The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I'm not expecting this to be very good.

But still. Assassin's Creed movie!

Almost as cringeworthy as the "you no longer exist" cliche.

The more that comes out about the movie, the more I agree. And I was never in the camp that it would be very good...

Also, releasing the same week as Rogue One? It's like the studio doesn't even care if people go to the movie or not!

[Also, if any studio execs are reading this, someone from THB should get a pre-screening of the movie to write a review on this website and on their youtube. Stabguy, Aurel, Joey and DAZ are constantly putting out videos on youtube. I confident in saying that Stabguy would be a good pick due to followers on youtube and, duh, owning this site. If someone that knows Assassin's Creed like him can get the word out (assuming it's any good), you'd get more people in the theater.]

Don't forget the over-used "The party is just getting started".

Thumbs-up on Stabguy or someone active here getting to see a pre-screening for review purposes.
I'm excited about the movie, all things considered. I want to see Justin Kurzel's take on Assassin's Creed, I want to see Michael Fassbender's as well. I want to see what they think of it, what it "is" to them. All of that on top of just wanting to watch it because it's more Assassin's Creed.

I've learned this past year to not expect movies/games to be the most top quality thing anymore. It's all entertainment. People treat these things like they're supposed to change your life and be something created by God. I have no doubt it'll be entertaining at the least. Just like my love for Batman V Superman and No Man's Sky (for therapy reasons), I'm just gonna go in and enjoy myself.

I think the plot, acting, etc will be fine. But I don't know that I've liked a single song in the trailers I've seen. Jesper Kyd should be doing the soundtrack for everything Assassin's Creed - including this movie.

My expectations aren't that high either. I'll wait for some reviews to drop in, and then decide how soon I want to see it. I'll probably end up seeing it eventually, even if it takes a year. I'm not in any rush. I'm with Joey, it doesn't have to be a masterpiece, as long as I get some enjoyment out of it, it's fine.

So join me in 2018 for my first impressions!

How soon after release will everyone see this movie?

I was thinking of discussing it on chat if it actually turns out good.

#stabbychatreboot

I've been talking about seeing it on opening day. stabgal's not on board.

So..............................when's the divorce?

I'm seeing it opening day with my entire family and several best friends.

Seeing it on the 21st, It's gonna be a fun day~

I plan to see it in theaters. Will have Christmas week off, so a Joey chat sounds great.

"Joey chat" would make me seem way too important on this site...

I accept this title.

Just saw it. Really liked it! Im so happy that it seems like the games and the movies are going to have totally separate stories. They chose the right things to change and leave out, and they got off to a far more compelling and fast-paced start than the entire plot of the first five games of the series did.

I really hope this approach to the modern day is a heavy point of inspiration for the next game. They like, told an actual story! With interesting dynamic characters! At the same time as telling another story that was also good!

I saw rogue one yesterday and kinda didnt like it, so this was a nice surprise considering it got really bad reviews.

I've heard that fans of the games actually really enjoy the AC movie. I'm going to try and see it tomorrow afternoon if I can.

I still enjoyed Rogue One. I think the first 45 minutes was a rush of build-up and could've been done better, but the ending made up for it for me.

I really enjoyed it too, I thought it did a great job with bringing back the "spirit" of Assassin's Creed, of what Assassin's Creed is really "about." The games have been missing that for a long, long time. Some of the best Present Day I've ever seen in the entire series.

I appreciate a lot that the movie and games are in a "shared universe," which has been confirmed by Ubisoft. That means the death of a certain character in the movie will affect next year's game, and its narrative. Which is frankly awesome, because it's like Justin Kurzel giving Ubisoft a proper kick in the ass, like, "Get up, start doing things again!" What the movie did, in an ideal world, would FORCE Ubisoft to get off their lazy-chair and start doing cool stuff with their games' stories again, since they'll have to address what just happened, because it was quite a major event.

oh, huh, a lot of things in the movie made it feel like this was a totally separate adaptation, which was good because they didn't spend any time explaining past events or all the stuff they already would know about twcb. I can see the basic major events of the movie being canon in the games, but I'm glad that they're at least presenting them in a way that makes the most sense for the different audiences.

