Siraj Syed reviews Assassin’s Creed: As a sin’s breed

Where do we begin? In 2016 (technically, in most places), when the game has notched up more than 100 million copies in sales, and the film franchise has leapt from centimetre screens to metric rectangles? Or, in 2007, when, in less than four weeks, Assassin’s Creed recorded more than two-and-a-half million units in worldwide sales?

How about going back a little farther, to 1986, when the five Guillemot brothers created Ubisoft Entertainment S.A, an educational software and video game publishing and distribution company? How’s 1492 for a backwards leap of faith, in the time of Chris(topher) Columbus? Yes, the same guy who’s credited with discovering America? Sounds good, but you still have an option to push back into 1091.

Gamers are already game. Non-gamers will start by wondering how assassins can be heroes, and their creed be one of honour and faith? But let’s stick to the film, and begin with a violent a man named Lynch, Callum Lynch, to be precise, the symbolic of his antecedents, not profession.

Convicted of killing a pimp, criminal Callum Lynch is rescued from his own execution by Abstergo (Latin for I clean/cleanse/wipe-off) Industries, the modern-day incarnation of the Templar Order, and learns that they are searching for the Apple of Eden, which seeded the first sin. Ostensibly, the objective is to rid mankind of sin, but in reality, they plan to subjugate the human race, by eliminating religious and all other forms of dissent, and of free will.

Scientist Dr. Sophia Rikkin, who is heading the project, reveals that Callum has been chosen since he is a descendant of Aguilar de Nerha, a member of a secret order of assassins that, for centuries, have opposed the Templar Order, and conscripts him to the Animus Project, operating from an ancient, gigantic building in Madrid, in which Callum is connected to a machine that allows him to revive Aguilar's memories, so Abstergo can the current whereabouts of the Apple of Eden.

In Spain, 1492, Aguilar and his partner Maria are deployed to rescue Prince Ahmed de Granada, who has been kidnapped by the leader of the Templars, Tomas de Torquemada, to coerce Prince Ahmed's father, Sultan Muhammad XII, to surrender the Apple of Eden, which is currently in his possession. Aguilar and Maria intercept the chariot transporting Ahmed, but are then ambushed and captured by Torquemada's enforcer, the hulk, Ojeda, just as Callum is pulled out of the Animus by Sophia.

In captivity, Callum befriends other descendants of assassins, led by Moussa, and begins experiencing hallucinations of both Aguilar and his own father, Joseph Lynch, who ‘murdered’ Callum's mother, while in assassin attire. Callum and Sophia build a rapport over their sessions, in which Sophia reveals herself as the daughter of Abstergo's CEO, Alan Rikkin, and confides with Callum that her mother was likewise murdered by an assassin. Back in the Animus, Aguilar and Maria are scheduled for execution, but Aguilar manages to free himself, and Maria, leading to a roof-top chase, in which they perform a Leap of Faith, and manage to escape.

That chase and its culmination in a Leap of Faith mark highest points in the screenplay by Michael Lesslie (Harrovian Oxford graduate; was 23 when the game was launched; wrote Macbeth and other plays), Adam Cooper & Bill Collage (Exodus: Gods and Kings, The General, The Transporter Refueled), which is based on Assassin's Creed, by Ubisoft. Cutting edge sci-fi transports Callum where eagles dare, and long, expansive tracking shots details battle-after-battle between the Templars’ royal warriors, their expansionist priest and their armed-to-the-teeth crusaders, versus the ‘heathen’ Sultan Mohammed’s out-gunned troops, propped-up by the blast from the future, Callum as Aguilar.

Most of the dialogue is devoid of inspiration and serves a purely utilitarian purpose. Memorable phrases can be counted on your finger-tips. And the ultimate manifestation of commitment to a cause, embodied in the phrase, “Leap of faith”, is so literally transposed against a real life leap of 38m/125ft, performed by Fassbender’s stunt-double, Damien Walters, that it comes across as a poor pun. After a well-crafted prologue, the unpeeling of various layers of Abstergo and the paper cut-out figures of Rikkin and Sofia are far less credible, even when they get into confrontation mode.

