Assassin's Creed - The movie
This enters into production next week, and I'm actually starting to hope this may be good (maybe first movie to escape from the so-called Video game curse? Well, I hope this and Warcraft does at least, especially after the mess I've heard Hitman: Agent 47 was from others).
Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) discovers he is a descendant of the secret Assassins society through unlocked genetic memories that allow him to relive the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. After gaining incredible knowledge and skills he’s poised to take on the oppressive Knights Templar in the present day.
As long as they capture the spirit and essence of Assassin's Creed universe (that I listed below) I would be satisfied
- Assassin's and Templars factions and their centuries of war,
- Assassinations (different styles) and free-running (parkour)
- Eagle sense
- Leap of Faith
- Costumes which makes the character resemble and Assassin (hood, hidden blade etc) and Templar,
- Plot devices such as Animus and Genetic Memory, and the Creed (including 3 tenants of the Assassins Brotherhood) and Pieces of Eden etc
- Keeping true to history and showing actual historical person
I am already very satisfied with Fassbender's costume they unveiled (above), and I am waiting to see how well they do on other things (I guess most visual factors may be revealed in trailers, though some plot devices would only be unveiled after I watch the movie).
Also, it really makes me go lol at some people who wanted the video game characters (Altair, Ezio, Connor, Edward, Arno, or Desmond). I know these characters are loved (though I kinda hated Desmond's storyline in AC3), but do people really want just carbon copy (yet trimmed down since not everything can be shown in the movie due to its length) version of the games? Geez (with pacepalm)....
Any thoughts?
Comments
I'm actually going to be cautiously optimistic about this. Assassin's Creed COULD have a great movie, but you can honestly say that about several video game movies that have come out over the years.
Is it bad that I actually have more faith in this movie than the games now? Unity kinda ruined everything for me and I hate the fact that it did, I used to love Assassin's Creed.
Yeah, well I thought Hitman Agent 47 was going to be good, but that was until I actually saw the trailer, and had a pretty bad feeling about it. I think we'll get a more clearer view when the trailer for this actually hits (probably early next year, or middle of next year).
If Fassbender's track record is anything to go by, I think it has been pretty solid since Jonah Hex in 2010 (boy, was that movie terrible. Luckily Fassbender only played a small role in it).
And Fassbender already collaborated with the director of this movie Justin Kurzel, with the upcoming movie Macbeth (Marion Cotillard is in it too, and she also stars in this Assassin's Creed movie), so with the return of the Macbeth trio, I have more hope.
Script also, from what I heard, did go though several revision from various known writers, so I think (well hope, lol) it will be ok (as long as they don't mess up the AC universe core concepts/essence that I've listed in my original post).
By the way CathalOhara, why did Unity ruin AC for you? I'm just asking out of curiosity.
It's doomed. Doomed.
If they don't make the Templars clear cut bad guys like in AC3 then it could be interesting. Something similar to Rouge could be nice, a moral grey area for the Templars. Because it seems like in the newest games that plot point is just forgotten and the templars are just straight up bad guys even though they strive for a better place. I also hope they stay away from the First Civ stuff, that stuff is a mess. As long as they keep a moral grey area story and use everything that makes the first few assassin's creed games good, it could make it.
I never played Unity but do you mean it ruined the series because of it's pathetic release or just the game all together, because from what I seen the story looks interesting and the connection with Rouge was nice.
I know that the game itself was littered with bugs and suffered from terrible optimization, but from pure storyline perspective, I liked Unity's story. And I agree, connection to Rogue was a nice touch.
The story didn't shoehorn in pirates like it did with Black Flag (don't get me wrong, Black flag is a great game, but the concept of matching pirates with assassins always had me scratching my head in puzzlement).
Well, they can't really get into the whole Templars are not clear cut bad guys unless they do one of the following (because they really need to have someone to be an antagonist):
First civilisation stuff was (and still is a mess) in the game series. But it's also one of the core concepts in the AC universe isn't it? Assassins and Templars trying to find Pieces of Eden. So while I wouldn't completely rule out the first civilisation stuff, I wouldn't mind it if they kept that segment to a minimum.
However, I do seriously hope that they ditch the whole "Save the world from apocalypse" thing they had in Desmond's storyline. It's one of the reasons I hate present day segments in AC3 (I actually found Desmond's storyline in AC3 to be really, really boooooooooooring, and just facepalmed at that ending)
With this and warcraft coming into play (pun intended), I believe we may be on the verge of a video game film adaptation renaissance.
EDIT: Wait, 15th century Spain, you say? THE TRIBUNAL OF THE HOLY OFFICE OF THE INQUISITION!!!! (history geek excitement spasms).
I serious hope so. I'm really tired of hearing over and over again the so-called "Video games to movies curse"
So they better not screw this up (since it's one of my favourite game series).
