It’s really not much of a secret that movies based on videogames aren’t very good, but Ubisoft reckons Assassin’s Creed will be the first to break the curse.
It’s a bold claim, but personally I’m more than ready to see someone put an end to years of mediocrity. The less said about Super Mario Bros and Resident Evil the better. Even Ratchet & Clank turned out be pretty average, and I had high hopes for that one.
Ubisoft’s Azaizi Aymar, who is the head of content for the Assassin’s Creed brand, took to Twitter to respond to a suggestion that movies based on videogames will never work.
Aymar doesn’t see it that way. Maybe it’s because he’s head of content for the Assassin’s Creed brand and they have a movie to promote, or maybe he genuinely believes what he’s saying. Either way, he makes a decent point.
He’s not wrong – comic book films have hardly always been the blockbuster mega hits they are these days thanks to Marvel’s increasingly sizeable stable of films.
One day I’m sure the mainstream appeal will wear off for comic book adaptations, but the point remains that the videogame/movie industry just needs one film to smash it and knock down the door for everyone else.
It needs something that can have the same mainstream impact as Iron Man or The Dark Knight – could Assassin’s Creed be that film?
It’s certainly got the star power to do it. Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Marion Cotillard are just a few of the huge (and well respected) names that appear in the upcoming film.
It’s directed by Justin Kurzel, who also directed Fassbender and Cotillard in Macbeth, and that film was very well received.
Ubisoft has even established an internal film division, Ubisoft Motion Pictures, to develop films with Hollywood production companies.
They were apparently heavily involved with the production of Assassin’s Creed to ensure it stayed true to the franchise, so that has to be a good sign. You only need to look at Marvel (again) to see that starting up your own production company to have a closer hand in your characters can only lead to good things.
Everyone certainly seems to have faith in it anyway, since it seems sequels are already pretty much confirmed.
Assassin’s Creed will come to cinemas December 21, and you can check out the pre-order bonuses for the movie right now. Yeah, seriously.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.