Assassin's Creed BD [Blu-ray]

Enjoyable film

First things first, an essential disclosure: I'm a veteran Assassin's Creed fan. In fact, I'm currently playing through the digitally re-mastered 'Ezio Collection' on the PS4 Pro (awesome, by the way.) So my critique of the movie will naturally have a different bias to someone who's watching it having never played an AC game.And as for the movie itself? Wow, I was far more impressed than I thought I would be. You see, far from automatically loving any film that has been scripted from a game franchise, I usually hate them for not capturing the soul of the game itself. This one actually does a pretty good job of that. Would I have preferred the narrative to revolve around Ezio Auditore? You betcha. Did that fan-perspective spoil the movie? Nope.Michael Fassbender is great, Jeremy Irons is magnificent. The narrative worked really well, so congrats to the writers of the screenplay (Michael Lesslie, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage) as well.I can't help but feel most of the bad reviews are from fans who really wanted it to be more like the game. That just doesn't really work on screen though, there is a reason that films based on plays say screenplay 'adapted from' rather than just throw the play script at actors. Same goes for game crossovers, only more so.My summing up would have to be to give it a chance. I've seen better films, and many far, far worse. This is a good swashbuckling romp with an interesting narrative. I'm already looking forward to the sequel, with Eizo in a starring role of course...

Assassins Creed has a great deal going for it, with Fassbender playing both characters with full conviction - his 1492 ancestor, witnessed through the dna-based 'magic' of a machine named The Animus - and his modern day descendant Callum, who's a convicted murderer.It also has the benefit of Justin Kurzel, whose version of Macbeth was genuinely excellent. Kurzel films everything with a well-framed, very dramatic pace, his camera swooping and diving to follow the many athletic stunts, but rarely obscuring them in the way Michael Bay does in his Transformers pics.The plot has the potential to confuse, but is well explained by the various supporting characters and it takes inspiration from the various Assassins Creed games, although perhaps most heavily from the first. Fans (myself included) will be delighted with the parkour, leaping assassinations and fantastic stunt work as the characters carry out their missions and escapes with athletic grace and dazzling aggression. There are also several laughs in there for the series' fans, with in jokes like a smashed pigeon coop during one particularly exciting chase sequence.The locations are gorgeous, and well utilised (although there are perhaps one or two soaring bird moments too many).The characters are also better fleshed out here than most video game adaptations - feeling like they actually have personalities and motivations in most cases. The portrayal of The Animus is extremely fun and much more cinematic than the series standby of a shiny bed, and Fassbender commits to the hallucinatory after-effects with vigour as well.The film has three very exciting major action sequences that really get the blood roaring, and elevate this above the usual crop.But there it stops. Oddly, everything falls badly apart for the final ten minutes of the film, where the enemy appear to stop caring about trying to stop the Assassins - even with blatant imminent danger right in front of them - and all attempts to catch them effectively cease as well.This renders what should have been the most dramatic scene of the film such a damp squib that, for me, it turned a five star movie into four. What harmed it even more was the arrogant presumption on the part of the studio that it would be successful enough to guarantee a sequel. This leads to a character changing allegiances twice in ten minutes and setting up a blatant sequel-bait motivation that doesn't work even if the screenplay is viewed in the most charitable way possible.You get the impression that Kurzel and co were allowed to run a fantastic race and were then stopped at the last hurdle so the studio could work out how to keep the money train rolling. It's a bad decision and one that severely hurts the movie.Luckily, what's gone before is exciting and propulsive enough that I'd still recommend giving it a go.

Brilliant film great story line and action with an excellent cast of actors. Its not often films that go back in time and back to modern times keep me interested but Assassins Creed definitely did. I would d love it if there is a follow up with sane actors. If you like action a great story line this is definitely for you

The blu-ray copy came in superb condition. No marks, code for UV worked and the disc worked perfectly fine.As for the movie itself, as a huge fan of Assassin's Creed, from the first to the latest. I was a little worried for this film. Video game films usually aren't good. But I went into it as a neutral person, trying to pretend that I never played the games. It was an alright experience. The action sequences are good (except when they jump to the "animus" scenes with Fassbender jumping around") and the story is okay. It's no where near as bad as other video game movies, but it's not what I expect from a series which has so much lore and possibilty surrounding it. And you won't watch it mor than once unless you are getting drunk with a few mates and this is all you own. It's a one ride sort of movie. Is it worth £10? Probably not, I'd suggest renting it out.

It takes to know (and love) the original games, it takes to know enough of history to understand where they try to play with it, it takes to understand that other languages and subtitles are NOT a bad thing, it takes to appreciate the style of the director (if you find this one boring try the wonderful rendition of Macbeth from the same director and cast, you thick head!!), it takes some effort, like all the great cinema, the rest is just entertainment.Bringing this series to live action was a challenge, could have been made in the usual, sterile and action packed Hollywood style, but thankfully, the tastes of the director preferred to explore the complex themes behind the concept of the game, like free will, power and the fight for truth and freedom and still created some thrilling scene of chasing and fighting.Probably who have found this movie boring never played the games, or just abruptly skipped all the dialogues in the games.