Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed is the latest film to try and fill the gaping void marked 'good video-game adaptation.' So many big hitters have tried and failed with last year's Warcraft the latest casualty.

It's a shame to say that AC is also wide of the mark, but more clipping the post than shooting into row Z. A brilliant core trio at the heart of the movie (Director Justin Kurzel and stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard who all worked on 2015's Macbeth adaptation) can't save it from mediocrity.

We're, bizarrely, focusing on the same plot as the first three games in the franchise but with all new characters so we have a race between the titular Assassins and the Templars to find the mythical Apple of Eden which will grant the user the ability to affect free-will (it's not massively clear how this will work but for the fact that the Templars want to eradicate violence in the world.)

Fassbender's Callum (Cal) Lynch takes the Desmond role morphing into Aguilar (but basically Ezio or Altair) through the Animus machine; able to take someone from the modern day into the 'memories' of their ancestors. Whilst a fantastic game premise it doesn't quite work as a film. The fact that it's clear these are 'memories' takes the thrill out of the action. It feels, stupidly enough, like you're watching someone playing the games.

The past-set scenes are very tasty though it must be said. Brilliant free-running action with the customary game nods (swan dive, hay barrel, first person shooting) but they're all over far too quickly and we spend too much time with the awfully clunky plot in the present day.

Going from Shakespearean language to the horror show of this film is, frankly, embarrassing for Kurzel. Characters change their mind about their stance on things constantly and nothing really rings true. Even the brilliant Jeremy Irons, who should be perfect as the villain of the piece, can't save things and the less said about the other captured assassins the better.

I'm told by a hardcore fan of the series that this is a lukewarm but satisfying version but for a non-faithful it's a bit of a shocker. As much as I love the actors and premise it doesn't deliver. Shock horror, but it may even be below the much-maligned Tomb Raider in the video-game movie stakes.

2 stars **