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"Assassin's Creed" is a movie based on a game franchise where you jump around in period dress (the setting depends on which game you're playing) climb buildings and murder people. Unlike the actual video game, "Assassin's Creed" isn't ridiculous and fun, but rather ridiculous and turgid. This is the fundamental disconnect that most video games (except maybe "Mortal Kombat," "Super Mario Brothers: The Movie" and "Street Fighter") run into: there's no way to translate the hands-on action of a video game to the silver screen, so many video game adaptations either have no plot, or get bogged down in blase set-up. 

Still, why is there so much pensive info-dump talk-talk-talk in "Assassin's Creed" about the modern-day Knights Templar, and their quest to eradicate global violence using an elaborate virtual reality work program—and yet nothing beyond the basic premise makes sense? Who choreographed these dull, repetitive fight scenes? And why are supporting cast members like Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling skulking listlessly in the corner while poor Michael K. Williams eagerly awaits a good line or two? (He never gets one.) If anybody had a spark of inspiration when they made "Assassin's Creed," it certainly doesn't show.

There's a prisoner named Cal Lynch ( Michael Fassbender ) and he lives in the not-too-distant future. He's sentenced to death and then abducted by a shadowy group (The Templars) that want Cal because of his, uh, DNA. Hang on, let me go back a step: The Templars have a virtual reality machine called the Animus, and it sends people back in time so that they can see the world through their ancestors' eyes. This information is useful to the Templars because apparently they need information to find the location of the Apple of Eden, a device (not a fruit) that can be used to eliminate human free will. Also, Cal's ancestor is a member of a counter-revolutionary group called the Assassin's Creed, a group of killers who opposed the Templars' dogmatic quest to dominate the world by hiding the Apple from th ...

Long story short: Cal's got information that the Templars need and is apparently too dumb to smell a set-up when he sees it. The same is true of Sofia ( Marion Cotillard ), Cal's handler, and the daughter of Templar leader Rikkin (Jeremy Irons). Cal's got daddy issues, and this drives him to help the Templars for a spell. Also, apparently the machine gives him the magical ability to learn the martial arts skills that his ancestor Aguilar inherited (this is explained better in the video games, but not much better).

So: some guy time-travels, learns kung fu, tries to destroy human free will because he's angsty, and then inevitably rebels against the church people who hire him. I say "some guy" because nothing really feels important in "Assassin's Creed" except everyone's vain attempts at making endless (and fundamentally silly) exposition be taken seriously. So many conversations feel interminable because solemnity takes priority over dynamic storytelling. Characters talk in hushed whispers about the hyper-convoluted methods they use to realize their poorly-hidden agendas. 

And the viewer, in the meantime, constantly stays ahead of the characters because nobody is smart or thoughtful enough to be thinking: "Hey, maybe I'm being manipulated by a shadowy organization run by people who want to eradicate free will." Or, "Hmmm, maybe I should help a group of people find something as important-sounding as the Apple of Eden." These characters don't seem real because all they do is dispense narrative information, and move the plot along by inches. Oh, they also occasionally fight, but never in a compelling way. The camera thankfully does not skimp on action in these scenes, but the drab, schematic choreography makes you wish they did.

Still, there is one scene where the filmmakers hint at why they wanted to make "Assassin's Creed" into a movie: Cal is shown a room where non-compliant Animus test subjects are prematurely aged and/or go blind (this is also poorly explained in the movie). Suddenly, the film makes more sense: Is this a " Zardoz " homage? "Zardoz" is a campy, visionary 1974 science-fiction film where Sean Connery plays a rebellious brute who tries to destroy the Tabernacle, a futuristic repository for all of of humanity's culture. The "Zardoz" connection is strong in this scene since it features a menagerie full of "Renegades," non-compliant misfits who simply asked too many questions. For a moment, "Assassin's Creed" looks like it's about to get interesting. That moment does not last, however, since the filmmakers are more concerned with storytelling mechanics than in the story they're telling. Gamers may enjoy "Assassin's Creed," but everyone else's patience will be tested.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Assassin's Creed (2016)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, thematic elements and brief strong language.

115 minutes

Michael Fassbender as Callum Lynch / Aguilar

Marion Cotillard as Dr. Sophia Rikkin

Michael Kenneth Williams as Moussa

Brendan Gleeson as Joseph

Jeremy Irons as Alan Rikkin

Ariane Labed as Maria

Callum Turner as Nathan

Denis Ménochet as Abstergo Güvenlik Müdürü

Matias Varela as Emir

Brian Gleeson as Young Joseph

• Justin Kurzel
• Adam Cooper
• Bill Collage
• Michael Lesslie

Cinematographer

• Adam Arkapaw
• Christopher Tellefsen

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Assassin's Creed film review

Originally published last month for its initial US release, here's our review of the Assassin's Creed film - which is now showing in the UK.

Like his shiny set of Assassin blades, Michael Fassbender dual-wields the main roles in Assassin's Creed - those of present day thug Callum Lynch and Spanish Inquisition ancestor Aguilar. It means Fassbender is always the film's focus, the sharp end of its blade designed to ensure Ubisoft's biggest gaming series penetrates ever further into the public consciousness. But what a mess he's forced to make to try and get its point across.

Fans of the series should expect a whirlwind tour of the Assassin's Creed greatest hits - splendidly reconstructed historical settings, wall-running and roof-jumping fisticuffs, philosophical meanderings over a shiny Apple of Eden McGuffin - but all of the games' poorer traits make the leap to the big screen, too: weak characterisation, humourless exposition, and a story which exists simply to string one punch-up to the next.

The film's highlights are easily found in its lavish historical scenes, its soaring city-spanning camera pans overlooking the dusty streets and polished palaces of Spanish Inquisition-era Andalucia. Fassbender's introduction as Aguilar bubbles with promise, and the elaborate chase and fight sequences which follow are pure video game on a Hollywood budget. And yet the majority of the film is spent away from these excursions into the past, trapped with Aguilar's descendant in a corporate basement.

