While we await its release at the end of this year, the hype surrounding the cinema adaptation of one of the world’s most loved video games seems to be growing… but will ‘Assassin’s Creed’ surpass its predecessors in the game-to-movie genre and be a hit with the critics?
The likes of Super Mario Bros., Tomb Raider and Doom prove that the idea is nothing new, but the rising popularity of making a popular video game into a film has been growing in popularity in recent years, sometimes to major success when it comes to the initial box office receipts but failing miserably when it comes to the critics’ reviews. There was plenty of hope when everybody’s favourite app Angry Birds hit the big screens, hoping it would hit a massive demographic, but similarly to the recent Warcraft (an adaptation of the RPG World of Warcraft), any success at the box office (it shattered records in China, considerably less so elsewhere) was not replicated by the critics. The films scoring only 43 and 29 out of 100 respectively on review-site Rotten Tomatoes.
Tent-pole releases based on familiar templates are risky. In 2014 director Scott Waugh attracted the much loved Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul to play the leading in role in the Need for Speed film, which would fare even worse and was criticised for being too much like the Fast and Furious franchise.
So what DO the critics need to see when Assassin’s Creed is released at the end of December, and will the fictional history action-adventure experience fulfill gamers’ and mainstream audience expectations?
What do we know so far? The film is set to feature X-Men star Michael Fassbender playing the lead role as assassin Callum Lynch, alongside Inception actress Marion Cotillard. They head a strong cast that will be directed by the man who paired the two together in the 2015 remake of Macbeth, Justin Kurzel. The central premise of the film seems to be staying true enough to the games’ saga and therefore remaining equally true to the people who love the franchise and have made it what it is today – a record-breaking franchise. That being said, it appears there will be be no previous knowledge of the game needed to watch the movie, so for people less familiar with the title may be able to appreciate it as it is a stand-alone film.
There is one big difference between the Assassin’s Creed games and the likes of Angry Birds – and one which makes it so much more fitting to the cinema. The impressive and consistent story lines within the gaming structure already make it feel you are watching a film – ‘cut’ scenes throughout all of the games. There was always a question mark over whether the creators could really get much out of the more abstract and cartoonish Angry Birds when it came to the story, and even with Need for Speed there was never much ‘connective-tissue’ story.
So will Assassin’s Creed be a hit with the critics? We will find out in December, but the signs are looking far more promising than many other examples…