It's been said Ubisoft has been said to have watched over the whole screenplay process and the whole pre-production process (after the mediocre results they got from Prince of Persia film. Heck, they even set up their own film division for this film franchise and several other of their properties), so if this goes south (i.e. rated terribly by reasonable Assassins Creed fans, not those people who basically want carbon copy of the games), they only have themselves to blame this time.
Amen.
Yup, 15th Century spain.
I think previously, the synopsis was leaked and it said it would involve the Inquisition (and have Tomás de Torquemada as the villain). See the below link for more details:
Assasins Creed movie synopsis leak
Obviously, some details were changed (such as main character's name), but I think majority of details stayed the same.
I'm a history geek too. One of the reasons I love this game series
Well, then. I have good hopes for it so far. Let us wait until the first trailer launches before drawing any conclusions.
Oh, I am also with you on the history thing.
Of course.
While the trailer will show majority of visual features (such as leap of faith, assassinations etc), even trailers may not cover all plot features. So while a big Yes or No may be decided upon the trailer (on whether I think it will be good or not), I don't think they'll show all of their cards with the trailer release.
EDIT: With that being said, they should definitely hire David Belle (District 13) as their parkour choreographer. He served as parkour choreographer for the Prince of Persia movie, and the parkour scenes (at least) looked good in that movie.
Hmmmm, I am curious as to how this is handled.
I watched AC Lineage (the short film for AC2) and obviously it was low budget stuff, but I do have a fear that this movie will be butchered somehow. I thought they were gonna do something with Altair at first, but this looks cool!
Unlike the trailer for Agent 47 (the second one, that is). It revealed so much of the plot, that I pretty much knew what was to happen when I finally saw the movie.
That and the whole guns blazing in the streets really annoyed me (haven't seen it, but pretty much all of my friends who've seen it said it sucked, so I don't plan to)
And mate, did you read my edited part? What do you think about hiring David Belle as parkour choreographer?
The movie did suck, but it was far better than the first attempt.
I do not know. I never saw the Prince of Persia films or District 13. Yet, as I look at some of his clips, I can see why you would think of him as a good choice. I am thinking that he could do well.
While I would have loved to have seen Altair (I mean which Assassin's Creed fan don't love either Altair or Ezio?), I don't think there would have been a way to give justice to the character's story without butchering the storyline.
Try to fit everything of the game in, the movie will be too long and will be very general audience unfriendly film. Cut down the story too much, you end up butchering the film and anger the game's core fan-base. Pretty much a no-win situation with a frame-to-frame adaptation with this one.
I think this film is in less danger of getting butchered since it's crafting its own story (well, the historical part at least seems to be), although present day section has some resemblance to AC1, I have a feeling they will go on a different route than what they did in that game.
Yeah, maybe I'll get the Hitman agent 47 movie when it's on discount, lol.
Not sure whether I should recommend Prince of Persia film to you (guess it would depend on how much of a fan you are of the games), but I would recommend for you to check out District 13. It's a really good film (David Belle shows his awesome parkour moves in it, and it's got Cyril Raffaeli with his great martial arts moves!)
The film does have a sequel called District 13 Ultimatum, though I wouldn't recommend it as much as first one, since it's got less of David's parkour scenes than the first one, and even the parkour scenes themselves are kinda ruined by bad camera (thanks to different director, lol).
But yeah, I think David Belle would be my first choice in mind when it comes to parkour (or free-running as it is called in AC) segments in this Assassin's Creed movie.
I think it could be good. I'm really interested to see what they'll do.
Fassbender is a good actor alright, although I only actually know him for playing Magneto. :P I actually found out there this film is going to be in the game continuity too, which is actually quite an interesting way to do it.
Well one of the main problems was I played it at launch and well... you can guess how that went. I felt flat-out insulted that the game was rushed like that. Assassin's Creed III had plenty of cut content too and that was only because Ubisoft really wanted the game to be out in 2012 just so the 2012 apocalypse would still be a relevant topic.
Generally, one of my biggest problems with Assassin's Creed has always been that they can be so much more. Ubisoft just don't give the developers much time to make the games and that really annoys me. Unity was just the last straw for me. Also I'm someone who actually enjoyed the modern day story and it really was just properly pushed aside in Unity to the point where it's practically non-existent except for that silly time travel stuff (though I'll admit it was cool climbing the Eiffel tower). I also agree with what @Talimancer said about the tie-in to Rogue. I actually quite liked Rogue even though it was clearly a Black Flag 2. Playing as a Templar was a nice change as well as getting to play as an Irish.
Even though that accent was awful.
