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Assassin’s Creed

Justin Kurzel's third effort takes on a video game franchise with ample style, but with largely absent stakes and investment.
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It was a phrase that leapt from the pen of a great playwright to the lips of one of his most conflicted characters: “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Only the second of Australian director Justin Kurzel’s first two features uttered the statement outright, as is expected in a film adaptation of the Scottish play; however William Shakespeare’s famous words were also pertinent to its predecessor. In both real-life serial killer thriller Snowtown and the historically inspired Macbeth, the filmmaker wielded every aesthetic tool in his arsenal to paint pictures of pain and power that, to their players though not to the watching audience, ultimately amounted to little.

When the Bard’s observation springs to mind again in response to Assassin’s Creed, another outcome eventuates. Once more, Kurzel’s favoured stylistic flourishes infuse his third effort with volume and anger, though this time, their futility echoes not through the thoughts and actions of the film’s protagonists, but through the movie as a whole. Based on the video game franchise of the same name, Assassin’s Creed is improved by its grey sheen, sinewy action and solemn tone, but that bleak look, burly movement and brooding feel can’t furnish the film with depth. With emotion missing, it becomes a feature that’s robust in its packaging yet empty underneath, to paraphrase Shakespeare and his Scottish general.

Violent tussles, treachery and duplicity, and quests for supremacy also remain relevant recurrent concerns as Assassin’s Creed gets underway. The returning Macbeth team of Kurzel, leads Michael Fassbender (Trespass Against Us) and Marion Cotillard (Allied), screenwriter Michael Lesslie, composer Jed Kurzel (Una) and cinematographer Adam Arkapaw (The Light Between Oceans) stretch their new tale across five centuries as they follow 2016’s condemned criminal Callum Lynch (Fassbender) and his ancestor from 1492, secret assassin Aguilar de Nerha (also Fassbender). The former is given a clandestine last-minute stay of execution by Abstergo Foundation scientist Sofia Rikkin (Cotillard), but with a caveat. He must now participate in the Animus Project; specifically, he must climb into a contraption that will allow him to relive Aguilar’s memories, in the hope of helping Sofia and her CEO father (Jeremy Irons, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) locate the key to humanity’s free will.

Watching Cal control Aguilar is the main thrust of the film — and, by literally viewing just that in present-day scenes of him strapped to the machine, as well as seeing his virtual endeavours in the 15th century, recreating the experience of playing a video game is as well. Alas, like Kurzel’s gloomy mood and visuals, that aim isn’t sustained by the story. While purportedly complicating elements exist — including other conscripted Animus assistants floating around the industrial-looking Abstergo compound (such as Triple 9’s Michael Kenneth Williams); animosity between the Rikkins, and between the patriarch and his superior (Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years); and Cal’s family background (featuring Brendan Gleeson, Fassbender’s Trespass Against Us co-star) — stakes, investment and involvement are largely absent.

Still, while there’s little success in the movie that results, there’s ample assurance in every swooping shot and terse exchange, even if the former fares much better than the latter. An actor’s showcase, Assassin’s Creed is not, despite its cast — but, as narrative chaos reigns, a muted Fassbender gives his multiple characters presence if not complexity. Sometimes though not often, that and Kurzel’s devotion to his now-trademark style are enough to retain a glimmer of interest. Sadly, while the feature itself may be predicated upon history repeating itself, the same doesn’t prove true for its star and helmer; instead, though they continue to strut, their second collaboration is but a shadow.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Assassin’s Creed
Director: Justin Kurzel
UK | France | Hong Kong | USA, 2016, 115 mins

Release date: January 1
Distributor: Fox
Rated: M

Sarah Ward
About the Author
Sarah Ward is a freelance film critic, arts and culture writer, and film festival organiser. She is the Australia-based critic for Screen International, a film reviewer and writer for ArtsHub, the weekend editor and a senior writer for Concrete Playground, a writer for the Goethe-Institut Australien’s Kino in Oz, and a contributor to SBS, SBS Movies and Flicks Australia. Her work has been published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Junkee, FilmInk, Birth.Movies.Death, Lumina, Senses of Cinema, Broadsheet, Televised Revolution, Metro Magazine, Screen Education and the World Film Locations book series. She is also the editor of Trespass Magazine, a film and TV critic for ABC radio Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, and has worked with the Brisbane International Film Festival, Queensland Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival. Follow her on Twitter: @swardplay