Let’s Talk About The “Assassin’s Creed” Trailer

Guys, is this the first video game movie that might actually be good? (Sorry Super Mario Bros. and Doom). It looks like it could break the curse. Maybe this summer’s Warcraft will, but I kinda doubt it.

Assassin’s Creed is based on the video game series of the same name. In it you play as two characters, one in a near future, and one in the distant past. Your future self is hooked into a machine called the Animus. Through the machine you are able to live out (read: play the game as) the inherent memories of your ancestor, who just so happened to be part of the Assassins Guild. Obviously. The Assassins are locked in a centuries long war with the Templar Knights, and this war rages on through modern times and has incorporated a group called Abstergo Industries. But, using your Assassin skills and parkour (no, seriously) you protect the world from an alien threat. Wait… what? Oh yeah, there is also some sort of weird back story about alien artifacts and stuff. It’s really confusing.

There are some great installments of the series, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is a swashbuckling pirate themed version. And then there are some real clunkers, Assassin’s Creed: Unity I’m looking in your direction. Let’s hope this flick falls closer to the former than the later. So without further ado, let’s talk about the Assassin’s Creed trailer.

  • I won’t lie it’s weird to see the Ubisoft logo up there with 20th Century Fox and Regency.
  • We open on a shot of Spain? presumably, then cut to Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) lying in what looks like the Animus from the game.
  • He asks Sophia Rikkin (Marion Cotillard) where he is, she tells Lynch that he’s been executed and is dead. Um, no he isn’t. 
  • She also tells Lynch he no longer exists, I assume making him question a lot of things about himself but also the perfect candidate for Ancestral Assassin Training.
  • Lynch asks what kind of prison this is, as he sort of stumbles through an atrium with other people dressed as he is.
  • We see the Abstergo Industries logo as Lynch is told he’s not in a prison, he’s about to enter the Animus. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive though.
  • Jeremy Irons‘ Alan Rikkin is seen looking down over Sophia and Lynch as she explains that Animus will allow him to see and feel the memories of his ancestor who has been dead for 500 years.
  • It appears as though Lynch is being fitted with the Assassin’s prefered weapon the hidden blades. This seems like a bad idea, if they are giving these weapons to a guy who thinks he’s being held captive.
  • Lynch asks what Abstergo wants from him.
  • Then we stray pretty far from the video game roots. In the games the Animus is just like a bed with a weird visor. Here it’s a crazy mechanical arm that whips Lynch around the room.
  • We enter Lynch’s past and are welcomed to the Spanish Inquisition.
  • Though the Animus may have strayed from the video games, the landscaping didn’t and we get a shot of a tower with an eagle flying around it that looks ripped right from the game.
  • Ugh, Kanye West. You may have lost me here trailer.
  • Lynch’s ancestor Aguilar turns to face the camera. In the past we’ll be following his story.
  • We get a huge battle scene as faceless warriors, uh, face off.
  • Next we see a group of seven Assassins. It focuses on one of them which I think is Ariane Labed‘s Maria. 
  • It looks as though Aguilar is captured at one point. He must have failed one of his pickpocketing missions. (The seven of you that have played these games are chuckling to yourselves right now.)
  • We get some rooftop fighting, also very reminiscent of the game’s combat.
  • Then there’s a quick couple of shots of Aguilar doing his thing and if anything can be said about the imagery in this trailer is that it looks a hell of a lot like its source material.
  • There’s a quick shot in the action montage of some Abstergo guards walking down a hallway in the future timeline.
  • Running and jumping and flipping and posing.
  • Maria takes out a couple of Templars and gives a little smile. It’s nice to see that she enjoys her work.
  • More parkour fighting and then it looks like a shirtless Lynch fires an arrow at someone. You know, for the ladies.
  • Parkour!
  • Aguilar jumps  huge gap between buildings as he’s being chased. We see the Animus is sort of replicating these moves with Lynch in the future timeline.
  • Lynch says that they “Work in the dark, to serve the light. We are Assassins.” So they are murder machines, but you know for good.
  • Assassin’s Creed logo, which I’ll freely admit is cool looking logo.
  • Ugh still with the Kanye.
  • The trailer ends with Aguilar once again pulling straight from the game and diving off one of the towers presumably into a hay cart. It looks really cool even if it doesn’t make any sense.

And there we have it, a pretty damn good trailer for what we hope is going to be a pretty damn good movie. I’m in, let’s break that video game movie curse.

Assassin’s Creed opens everywhere on December, 21st.

From Hollywood,

-Loren

 

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