Assassin's Creed's modern day story stars Lynch - Cal to his friends - a man with a tragic family backstory who is spirited away by the mysterious Abstergo corporation so it can probe his DNA. Fans of the series will more than recognise the setup. Confusing the matter is Lynch's more recent past - he's a murderer, sentenced to death by lethal injection before Abstergo intervened. We're never told the proper context for his crime or given any further detail to his character - save for a glimpse of himself as an innocent, rosy-cheeked child, having the not-so-cheery life of your standard Assassin's Creed protagonist.

The decision to cast the film's main character as a criminal, as opposed to the game series' modern day stalwart Desmond who was largely left a blank slate, ends up a bold choice without any pay off. Lynch's unlikability adds a degree of mystery to the film's opening hour as the audience is asked to care whether Fassbender's grunting poster child for anger management classes will eventually turn out good. There's also a similar, more familiar question mark over the film's two factions - the Assassins, who hold a dark role in Lynch's childhood, and Abstergo, who hold him physically now - even though anyone with any knowledge of the game series will know the latter's true intent (not to mention it has Jeremy Irons as its British-accented boss).

But Lynch's character is never believably developed, and throughout he remains no better sketched than most video game protagonists, Assassin's Creed or otherwise - even as Abstergo's ultimate ambitions are revealed and his fellow detainees make their move. His cellmates - others whose ancestry is of interest to Abstergo - are sadly wasted. Michael K. Williams brings a much-needed warmth to the film in the handful of scenes he appears, and also acts as one of the few references to Ubisoft's game series hidden for fans (his mention of an ancestor trained in voodoo is a nod to Assassin's Creed: Liberation's Baptiste). There's surprisingly little fan-service elsewhere, save for a few quick shots of some familiar weapons, which suggest fellow prisoner Lin is linked to Assassin's Creed: Embers' Shao Jun.

Despite the money spent on acting talent (Marion Cotillard as Jeremy Irons' tight-lipped protege, a mournful Brendan Gleeson and a suitably starched Charlotte Rampling) neither of the latter two are given the screen time to make an impact, while Cotillard suffers through some of the film's worst exposition-filled scenes. The film's plot smartly skips around some of the game series' more out-there concepts (its Precursor race gets only the most fleeting of mentions), although its attempts at philosophical debate are shrugged off as soon as the next punch is thrown.

Then again, some concepts do benefit from the change of medium, such as the Animus' creepy Bleeding Effect. The film's biggest innovation is its ability to show Fassbender's simultaneous movements as both Aguilar and Lynch while hooked up to the Animus - now a huge crane-mounted VR machine with a Matrix-style neck plug. The physical strains of the process are clear - and it also gives the audience plenty of time to watch a topless Fassbender thrown around the room.

Assassin's Creed is known for its pulpy sci-fi window into the past, but the film's retread of familiar plot points with no room for more character development or any greater depth ends up feeling like a missed opportunity - even if its visuals and action sequences are easy on the eye. I went in wanting to like it, unlike the snickering film journalists sat beside me, but left with little to recommend. It reminds me somewhat of the first Assassin's Creed game - repetitive, stuffy, yet with a glimmer of promise. If the film does get a sequel, Ubisoft should know how it can improve.

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‘Assassin’s Creed’ Review: Your Destiny is Bleak and Unmoving

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‘kingdom of the planet of the apes’ saves a struggling global box office as it passes major milestone, bradley cooper’s most underrated movie about artistic perfection deserves more credit.

You can have stunning visuals, promising source material and a fantastic ensemble, but all of that is going to cave under the pressure created by a complete lack of access to the characters. The big screen adaptation of Assassin’s Creed had a lot going for it and even finds a great deal of success on the technical front, but when you couldn’t care less if the characters live or die, the movie is dead in the water.

Michael Fassbender stars as Callum Lynch, a convict due to be executed who’s suddenly whisked off to a mystery facility owned by Abstergo Industries. There he meets Sofia Rikkin ( Marion Cotillard ), the daughter of the company CEO and the leader of the Animus project. The Animus is a contraption that allows Cal to tap into the genetic memories of his ancestor, Aguilar de Nerha, and travel back in time to experience the events that went down in 15th Century Spain when Aguilar attempts to stop the Templar Order from getting ahold of the Apple of Eden and using it to eradicate free will.

For those with little knowledge of the source material, like myself, that might sound complicated, but one thing Assassin’s Creed does quite well is acclimate you to the situation without relying on a dull, confusing first act exposition dump. The movie appropriately opens with a much-needed crawl that quickly dishes out the basics, allowing character behavior to fill in the rest. However, once you get beyond “Creed good, Templar bad, Apple important,” the Assassin’s Creed narrative is absolutely riddled with plot holes, particularly when it comes to character motivation.

Fassbender looks fantastic in the role and has absolutely no trouble selling both Cal and Aguilar as highly capable fighters, but there is no emotional access to Cal whatsoever. During one of our first encounters with our main man, he’s being executed for murder. The movie does make a very brief attempt at suggesting that Cal killed someone who might have deserved it, but that doesn’t get you any closer to actually rooting for him or understanding why he makes certain decisions. The closest the movie comes to humanizing Cal is in a single scene Fassbender shares with Brendan Gleeson .

Fortunately Fassbender has more luck in 1492 with Aguilar. Not only does the 15th Century action blow most of the fight sequences that take place in present day away, but in the past, Fassbender actually gets to have a compelling connection to one of the characters. There are a whole bunch of Assassins trying to protect the Apple, but Aguilar is mainly in the company of just one, Maria played by Ariane Labed . There’s no backstory or meaty conversations for the two. Everything you come to understand about how Maria and Aguilar feel about each other builds naturally from how they act in battle.