I'm just finding it really hard to care about this series anymore, and it's really frustrating that I'm saying that because no more than 2 years ago I was quite the big AC fan. But the story is clearly going nowhere and I hate saying this overly used word but... the franchise is getting milked to death. Syndicate promises to fix many problems I've been having but I'm still not convinced. And even if the game is good I'm still going to be going out of it going, "Same old, same old"
I do love the AC lore though and that's why I'm hoping the film will be good though, here's hoping! Sorry for that rant there by the way, but I used to be a HUGE AC fan so for me it's even heartbreaking even typing what I just said there. :P
Nah, it's alright mate.
I can sort of understand how you feel. I too think one of AC series biggest weaknesses is Ubisoft itself being unsure of what to do with their whole present day storyline (I actually hate AC3's 2012 apocalypse storyline by the way, actually, I felt the whole present day storyline in AC3 was just so booooooooooooooring and ending itself was terrible. Present day storyline until Revelations was alright. But AC3, just had me smacking my face with facepalm).
That is why I think while the present day premise of this film sounds similar to AC1, I'm hoping that they would branch out into a different storyline. For me they can start with the following things:
I never cared much for Prince of Persia, but this District 13 film sounds alright. I shall have to rent it sometime.
I'm just gonna keep optimistic that they don't fuck everything up and the result is half decent.
Is...is this is offical?..
You're right on both counts, in my opinion.
The best video game movie I've seen is Silent Hill (not that I've seen too many video game movies), which was kinda meh.
And what's good about the movie is that they can start off on a clean slate. I think a lot of the people playing AC nowadays are veterans who are hoping for a good AC game (I don't think the series has been brilliant since Brotherhood), with no real chance of bringing new players in with everything tied by present-day stuff.With the movie, they can start fresh and do a good storyline.
The game series is already fucked up as it is, who knows how this movie could turn out to be.
12/21/16 HYPE
I'm going to try and avoid getting hyped for this, at least until I see a trailer, but I will say they've got a chance at making this good.
One good thing about doing an AC movie is that they have a clean slate, and won't be limited by the events of the games (hopefully. It depends if the movie is in the same continuity). So hopefully they can do a proper future storyline as well as some past stuff. And I'm glad that they're doing new characters and a new time period, since they've got more creative freedom and won't be limited by the games.
Assassin's creed 1 managed to do the Templar story quite well since it was their beginning. You see that each Templar believe that they were in the right, and we even see Altair begin to doubt himself. That made the story in AC1 quite interesting
Actually, the AC movie will be sharing the continuity with the game franchise (see the following link for more details):
Assassins Creed movie will Share Continuity with Game franchise
So yeah, whatever happened before in the games will affect (at least in some way) the movie, and events of the movie will affect the future games (probably after Syndicate), comics etc.
This would mean characters who were in the games (like Shawn and Rebecca) would be able to appear in the movie, if required.
I just hope they don't get too restrained with the whole continuity thing though. For this movie to succeed, even general audiences who haven't played a single AC game before would need to understand the movie's plot without going "Huh?"
Maybe some subtle easter eggs referring to the past games could work (Fox's Deadpool movie is doing it, poking fun at Ryan Reynold's Green Lantern movie......though I guess that might not be that subtle).
I'm glad they're going with the new timeline too. Can't understand those people wailing saying "Booo..... it's not Altair/Ezio etc" Do they really want a carbon copy of the games?
Assasins Creed Real life parkour
Have you guys seen this? I salute this guys who made that!
That was good.
They better hire David Belle as the parkour choreographer for this movie - the man is considered to be founder of parkour / free-running, so it would be a crime not to involve him (heck he was even the parkour choreographer for that mediocre Prince of Persia film).
Is that the dude in Casino Royale? The bomb maker that James chases through the construction site???
He actually created free-running, which is the acrobatic form of parkour. Parkour existed before free-running did
It's gonna suck like every other video game movie.
Makes sense. Personally, I'm glad that they're going to a different era, instead of trying to copy the games, which usually doesn't work in video game movies. Just look at how they fucked up the Silent Hill films.
I've seen them all. Those guys do some awesome work.
More info from tweets of franchise's Head of Content Aymar Azaizia:
Q & A from Aymar Azaizia
Here's his Wikipedia profile:
David Belle profile
I don't think he was in Casino Royale. He's the guy in District 13 series (he recently made the remake with the late Paul Walker). And yes, Belle is the founder of Parkour.
I think the guy you're referring to is Sébastien Foucan he was in Casino Royale as Mollaka (I was incorrect before in saying Belle founded free-running, when it was just Parkour).
Sebastien Foucan profile
Actually, if they can't get Belle (for some reason), Foucan would be a pretty good substitute
More tweets from Aymar before he signs off:
more Q & A
more Q & A
more Q & A
Looks like they're trying to stay as far away from that Prince of Persia movie, wanting to get it right this time around. Let's see if they deliver on that promise....