We’ve finally got our first look at Michael Fassbender and the Brotherhood in action with the premiere of the first Assassin’s Creed movie trailer.
The star-studded line up alongside Fassbender includes Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Ariane Labed – all of whom get to show off some seriously impressive moves in the trailer for the highly anticipated adaptation of the popular video game franchise, which started back in 2007 and has since sold over 73 million copies (as of Spring 2014).
The film has high hopes of breaking the ‘curse’ of frequently disastrous attempts to translate legendary video game series into films. It’s not alone in that ambition with the upcoming Warcraft movie coming this summer, and after the recent Ratchet and Clank film’s exceptionally poor performance, the pressure of expectation on the sci-fi-historical epic only increases. Given New Regency and 20th Century Fox’s partnering up with Ubisoft – the developers behind the game franchise – to maintain a large amount of creative control, fans are hopeful that the film will faithfully capture the feel of the games, and so far; the trailer doesn’t disappoint.
Notable appearance of the classic Assassin’s Creed Eagle imagery in the trailer – Image via Eurogamer
Opening with Fassbender’s new protagonist Callum Lynch and Marion Cotillard’s chilling exposition of Abstergo’s plans for him to forcibly relive the memories of his ancestor, ‘Aguilar’; the trailer rapidly gives us our first glimpses of the new Animus chamber, marking the first dramatic departure in style from the game series. This scene also reveals a quick glimpse of Jeremy Iron’s antagonist and Abstergo head Alan Rickin before catapulting us into 15th Century Spain during the time of the Inquisition.
Throughout, (and despite the somewhat jarring and already widely criticised inclusion of Kanye West’s ‘I Am A God’ for the soundtrack) the trailer is full of dramatic parkour; climbing, intensely choreographed fights both in the past and modern settings and further glimpses into the of the world of the assassin’s, including an up close look at Ariane Labed’s assassin ‘Maria’ pulling off some impressive executions. But most crucially to eager fans of the games, the visually stunning trailer was loaded with imagery and references to the original video game series, including the climactic ‘Leap of Faith’ moment and Fassbender’s chilling quotation of the original Creed from the heart of the Franchise:”We work in the dark, to serve the light. We, are Assassins.”
Set to be released in the UK on 30th December 2016, watch the trailer for Assassin’s Creed below.