I brought my dad to see it and told him nothing more than "its in the Spanish Inquisition", and afterward he told me he liked and understood it. so I think that confirms my feeling it wasn't just made for superfans

Just got back from seeing the movie. I actually really liked it! Some footage edits were very odd in the beginning, but it didn't seem to have that issue later on. The fighting was very "new AC" and reminiscent of Ezio's games (he has a different weapon in every fight and it's awesome).

I can definitely see casual audiences not liking it, though. I felt that much of the lore explanations were "blink and you miss it" moments, especially when almost every character has an accent of varying thickness. So the point of either side of the conflict could be missed by a lot of viewers, leaving them wondering why things happened as they did. But I've had almost a decade's worth of video gaming to explain these points to me, so I guess I got used to that method of this storyline.

Christmas time has really blocked any good time slots for me to get out and see this movie, so I'm sorry for getting to this so late. Unless all of us are available late tomorrow night to have a chat session or have more of next week off, we could still get online and discuss spoilers!

Also...

Saw that too, and seeing some other people's reaction to that scene we're not the only ones~

I definitely agree that though all the necessary information was in the movie, a lot of it is pretty easy to miss. I dont think it really matters in the end, though. If the general vibe is attractive to you you'd probably enjoy it despite not entirely understanding it. At the end of the day it is very focused on being an action movie, and its more complex themes are very subtle. And I liked that! I feel like a lot of action movies these days are afraid not everyone will understand them, and thus are unwilling to have any truly chaotic or involved fight or chase scenes. A lot of it is just dumb fun, but for me that gives urgency and excitement to the more subtle war of ideology it represents. I like a lot of "smarter" movies, but this approach put a big smile on my face.

The villains are cartoonishly evil and the heroes are impossibly skilled yet still mortal, and hundreds of bad guys get totally owned. Why cant we have a bunch of modern movies that are as simple as that, yet still have important things to say if you're willing to pay attention?

(That said I thought they did a good job humanizing the villains, both rikkin and his daughter feel like real people)

It gets worse...
movie: "Do not betray the Creed."
stabguy: "(gulp) Okay."
movie: "The Creed will live on."
stabguy: "... I'll allow it."
movie: "I am a friend of the Creed."
stabguy: "No! That's not what creed means, godamnit."

Other than that, they did a good job of bringing AC to the big screen. I particularly liked the fleshed out present day story and also the fades back to Callum on the Animus during the action sequences. Those are things we've never seen in the games.

There is another easter egg for AC insiders that's easy to miss:

Yeah, I still don't get why the movie thinks that "Creed" is the actual Assassin group. Sure it sounds awesome when you don't think about it, but it still doesn't make any logical sense.

It seems to be a common misconception that "creed" is a synonym for "brotherhood" (which would make the title Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood extremely redundant). I once had some fun on a GameFaqs thread after two people in a row made this same mistake. Some highlights:

is assassins creed related at all to apollo creed?

I just watched the modern day descendant of Assassin Creed. Super good movie. I hope him and Fassbender's character meet up in the sequel.

Is Assassin's Creed's blade attached to his hand?

hey guys, metaphors are a thing that exists

theaters or redbox for this one?

If there was a middle ground, I'd choose that.

What's the middle ground between going in theaters and renting? pirating?

I mean, it's still enjoyable as a fan. But it's not the greatest they could have done with the AC universe. I guess a middle ground would be a dollar theater if you're that hesitant about seeing it. That way you're not spending full price for a film you're already worried about.

Redbox would be your choice if you can wait longer.

He does indeed say it, I can confirm~

You can do what I did and put a hold on it at the library. That's right, I missed seeing it at theaters.

So anyway, lots of good ideas put in the movie, especially with how the Animus and bleeding effect worked.

Still haven't seen it.

Same. I've never been happy with a movie of a book I loved or a video game. I'll watch it when it hits HBO or inevitably Netflix or Amazon Prime. I can't bring myself to spend money to see it.

So I just watched the made for TV version of this movie. Finally. I liked a bit of it, but didn't like how the first hour or so went at all as far as the set up and pacing. It was fun though. I did like the emphasis of the "present day using the past as a tool" aspect of the movie relative to most of the recent games that see present day as an inconvenience.