In the present however, it’s all talk. Cotillard does her best as Sofia, but sadly she doesn’t get all that much to do beyond stating how important her work is and how she cares for Cal. One can deduce it’s because she needs his connection to Aguilar, but there’s so little fire there that you can’t feel her passion or the urgency of her assignment. And the fact that the facility itself is extremely underdeveloped doesn’t help. If Animus is indeed Sofia’s life’s work, it would have been nice to get an understanding of how the device came to be and how it’s been used since it’s been operational, prior to Cal’s arrival. There are other “patients” in the facility, including Michael Kenneth Williams ’ character, but good luck keeping track of their names or figuring out their agendas.

From a technical perspective, Assassin’s Creed transitions from the present to the 15th Century rather smoothly and with a great deal of added momentum from Jed Kurzel ’s bombastic, percussion-heavy score, but the constant jumping back and forth significantly detracts from the present day material - one, because it means the facility gets less screen time and, two, because everything that happens in the 15th Century is monumentally more riveting.

Minus the material with Aguilar and Maria, Assassin’s Creed operates in cruise control. A similar sequence of events happens over and over again, and all you can do is just sit back and look at the pretty picture. And yes, Assassin’s Creed often does look fantastic, especially the costume design and the chase sequences that take place in the 15th Century. But all the riveting roof-top running and hand-to-hand combat in the world won’t make a movie worthwhile if you don’t give a damn about the characters.

• Marion Cotillard
• Michael Fassbender

Assassin's Creed: The Movie - Review

A leap of faith that doesn't quite land..

So far so good as we’re fast-tracked to the present day, and we meet an older Callum (Michael Fassbender), now trapped in the cool blue concrete walls of the mysterious Abstergo Foundation by Sophia Rikkin (Marion Cottilard) and her father Allan (Jeremy Irons). Using cutting edge VR tech called ‘the Animus’ -  a  staple for those familiar with the series - the pair want to access the 500 year-old memories of Callum’s ancestor Aguilar de Nerha, who could lead them to the location of the fabled apple through his adventures during the Spanish Inquisition. It’s nonsense, of course, but it’s nonsense sold very seriously by Fassbender and Cottilard, both fiercely committed to their roles.

Considering their thinly-sketched characters, however, their efforts are near herculean. Callum is a blank canvas whose default state is a blunt, impenetrable anger that occasionally slips into loopy “I’m losing my mind” melodrama. Fassbender keeps it mostly understated, but even he can’t save the unintentional hilarity when Callum decides to flip his lid and start singing at the top of his lungs in tired shorthand for ‘crazy’.

As a scientist with seemingly good intentions working within a morally murky company, Cottilard has a little more to sink her teeth into. She and the enigmatic Irons have the only interesting relationship in Assassin’s Creed, their subtle push and pull over power a playful change of pace from her one-note interactions with Callum, who bewilderingly accepts his predicament with very little question. It’s a shame then, that the rationale behind her po-faced quest to “cure violence” through the power of the apple is hastily explained, and ultimately never given enough weight to feel credible.

Elsewhere in the Foundation’s facility, Michael Kenneth Williams, Callum Turner and a handful of underutilised others are additional test subjects given nothing to play with bar muted hostility towards Callum, while Charlotte Rampling’s real gravitas as Allan Rikkin’s superior is undermined by the criminally short amount of time she spends on screen.

Character development may not be Assassins Creed’s strong suit, but Kurzel has done a superb job at lifting the giddy, vertical action from the games and applying it credibly to screen. He’s wisely discarded the Animus chair of the games and replaced it with a far more dynamic mechanical arm, allowing Fassbender to perform seriously impressive in-air gymnastics while in his virtual reality world, mirroring - and blending with - the action we see in 14th Century Spain.

The Spanish Inquisition sequences in Assassin's Creed are its strong suit. Aguilar (also played by Fassbender) has even less to say than Callum, but it doesn’t really matter when he’s leaping between dusty Spanish rooftops, running across ropes, and diving off Church spires. This is breathless, dizzyingly shot stuff that feels tapped directly into the vein of the game series.

The Verdict

As soon as it’s back to the grim monotony of Callum and co, however, any inkling of life dies. As Assassin’s Creed struggles towards its conclusion - and a nonsensical heel turn from a major character - one can’t help but feel disappointed in a film that got the style of the series so right, yet its heart so wrong.

Assassin's Creed: The Movie

Assassin's creed review.

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Review: ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Is Silly, Senseless and Possibly the Best Video Game Movie Ever Made

David ehrlich.

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History, which is foundational to the captivatingly bonkers story of Justin Kurzel ’s “Assassin’s Creed,” tells us that this should be a very bad movie. For one thing, this dense, dour, and oft-delayed holiday spectacle is based on a popular series of video games — a grim omen in a year that brought us the likes of “Warcraft” and “Ratchet & Clank.” For another, Kurzel’s moody adaptation is told on a massive scale, budgeted to compete with other franchise monstrosities like “Rogue One” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” — the familiar trouble with making a film like this is that it’s too expensive to afford any risks.

But “Assassin’s Creed,” in which Michael Fassbender ’s blank protagonist quite literally repeats history, refuses to be defined by the past. On the contrary, this bizarre, borderline incoherent action movie becomes the most interesting blockbuster of 2016 because of how defiantly it confronts the expectations of its heritage. As cold and weird as anything a major American studio has released since they started gearing all of their products for a Chinese audience — it borrows almost as much from “Under the Skin” as it does “The Matrix” — Kurzel’s film illustrates how free will can wiggle its way into the franchise system, how the messiness of bloodshed can be the only way to break free from the shackles of bloodlines.

