Assassin's Creed - Trailer #2
I'll say it. The "leap of faith" is a stupid concept that works as a game mechanic, but makes little to no sense when it comes to story. For the uninitiated, the "leap of faith" is a maneuver that you can pull off in the Assassin's Creed video games whereby you escape the people chasing you by jumping from the top of specified points on tall buildings into a cart full of hay on the ground. Miraculously, you emerge unscathed with the added bonus of having lost the guards on your tail. The move is beautifully rendered, iconic, and, unfortunately, silly as hell if you stop to think about it for longer than a second. The fact that it is featured at all in this trailer, let alone as the climactic crescendo at the end, is disheartening.
I'm seriously bummed. This trailer should have me pumped for this movie. I love the game. I think Michael Fassbender is one of the most talented actors of his age group. Director Justin Kurzel showed promise with his beautifully shot MacBeth adaptation, even if that film missed the mark a bit. There are so many things that they are doing right, that I don't want to believe that knot in my stomach.
For every bit that I like, there is something a little off that makes me nervous. Fassbender looks badass, but why did they have to put tattoos on his face. They look cool, but aren't these assassins supposed to be able to masterfully blend into crowds? That's going to be much harder once the authorities figure out they can just look out for people with easily recognizable facial marks. The rooftop parkour, another signature of the game, looks mostly great, if it weren't for the few spots where the wire work is painfully obvious. Similarly, the past looks suitably dusty and gritty, and the modern scenes feel sleek and sterile, but a few of the action sequences have a weird CGI green-screen sheen that makes this $200 million movie look unacceptably cheap.
Add all that to the stilted dialogue, dated interstitial text, and an over-complicated mythology that might drive away non-gamers, and this smells a bit like another Warcraft-sized misfire. It's really a shame. This could've been so good.
Take a look!
