Assassin's Creed

[Leisher]

Did you know this was coming out in 2016?

Neither did I and I'm pretty in touch with both the movie and gaming industries.

This complete lack of coverage or hype hasn't stopped them from greenlighting a sequel...

[Vince]

Looks like this is coming out in Dec. Wife is rally stoked to see it. She used to stop and just watch me play this series. Never played it herself, but just thought it was so cool to watch. Seeing the trailer for this, it should be easy to make something that doesn't suck. They are going with a non-game related assassin, but supposedly will have a cameo from character(s) from the game (assuming Ezio for the time period). The intrigue could make for a really good suspense movie.

[Malcolm]

The fact that the studio is going forward with this can only be good news. Clearly, the studio is loving what they're seeing so far, and believes the audience will likely connect with the finished product. If this indeed happens as planned, they'll already be underway with the next film, and can get the product out as soon as possible to meet demand. However, don't expect this to be a guarantee of a sequel. They're likely not to begin the actual production of the film until after the first one comes out, and until that point, the studios can really pull the plug whenever. Just consider this a smart move on the studio in preparation of the best case scenario.

That's far from a commitment on the studio's part. This means they're paying for some early script treatments and doing glorified interviews with writers and maybe directors.

[Vince]

Saw it today. Not as bad as it's being panned for. I wanted to love it. I mostly just liked it. Couple of scenes had me wanting to fire up the game on Xbox again. Wife (a big "over the shoulder fan" of the series) was likewise a bit disappointed. Had some moments, but honestly I think they had to fill in too much back story to give you enough of the assassining to make it awesome. Plus there was one concept idea that was really a bad idea for the fight scenes.

Worth a matinée maybe, but otherwise wait for it on video (which shouldn't take too long).

[Leisher]

I've heard the stuff in the past is great, and the stuff in the future sucks.

That is hilariously accurate and faithful to the games.

[Vince]

I've heard the stuff in the past is great, and the stuff in the future sucks.

That is hilariously accurate and faithful to the games.

I wouldn't say the present day stuff sucks, but in order to really explain what is going on they spend much more time proportionally on the present than the game did. 1 hour or so against 30-40 hours of game play vs more than half the movie. And the games used the present day stuff to give you a "why" to being in the animus in the first place and moved that story along to give reason for the next game in the series. They actually felt the need to resolve the present day part of the story in the movie and make it the central focus rather than the stuff in the past.

I always felt the present day parts of the games got a bad wrap. They aren't great, but I think that's more due to Ubisoft consistently created such an immersive world in the past that it was jarring and annoying to be pulled out of it.

You've probably seen how they changed the animus from being a table you lay on to being this big weird machine that connects to the subject's waist and suspends him when he jumps, etc. So they'd have Fassbender in the past in costume fighting some guys. Then they'd switch to the present with Fassbender in sweatpants connected to the machine fighting "ghosted" images of the bad guys from the past. Kind of a neat effect, but they beat it to death. Way overused to the point it was super distracting from the fight scene.

[GORDON]

I didn't understand good chunks of it.

I don't know if there is a spoiler thread.... if so, let me know and I'll move this there. Otherwise, consider the following to be spoilers for the 2016 movie.






- "Protect the animus, purge the facility." What? Protect what? The altered mental state of the prisoners... or thing their enemies were already in and had already broken?

- I couldn't tell what the daughter said at the end at all, and we rewound it 4 times. We figured out the "I will retrieve the thing for the elders," but whatever she said after that was just indecipherable. Something like, "Bitch, I'll get it for myself."

- Took me a while to distinguish which side was against what, and stood for what. I think I finally get that the past Templars wanted to use the muslim kid to get the Apple from his father.... though what good having a DNA sequence in 1492 would do them, I have no idea. And the Templars in the future.... at least they had one line I liked, "We controlled the masses through religion, then politics, and now consumerism... why don't we try science?" and the stuff about how "We've already won, people are willing to give up civil liberties for comfort." Very chilling stuff. But the assassins who were opposing them.... motivation? I have no idea. In the past, stop them from getting that Apple that was basically worthless because of technology. Assassins in the future.... "Stop them from ending free will?" How exactly would that happen, anyway?

- The daughter seemed in on the "let's control people" goal from the beginning, but then acted like she didn't at the end. I have no idea.

- did all the future prisoners get their mad assassin skillz by mind melding with their past peeps, like fassbender did? If so, wouldn't they by now be a little more wary of whatever skillz fassbender might gain by going into the matrix?

It all just seemed very muddy and confusing.

[Leisher]

Not as bad as it's being panned for. I wanted to love it. I mostly just liked it.

That's a pretty solid review, but it still makes it sound a touch too good.

It was entertaining, but this is pretty true of the story:

It all just seemed very muddy and confusing.

- "Protect the animus, purge the facility." What? Protect what? The altered mental state of the prisoners... or thing their enemies were already in and had already broken?

The animus is the machine they used to look into your DNA's past. Once they found their objective I'm not really sure why killing everyone yet protecting the machine makes sense.

- I couldn't tell what the daughter said at the end at all, and we rewound it 4 times. We figured out the "I will retrieve the thing for the elders," but whatever she said after that was just indecipherable. Something like, "Bitch, I'll get it for myself."

- The daughter seemed in on the "let's control people" goal from the beginning, but then acted like she didn't at the end. I have no idea.

In a film filled with muddy confusing stuff, this was the biggest "what?" She walks away from her dad about to enslave the world, but when someone stops him, she vows revenge? That made no sense. I also didn't get the henchman's motives. He seemed to be sympathetic to the assassin's and their creed. He didn't even smile or cheer when the big bad won, and then he supports Baroness at the end? The whole ending made no sense.

- Took me a while to distinguish which side was against what, and stood for what. I think I finally get that the past Templars wanted to use the muslim kid to get the Apple from his father.... though what good having a DNA sequence in 1492 would do them, I have no idea. And the Templars in the future.... at least they had one line I liked, "We controlled the masses through religion, then politics, and now consumerism... why don't we try science?" and the stuff about how "We've already won, people are willing to give up civil liberties for comfort." Very chilling stuff. But the assassins who were opposing them.... motivation? I have no idea. In the past, stop them from getting that Apple that was basically worthless because of technology. Assassins in the future.... "Stop them from ending free will?" How exactly would that happen, anyway?

I didn't get any part of that aura at the end. Was that the end of free will field? Why was Fastbender unaffected?

Not a great movie, but could have been. The stuff in the past was pretty awesome though.

[Vince]

I guess I've played all the games long enough that I mostly was just mentally skimming over the present day stuff in the movie the way I do in the games.