The kind of movie that opens with a wall of dopey text about an ancient grudge and the violence it makes possible for our viewing pleasure (like “Star Wars,” but slightly ashamed of itself), “Assassin’s Creed” begins during the Spanish Inquisition, where a man named Aguilar de Nerha (Fassbender, enjoyably terse) leads a secret brotherhood of killers as they plot to protect a relic called “The Apple of Eden” from the rival Knights Templar. Cut to: 2016, where a career criminal named Callum Lynch (Fassbender again, this time with a snarl) is on death row in California for murdering a pimp. His execution goes as planned, except for the dying part; instead of being spirited away to oblivion, Callum wakes up in a Madrid research facility owned by Abstergo Industries, the present-day incarnation of the Templars.

READ MORE: Michael Fassbender Laments His Magneto Performance: “It’s Just Like Some Dude Shouting”

Okay, here’s where shit gets silly — just take a deep breath and we’ll all get through this together: Abstergo, a monolithic company run by Alan Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) and maintained by his daughter, Sophia ( Marion Cotillard ), has dedicated billions of dollars to a secret project where they abduct descendants of the Assassins and strap them to a machine called “the Animus,” which is sort of like a super intense VR version of ancestry.com . Using a glorified spinal tap to access the user’s genetic memory and then project it on a billow of fog, the giant contraption allows Abstergo to see the 15th century through the eyes of their captives’ great-great-great-great-great (etc.) grandparents.

Alan and Sophia keep a close eye on all of the playback, looking for any hint as to where the Apple — a magical device that represents “the seed of man’s first disobedience” and is endowed with the fascistic power to eliminate human agency — might now be hidden. By impaling Callum on the Animus, Abstergo can see through the eyes of Aguilar de Nerha, a man whose life apparently consisted of one frenetic action scene after another (mercifully, if inexplicably, the film’s nimble chase sequences aren’t from a first-person POV).

I could go on about Callum’s fellow prisoners, or his sordid relationship with his father (Brendan Gleeson), or how Charlotte Rampling somehow ends up as the film’s big bad (just be grateful and don’t ask questions), but it’s safe to assume that the “Assassin’s Creed” movie hasn’t forsaken the video games’ signature WTF factor. If anything, Kurzel has fully embraced it, the Australian director of grimly airless indie fare like “Snowtown” and “Macbeth” refusing to sacrifice a scrap of integrity for his characteristically bleak studio debut. In a production of this size, that obstinance comes off as willful strangeness — he drapes the film in a frigid gauze of gray so that light only pokes through in shafts, he frames throwaway scenes with the stillness of a renaissance painting, and he evens the whole film out with a haunting score by his brother Jed that sounds closer to Tim Hecker than it does Hans Zimmer.

Most refreshingly unexpected of all, he sets almost half of the film in Spanish even though the games provide a cheap rationale for why everyone is speaking English in 15th century Spain. The decision pays off brilliant dividends: Knowing that Fassbender is only so good at faking a fluency, Kurzel removes most of the dialogue from the flashback portions, focusing instead on all the leaping and stabbing and death from above. This adds a primal charge to the kinetically choreographed scenes in which Aguilar and Maria (an awesome fellow assassin played by “The Lobster” star Ariane Labed ) unleash hell on dozens of unsuspecting Templars, and compensates for the unnecessary frequency with which Kurzel cuts back to images of Callum flailing around in the Animus.

It would be overstating the case to suggest that any of this coheres into anything particularly meaningful (though it steals just enough from “The Matrix” to offer a more nuanced illustration of the battle between determinism and free will), but the film’s weird rhythm and strange energy add a compelling new veneer to a story that boils down to the typical hero’s journey. Each line of dialogue — and there aren’t many — might sound like it’s from a different movie, but all of those movies sound like a blast. Mileage will vary, and it’s mighty hard to trace any clear arc for Cotillard’s non-character, but there’s no dismissing a work of art in which Jeremy Irons turns to the camera and barks: “The history of the world is the history of violence.”

Few studio offerings of this scale so proudly express the violence of their creative process, so openly confront their genetic makeup in order to become something better than what was written for them. Declaring “Assassin’s Creed” to be the best video game movie ever made is the kind of backhanded compliment that sounds like hyperbole, but the description fits the bill on both counts. Regardless of what you call this peculiar, arrestingly uninviting nonsense, the fact of the matter is that it’s the only blockbuster of 2016 that left me desperate for a sequel.

“Assassin’s Creed” opens in theater on December 21.

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Assassin's Creed Movie True Story: Real Life History & Inspirations Explained

Every assassin's creed lead protagonist, ranked worst to best, 10 best movies about the last person alive.

• The Assassin's Creed movie series faced challenges with overcomplicated storylines and negative reviews overall.
• Actor Michael Fassbender was unaware that the film was based on a video game when he signed on to the project.
• Disney's acquisition of Fox led to the cancellation of planned sequels, leaving the potential for a successful reboot uncertain.

Assassin's Creed is based on the video game series of the same name, and 20th Century Fox planned for the 2016 movie to be the first of a long-running franchise, but it seems the Assassin's Creed 2 film will not happen. The first movie is set in the future and follows Cal (Michael Fassbender), who travels back in time to the 15th century to try and extract information from his ancestors. The character travels through time using genetic memories in his DNA, which is how he learns to become an expert fighter, killer, and free-runner.

There were a lot of mistakes with the Assassin's Creed movie , including overcomplicating the story, resulting in negative reviews and a low 18% Rotten Tomatoes score . The video game adaptation grossed $240 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo ), underperforming given the film's $125 million budget. However, that didn't stop 20th Century Fox from developing not one but two sequels (via Game Spot ). Producers even speculated about a Cold War setting for Assassin's Creed II . Unfortunately, while that idea had huge potential to be a massive improvement over the original movie, the Assassin's Creed 2 film never materialized.