Recurring ding-dong pendulum (it’s actually a crane from which Callum is suspended) swings between the ‘real’ simulated in mid-air battles, in the present, and the host of hordes and horses that shower weapons and gallop non-stop, in 1492, are such an obvious time-buying tactic that it stares you in the face. Plot points are unimaginative and too predictable to hold interest. Various phases in the transformation of Callum ought to have panned out as a cat and mouse game. Instead, his mental make-up and motivation, both key to the plot, are both fuzzy and nebulous.

Justin Kurzel (Australian; Snowtown, The Turning, Macbeth-team of lead pair and director repeated) appears to believe that the game loyalists would not care for detailing in the narrative, so long as there is minute detailing in the sets, the technology and the grand canvas. What’s wrong with giving them both? Spectacle is plentiful, the action is barrelful.

There is so much running, horse-carts dashing across, flying, leaping across roof-tops, and even a helicopter to round it off that all fist-fights and small arm combats fail to hold your attention. When they are not Ben Hur, they are any old cowboy caper, when they are not 300, they are the recent Middle East war chronicles. Perhaps the characters of the two Rikkins, their right-hand man, the priest, several inmates of Abstergo’s Guantanamo Bay-like facility, and the Templar Excellency (Queen?) were thinly conceived—as director, Kurzel would still be responsible for making them three dimensional.  

Michael Fassbender (going on 40; 300, Inglourious Basterds, X-Men) gets to be human in just two or three scenes, where he is given dialogue that is in keeping with his violent robotic persona. That’s not hero stuff, for sure. Marion Cotillard as Sophia Rikkin (The Dark Knight Rises, The Immigrant, Macbeth) is crisp Brit and glistening eyes. But you cannot decide whether there is humanity in her, or only Animus. What’s more, it seems she cannot decide either. Jeremy Irons (67; Reversal of Fortunes, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Batman v/s Superman: Dawn of Justice) is over-confident and chooses under-acting as a tool, in a film that is over-the-(roof)top. (The character previously appeared in the first Assassin's Creed game).

Brendan Gleeson (Into the Storm, Calvary, The Guard, Harry Potter, Safe House) is cast as Joseph Lynch, Callum Lynch's father. Brian Gleeson portrays Young Joseph Lynch. Brendan has a highly expressive face and large build, which make it easy for any producer to give him strong-silent type parts. Charlotte Rampling (70; The Damned, Night Porter, Swimming Pool) is wasted as the Excellency, with merely two scenes of glib talking to be part of.

Michael K. Williams (12 Years a Slave, Robocop, Ghostbusters) as Moussa and Baptiste. (Baptiste previously appeared in Assassin's Creed: Liberation) is another incomplete character and even the truth he reveals about himself sounds phoney. Ariane Labed, 32, of Greek-French lineage, portrays Maria, an assassin in 15th century Spain, working with Aguilar, matching Aguilar jump for jump, bravado for bravado. Matias Varela appears as both Emir, and his ancestor, Yusuf. Michelle Lin portrays Lin, a descendant of an assassin, and another test subject at Abstergo, while James Sobol Kelly appears as Father Raymond, a priest. Denis Ménochet appears as McGowen, the head of Abstergo security, looking the part but stereo-typed to a fault.

Justin’s brother Danyel Kurzel, singer-songwriter-guitarist and film composer, a founding member of the Mess Hall (from 2001), a blues rock duo, scores the music. There’s a lot of it, in disparate styles, but wholly in tune.

Unfolding at a frenetic pace, Assassin’s Creed is about Templars’ Greed and going back in time to fight battles from within the bodies of historical figures—they did not do it, we did it for them. Is that a creed or plain greed?

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haJD6W136c

A question that has plagues the Indian patriotic and historic psyche for over 150years: How did the Koh-i-Noor diamond end up in the Queen of England’s treasury? Assassin’s Creed has already picked-up the dazzling light from this stone and turned it into a Game. It is called Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India. Set in Amritsar, 1841, during the British rule of India, its player is Master Templar Arbaaz Mir, who comes to steal Koh-i-Noor. On the way, he gets romantically entangled in diamond of the human kind, the Maharaja’s niece, Princess Pyara Kaur. (Yes, Pyara is an odd name for a woman).