the technology, who wants to bring out the Saracen assassin Aguilar in Lynch. Jeremy Irons plays her father, Rikkin, who has ulterior motives and works on behalf of the Templars who seek a buried treasure they hope Lynch can help find through Aguilar's memories.

Through re-enacting Aguilar's battles and quests, Lynch learns new fighting and battle skills. And he learns that other subjects being held in the corporate facility are his allies. Their goal is to protect the object the modern day Templars seek, whether by helping Lynch against the corporation or by protecting the object from Lynch.

There is much to like about Assassin's Creed. Fassbender is great in the part, adept in the fight scenes and a keen adversary to Irons, who often plays a scheming villain. Cotillard is excellent as the focused scientist in search of the truth with a secret crush on her subject. The settings are well imagined, too, enveloping you into an extraordinary fantasy world of crusaders and assassins.

I would recommend this for family viewing, especially for young teens and older. There are lots of battle scenes. I'm not sure youngsters should be exposed to the corporal punishment scene at the beginning. But the rest of the film is great fun. Do buy, rent, or borrow Assassin's Creed soon.