Curator Watchlist
A grim, overcomplicated video game adaptation that has flashes of style and a few solid action beats, but mostly buries its best ideas under dense lore, muddy pacing, and a joyless modern-day framework. It’s more interesting as a failed ambition than as a satisfying adventure.
Where to watch: Buy
Wed · 1h 56m
Director: Justin Kurzel
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons
Through a technology that unlocks the genetic memories of his ancestor in 15th century Spain, Callum Lynch discovers he is a descendant of an ancient line of Assassins and amasses lethal skills to take on the oppressive Templar Order.
Justin Kurzel
Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons
A grim, overcomplicated video game adaptation that has flashes of style and a few solid action beats, but mostly buries its best ideas under dense lore, muddy pacing, and a joyless modern-day framework. It’s more interesting as a failed ambition than as a satisfying adventure.
Assassin’s Creed is the rare big-budget adaptation that seems determined to smother its own appeal. The historical assassin material has movement and texture, and Justin Kurzel gives it a severe, almost ritualistic atmosphere, but the film keeps cutting back to a present-day plot that feels like homework. The result is a movie that is frequently busy and rarely exciting.
There are moments where the production design, stunt work, and Fassbender’s committed performance suggest a better film trapped inside this one. But the mythology is overstuffed, the emotional stakes are thin, and the whole enterprise is weighed down by a grey, self-serious tone that drains momentum. Even when it’s trying to be epic, it often feels oddly inert.
If you’re interested in video game adaptations as a genre experiment, there’s some value in seeing how hard this swings. For most viewers, though, it’s a case of style without enough payoff, and ambition without enough clarity.
Matthew L. Brady (2★) · 2313 likes
YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE! You were supposed to destroy bad video game movies, not join them! Bring balance to cinema, not leave it in darkness!
Jay (1.5★) · 896 likes
distinguishably lacked the only thing i remember from playing assassins creed: hiding in haystacks
David Sims (3.5★) · 710 likes
fuck...is this movie good? fuck!!!! gotta give it up for the creed though. what a creed. top 10 creeds. and you GOTTA give it up for the apple. need that apple to win a Nobel Peace Prize! P.S. Marion Cotillard 100% believes this movie is non-fiction and that the Knights Templar are after her even as we speak
adambolt (2★) · 592 likes
how many fools can I kill today
davidehrlich (3.5★) · 551 likes
History, which is foundational to the captivatingly bonkers story of Justin Kurzel’s “Assassin’s Creed,” tells us that this should be a very bad movie. For one thing, this dense, dour, and oft-delayed holiday spectacle is based on a popular series of video games — a grim omen in a year that brought us the likes of “Warcraft” and “Ratchet & Clank.” For another, Kurzel’s moody adaptation is told on a massive scale, budgeted to compete with other franchise monstrosities like “Rogue
A large-scale historical epic with political conflict, crusades-era intrigue, and a similarly serious visual approach.
Sweeping period action built around an outsider entering a rigid warrior culture and learning its code.
A prestige action epic that balances revenge, empire, and muscular spectacle more effectively.
For viewers drawn to Kurzel’s severe, atmospheric historical imagery and meditative pacing.
Another bleak, stylized Kurzel film that favors mood, violence, and tragic intensity over easy momentum.
Mythic, austere, and visually controlled, with a similar interest in ritual, destiny, and atmosphere.
A more straightforward studio adventure built from game-adjacent fantasy and ancient-world spectacle.
A modern action-adventure adaptation that leans into archaeology, secret organizations, and inherited legacy.
A globe-trotting treasure-hunt movie that shares the franchise DNA of parkour, conspiracies, and relic-chasing.
Identity, memory, and elite physical training are all handled with much cleaner propulsion and suspense.
A sharp study of buried identity and violent inheritance, with a grounded, adult tone.
High-concept sci-fi about systems of control, predestination, and kinetic action set pieces.
video game adaptation, historical action, secret societies, genetic memory, conspiracy, identity, legacy, oppressive power
video game adaptation, historical adventure, science fiction, assassins, templars, conspiracy thriller, period action, dour tone, franchise misfire, stylized violence