Actor Michael Fassbender didn't know Assassin's Creed was a video game when he signed onto the film.

Assassin’s Creed portrays a variety of time periods and conflicts, however the 2016 film, and the assassins themselves, are based on real history.

Why The Assassin's Creed Movie Sequels Were Scrapped

Disney canceled the assassin's creed sequels after buying fox.

Despite 20th Century Fox's confidence in the Assassin's Creed franchise, even after the first movie's underwhelming box office performance, there wasn't much that could be done once Disney acquired Fox in 2019 . After the deal, Disney canceled dozens of Fox projects in development, two of which were the Assassin's Creed sequels .

There's no knowing how far along in development the Assassin's Creed 2 movie and the threequel were or even if they were in active planning at all, but they weren't officially canceled until the franchise was handed over to Disney. The studio likely thought that its resources would be better spent on a movie with more box office potential .

Disney Has Little Success With Video Game Movie Franchises

Past failures may have made disney hesitant to pursue another video game franchise.

It's hardly surprising that Disney had little interest in the property, as not only would the studio have deemed it pointless to invest $100 million in a movie that makes $200 million, but Disney has had no success with video game movies in the past. The House of Mouse produced Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , another swords-and-scandals movie based on a video game that also underperformed (via Box Office Mojo ). However, the studio's trouble with video game movies goes back decades , as Disney released the first blockbuster video game movie, 1993's much-maligned Super Mario Bros.

While 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a huge success, leading to a sequel , the 1993 Disney release was a box office bomb that the studio would rather forget. Disney's subsequent video game movies haven't helped erase the stigma, either, as both Need for Speed and the Prince of Persia movies were negatively received, too. In that respect, Disney canceling the Assassin's Creed 2 movie and the threequel might have been the best thing the studio could have done for the franchise.

An Assassin's Creed Sequel Or Reboot Could Work Now

A new approach to assassin's creed could fix the errors of the first movie.

Unfortunately, Disney hasn't spoken about the Assassin's Creed 2 movie since its cancelation in 2019. However, with a new approach, the franchise could be rebooted, and it could be much better received. The 2016 movie was criticized for being too slow, confusing, and outright boring. Given that the video game series is set in different periods in history and about a secret society of free-running killers, it's nigh-impossible to make a movie adaptation of the property that isn't fun and entertaining at the very least.

Video game movies have improved significantly over the past few years , which is evident given that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is in production, The Super Mario Bros. Movie made $1.3 billion, and even Uncharted was ultimately a successful popcorn flick. Though not much is known about the project, Netflix is developing an Assassin's Creed series , which could fix a lot of the movie's problems. However, a big-screen audience-pleasing reboot instead of the Assassin's Creed 2 film or Netflix series has so much more potential.

Assassin's Creed (2016)

Assassin's Creed is a 2016 action-adventure film directed by Justin Kurzel. Starring Michael Fassbender as Callum Lynch, the film follows Lynch as he relives the memories of his ancestor, Aguilar, through revolutionary technology. Set within a secret society of Assassins protecting free will against a powerful Templar organization seeking control, the narrative weaves through historical and contemporary settings, illuminating ancient conflicts. The film also stars Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons.

• Assassin's Creed (2016)

The 32 greatest movies that audiences hated (and critics loved)

Critics gave these movies flowers, while audiences threw tomatoes

Film critics and audiences famously don't agree on movies, if they ever do. But while there are movies that audiences love and critics hate, sometimes the opposite is true too. There are movies that critics couldn't get enough of but audiences outright hated.

It is popular belief that movies that critics and only critics love are esoteric indie films, usually those made with tiny budgets and come from far outside the Hollywood system. But believe it or not, that's not always the case. Whether they're made independently or come from the deep pockets of a major studio, sometimes a movie simply splits the room, with its artistry appealing more to critics than everyone else.

Here, we list 32 of the all-time greatest movies that apparently only critics dug and audiences actually hated. Scoop some popcorn and get ready to throw them, because some of these movies are either instant classics or belong in the dumpster, depending on who you talk to.

32. King Kong (2005)

The goodwill Peter Jackson accumulated from his acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy apparently wasn't enough for his 2005 epic, King Kong, to become a similar hit for moviegoers. Jackson's gorgeous and epic remake of the original classic from 1933 has just a 50% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to its more mighty 84% rating with critics. Though it's commonly believed that audiences prefer spectacles and critics favor artistic dramas, movies like King Kong smash those expectations to bits.

31. Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)

In Quentin Dupieux's chillaxing satirical homage to Japanese tokusatsu like Super Sentai (better known as Power Rangers for Americans), a group of intergalactic superheroes known as the Tobacco Force embark on a week-long retreat in order to fix some of their internal problems. While Smoking Causes Coughing delighted critics as yet another gonzo comedy from Dupieux - it has a colossal 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes - audiences were less inclined to vibe with its mighty morphin' strangeness, with an aggregate score of just 51%. 

30. Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Perhaps everyone's precious memories of reading Maurice Sendak's classic book meant most moviegoers couldn't be whisked away by Spike Jonze's film version. In 2009, the punk photographer turned Hollywood filmmaker delivered a gorgeous movie adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, itself a beautiful story about the limitless wonders of childhood imagination. Although critics enjoyed Jonze's movie, albeit questioning if it was actually for kids, audiences were less enthused. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 73% with critics versus a 57% with audiences.

29. Splash (1984)

In just his second movie as a leading man, Tom Hanks co-starred with Daryl Hannah in Splash, a fantasy rom-com about a young man who falls for a mermaid. While Splash made, ahem, a splash with critics in 1984, and has been retroactively listed as one of the best of the year by outlets like Entertainment Weekly, audiences are less interested in swimming along. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie enjoys a 91% rating with critics versus a more muddled 62% with audiences. While that's still technically a "fresh" rating, be honest: When was the last time you heard someone tell you that Splash was their favorite Tom Hanks movie?

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28. Mississippi Grind (2015)

From the filmmaking duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Mississippi Grind is a comedy drama about a deep-in-debt gambling addict (Ben Mendelsohn) who thinks that a new friend, played by Ryan Reynolds, is a living good luck charm. The two embark on a road trip to play a high-stakes poker game in New Orleans. While critics were won over by Mississippi Grind and its killer hand in Mendelsohn and Reynolds as a buddy pair, audiences folded. The movie has a 91% critics rating and a 55% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

27. She Dies Tomorrow (2020)

Eerily released during the COVID-19 pandemic, She Dies Tomorrow is a psychological horror about a woman (Kate Lyn Sheil) who believes that she will die after the next 24 hours - a belief that somehow spreads through the rest of her town. Although critics caught on to She Dies Tomorrow - Guardian's Peter Bradshaw wrote in praise of the film, celebrating it as an "eerie essay in creeping dread and collective hysteria" - audiences didn't test so positively. On Rotten Tomatoes, She Dies Tomorrow has an 84% critics score and a more anemic 24% with audience.

26. Meatballs (1979)

It was the movie that launched the careers of both Bill Murray and director Ivan Reitman. Yet somehow, audiences haven't taken to Meatballs like a plate of spaghetti. Set at a summer camp in Ontario, Bill Murray stars as the immature head counselor who tries to play matchmaker between two campers, as well as whip up his campers to defeat their rivals at Camp Mohawk in an upcoming competition. Despite the broad appeal of both Reitman and Murray, only critics have shown love for Meatballs. The movie maintains a 73% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, versus a "rotten" 57% score with audiences.

25. Spring Breakers (2012)

Spring breaker forever! Or not. Conceived by director Harmony Korine, who lamented that he spent all his youthful years skateboarding instead of partying, Spring Breakers follows four college girls (played by ex- Disney stars Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez as well as Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine) who venture down to Florida to party it up only to wind up in a life of crime. Spring Breakers enchanted critics who saw the movie's pointed satire about the American dream and the hedonism of youth, but audiences were seemingly disappointed that Spring Breakers was anything but a carefree getaway. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 68% critics' score and a 38% audience score.

24. Drinking Buddies (2013)

In this understated dramedy, Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson play coworkers at a Chicago craft brewery who desperately try to ignore their feelings for one another as they date other people. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics buzzed over Drinking Buddies, with 84% of critics writing favorably of Joe Swanberg's honest depiction of modern relationships. Praised New York Times' A.O. Scott: "[Drinking Buddies] captures the idioms of men and women who are equally inclined to waste words and to say very little. But the busy tedium of their lives is given shape and direction by the skill of the cast and by the precision of the director's eye, ear and editing instincts." On the other hand, audiences are less hoppy about Drinking Buddies, with only a 49% audience rating on RT.

23. Captain Marvel (2019)

In theory it's hard to even imagine it, but at least once, a Marvel movie was a bigger hit with critics than fans. In 2019, Marvel released the sci-fi period adventure Captain Marvel, with Brie Larson playing a former U.S. Air Force pilot turned intergalactic superhero with no memories of her life on Earth. Between Oscar-winner Larson's commanding performance and the movie's competent superhero origin storytelling with girl power enthusiasm, Captain Marvel delighted audiences enough, with a 79% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, the movie was the subject of "review bombing," with many audiences rating the movie negatively even without seeing it. (The controversy prompted Rotten Tomatoes to implement a verification system to ensure that audience reviewers actually see the movie before rating it.) After all these years, Captain Marvel still only has a 49% audience score on the platform.

22. War of the Worlds (2005)

Although H.G. Wells' classic sci-fi novel War of the Worlds has been adapted to the screen many times before, Steven Spielberg's version from 2005 remains singularly fantastic. It's tense and violent but stays propelled by its focused story about family and reconciliation. Tom Cruise stars as an estranged father who must reunite his kids with their mother during an alien invasion. Critics were taken by Spielberg's vision, with 75% of critics singing its praises on Rotten Tomatoes; it has since earned more retrospective praise, including recognition as one of the best movies of the 2000s by French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma in 2010. On the other hand, audiences were anything but abducted, with only a 42% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

21. It Comes At Night (2017)

In this minimalist psychological apocalyptic horror by filmmaker Trey Edward Shults, a family secludes themselves in a forest as civilization collapses from a contagious disease. Their peace is disrupted when another family seeks shelter, causing tensions about trust and community and how quickly such ideas can fall apart due to fear and paranoia. Critics were floored by It Comes at Night upon release, with 88% of critics rating it positively on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were less enthralled by the movie's ambiguity, however, with only a 44% audience score.

20. Eileen (2023)

From director William Oldroyd, Eileen adapts Ottessa Moshfegh's 2015 novel, about an aloof woman named Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie) who becomes captivated by the glamorous Dr. Rebecca St. John (Anne Hathaway), until Eileen discovers a dark secret. Critics praised Eileen as an engaging psychological thriller about obsession with the atmosphere of a handsome old school noir, as well as serving as a showcase of both McKenzie and Hataway. Although critics rated Eileen positively with an 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences were clearly left wanting more, with only 53% of them rating it favorably. 

19. Under the Skin (2013)

A year after Scarlett Johansson starred in The Avengers, she led Jonathan Glazer's elusive low budget sci-fi thriller Under the Skin, playing a beautiful space alien who preys on men in working-class Glasgow. Although Glazer's movie was a box office bomb, critics heaped praise on the movie, both for Glazer's mystifying vision and Johansson's hypnotic performance; in 2016, it was ranked one of the greatest movies of the 21st century by BBC. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie maintains a score of 84% with critics, but just 55% with audience reviewers. 

18. Ad Astra (2019)

From James Gray, Ad Astra stars a locked-in Brad Pitt as an astronaut who blasts off to space in search of his father, himself a space legend lost in his quest for intelligent life among the stars. Following in the tradition of emotional sci-fi epics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, and Interstellar, Ad Astra bedazzled critics who fell in love with its awe-inspiring visuals and realistic depiction of near-future space travel. Audiences, however, were left floating in zero gravity. On Rotten Tomatoes, Ad Astra is supported by 83% of surveyed critics, but only 40% of audience reviewers.

17. On the Rocks (2020)

While critics might agree that On the Rocks doesn't match up to previous movies by director Sofia Coppola - Lost in Translation casts a seriously long shadow - the movie still had critics enchanted when it hit Apple TV+ in the fall of 2020. Rashida Jones and Bill Murray play a daughter and her father respectively, who harbor suspicions of infidelity by the daughter's husband (played by Marlon Wayans). On Rotten Tomatoes, On the Rocks was enjoyed by 87% of critics surveyed, but only 51% of audiences who saw it.

16. The Beguiled (2017)

In 2017, Sofia Coppola directed the second-ever film version of Thomas P. Cullinan's 1966 novel. Colin Farrell plays an injured Union soldier and deserter of the Civil War who takes refuge at a female boarding school in Virginia, his presence disrupting the delicate balance of the young girls' livelihoods. Also starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning, the movie, ahem, beguiled most critics, with 78% of 330 reviews rating it positively on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, meanwhile, were less than charmed; just 48% of audiences gave it a positive review.

15. Colossal (2016)

You'd think audiences would be sold on Anne Hatahway psychically controlling a giant monster. But that wasn't the case with Nacho Vigalondo's black dramedy Colossal. Hathaway plays an alcoholic, unemployed writer who moves back home and works at a local pub run by an old friend (Jason Sudeikis). Soon, Hathaway finds she has a psychic connection to a Godzilla-like creature terrorizing South Korea. While 81% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes were compelled by Vigalondo's blend of kaiju sci-fi with a realistic portrait of millennial malaise, audiences weren't exactly running in the streets, with a less imposing 58% audience score.

14. Sleight (2016)

In this micro-budget thriller from first-time director J. D. Dillard, a troubled teenager and street magician (Jacob Latimore) uses his magic skills to rescue his younger sister after she's kidnapped by his drug dealing crime boss. While critics were mostly impressed by Dillard's trickery behind the camera, audiences weren't as much. On Rotten Tomatoes, Sleight has won over 80% of 44 critics, but only 52% of all audiences who published a review. "The seams still show at times - this is obviously a low-budget movie - but for the most part, it's surprising, intriguing, and fun," wrote Vox's Alissa Wilkinson.

13. Kajillionaire (2020)

In this black comedy crime drama from Miranda July, an emotionally underdeveloped woman (Evan Rachel Wood) languishes in a dead end life shaped by her con artist parents (Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger). Their lives change when a stranger (Gina Rodriguez) gets wrapped up in their business. While most critics praised the movie as another modern classic from an iconoclast director, audiences hardly fell for its schemes. On Rotten Tomatoes, Kajillionaire has the support of 90% of critics, but only 47% of audience reviewers.

12. Sausage Party (2016)

A vulgar, smoke-filled spoof of animated family movies (think Pixar and Disney), Sausage Party follows a talking, anthropomorphic sausage (voiced by Seth Rogen) who is horrified to learn what actually happens to food after they're purchased at the grocery store. While critics chowed down on Sausage Party and all it had to offer, giving it a delectable 82% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences by comparison found the movie spoiled, rating it just 50% by contrast.

11. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

One of the most polarizing movies in the entire Star Wars franchise, critics felt the Force by writer/director Rian Johnson, finding his movie The Last Jedi as challenging the holy saga than standing in reverence to it. Audiences, however, apparently wanted a reverent movie and criticized Johnson's decisions as stepping on their childhoods. The Last Jedi ultimately split the Star Wars fandom in twain. While a whopping 91% of critics on Rotten Tomatoes wrote in praise of the movie, 42% of audience members instead chose the Dark Side.

10. Killing Them Softly (2014)

A political satire of post-recession optimism in the disguise of a hard boiled gangster thriller, Brad Pitt anchors Andrew Dominik's movie as a hitman tasked with looking into a ballsy robbery of a poker game played by crime kingpins. Enjoyed by critics for its dark comic sensibilities, unbridled violence, and pointed criticisms towards American capitalism and the hypocrisies of financial crisis bailouts, Killing Them Softly enjoys a modestly strong 74% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, audiences aren't as invested, with just 44% of audiences on its side.

9. We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021)

In Jane Shoenbrun's coming-of-age lo-fi horror, a lonely teenage girl takes part in a viral social media challenge, only to end up trapped in an endless nightmare of inexplicable terror. On Rotten Tomatoes, over 90% of surveyed critics wrote in praise of Shoenbrun's debut feature film; the critics' summary calls it "narratively challenging" and "visually haunting." On the other hand, We're All Going to the World's Fair didn't whisk away most audiences, accumulating only a limp 29% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

8. Relic (2020)

In Natalie Erika James' gorgeous and haunting psychological horror feature, two generations of women - Kay, played by Emily Mortimer, and her daughter Sam (played by Bella Heathcote) - tend to elderly matriarch Edna (Robyn Nevin), whose dementia seems to be the symptom of a more sinister presence in the home. Acclaimed by critics including Pulitzer-winner Justin Chang, who said on an episode of Fresh Air that James "excels at mining dread and tension" in "the horror of watching a parent slowly deteriorate," audiences weren't as captivated. On Rotten Tomatoes, Relic has a score of 92% with critics, but 51% with audiences.

7. Possessor (2020)

In his sophomore feature as a director, Brandon Cronenberg, the son of legendary horror filmmaker David Cronenberg, establishes his own vision and artistry in a terrifying science fiction story about an assassin fighting to reclaim her identity as she loses control of her body to a malignant host. Provocative and grimey in equal measure, critics were wowed over Cronenberg's movie, with 94% of critics reviewing it positively on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences couldn't latch onto Possessor as well, with an audience score of just 59%.

6. Shadow in the Cloud (2020)

From director Roseanne Liang, Shadow in the Cloud is a period action-horror set in the skies of World War II. Chloë Grace Moretz stars as a Royal Air Force officer Maude Garrett tasked with transporting a top secret package aboard an American B-17 bomber, manned by an Allied crew. During their flight, strange things begin happening, and it all stems from what Maude brought along with her. A striking film that makes the most of both a charismatic Moretz and its limited settings, Shadow in the Cloud impressed quite a few critics but not as many audience members. On Rotten Tomatoes, Shadow in the Cloud keeps a score of 77% with critics and 32% with audiences.

5. Da 5 Bloods (2020)

One of the last movies starring the late Chadwick Boseman, Spike Lee's gripping Vietnam movie Da 5 Bloods is all about generational trauma and unfinished obligations. Four aging Black Vietnam War veterans return to the jungles of Nam in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader (Boseman) as well as treasure they found and left buried behind. With a cast that includes Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isaiah Whitlock Jr., Jonathan Majors, and Jean Reno, Da 5 Bloods is a politically charged war drama imbued with personal intimacy, not to mention a commanding Chadwick Boseman in one of his finest performances of his woefully short career. Da 5 Bloods drips with a 92% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, but somehow only 53% with audiences.

4. Don Jon (2013)

At the height of his Hollywood stardom, Joseph Gordon-Levitt put on the most hilarious Italian-American accent you've ever heard in his first feature as a writer and director. In Don Jon, released in 2013, Gordon-Levitt plays a New Jersey bachelor whose life revolves around, in his precise words, "My body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls, and my porn." But Jon's life gets disrupted when he meets both drop-dead beautiful Barbara (played by Scarlett Johansson) and middle-aged Esther (Julianne Moore). Although Don Jon has been mostly forgotten and didn't kickstart Gordon-Levitt's directing career (despite praise by critics that it was well-made), Don Jon still garnered an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But audiences were less enamored by Gordon-Levitt's antics as an accented playboy, with only 58% of audiences rating it positively on the platform.

3. Support the Girls (2018)

Inside the Hooters-like sports bar Double Whammies, nurturing general manager Lisa (Regina Hall) tries to keep her staff and herself together during one especially difficult day. Written and directed by mumblecore auteur Andrew Bujalski, Support the Girls is a sentimental but not saccharine celebration of sisterhood that had critics ordering for more. On Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 156 reviewers rated Support the Girls positively, but only 59% of audiences did the same. In David Fear's review for Rolling Stone, he wrote: "You could not ask for a better image of our country right now. You could not ask for a better American film to showcase it." Former U.S. President Barack Obama apparently agreed, and included the movie in his yearly favorite pieces of media in 2018.

2. The Green Knight (2021)

In David Lowery's magnificent medieval fantasy, the 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight comes to life with Dev Patel in the lead role. Patel plays Sir Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur, who takes up a strange challenge by the even stranger Green Knight (Ralph Ineson). A sort of anti-Lord of the Rings, The Green Knight dazzled critics with its mesmerizing and hallucinatory imagining of sword-and-sorcery fantasy. On Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of critics were enchanted by The Green Knight. Meanwhile, only 50% of audience members felt the same way.

1. Uncut Gems (2019)

In what is easily one of Adam Sandler's all-time greatest performances of his career, the Safdie Brothers' anxiety-inducing high-wire thriller Uncut Gems follows a reckless gambling addict and Manhattan jeweler (Sandler) who gets in too deep too quickly with the wrong people. An immersive dive into the seedy parts of post-recession New York where the American dream comes and goes with just a finger snap - or in this movie's case, the net swishes of professional basketball - Uncut Gems won over many critics who raved over it as an instant classic. But while 91% of critics rated Uncut Gems positively on Rotten Tomatoes, only 52% of audiences did too, with most audiences befuddled by such a dark turn from a laugh riot like Sandler.

Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he's your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.

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Assassin Reviews

“Assassin” is plagued by bad performances throughout and the action never (and I do mean never) gets to room temperature. But it’s the script that turns out to be the biggest liability.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 28, 2023

Assassin is an engaging look at the pursuit of revenge...

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Apr 28, 2023

Could have used a better developed story.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Apr 25, 2023

It’s disheartening that such a murky, cheesy piece represents the swan song for the man who embodied action heroes like John McClane and made first-rate contributions to films like “The Sixth Sense” and “Moonrise Kingdom.”

Full Review | Original Score: D | Apr 8, 2023

Willis' final movie makes good use of him, and it has an interesting story, but it succumbs to its low budget and hits a few too many stumbling blocks, making it a disappointing last hurrah.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 7, 2023

It’s sad to see Bruce Willis in his final film, lacking his trademark twinkle...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 3, 2023

Assassin has a tremendous premise, but squanders it as the filmmakers complicate the process too much to deliver on its potential.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/10 | Mar 31, 2023

An anemic, asinine and lazy action thriller lacking suspense, thrills and excitement.

Full Review | Mar 29, 2023

The multinational cast seems assembled for reasons other than serving defined character needs. None of them are able to rise above the vague material.

An illogical and dull flick that doesn’t even thrill when it shifts into action mode

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Mar 29, 2023

Light on filmmaking invention and heavy with dullness, with the central idea better suited for an episode of television.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Mar 29, 2023