"Assassin's Creed" Trailer Review

Finally, the first trailer for Assassin's Creed has been released. The production of this film has been curiously under wraps. There is a lot of faith riding on both Warcraft and Assassin's Creed this year, as they shall be the big indicators of the future of the video-game movie genre. This trailer has been impatiently waited for, and now it is time to dissect it.

As the trailer begins, we find out that Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) was executed but is somehow still alive. I suppose I should mention that I am not very familiar with the Assassin's Creed franchise, as I have only played the iOS version (I know, I will make sure to turn in my gamer card by the end of the week). As such, my basic understanding of the series is that a man in the future is sent back to the past and relives the life of an assassin. Whether this execution is part of the plot is beyond me, but I am curious to see how that factors into the story. It also brings up the question of how he survived. Was the death faked? Was he he brought back from the dead?

We then learn that Lynch will be subject to device known as Animus, which will place him in the perspective of one of his ancestors, who was an assassin during the Spanish Inquisition. It seems like this organization that possesses Animus needs information from the ancestor, which brings up a few questions. What does the ancestor know? Or, more importantly, how is what he knows relevant 500 years later? Lynch is then given the iconic wrist blades, which is a trademark for the games, just before entering the past.

Having traveled to the past, it is here where we are introduced to Aguilar, the aforementioned ancestor. What is interesting is that this takes place during the Spanish Inquisition and the assassin's name is Aguilar. In Spanish, "aguila" means eagle, and the first thing the trailer shows us of this time period is a bird flying across the screen. Whether this will have any part in the plot is probably unlikely, but I will not discount the notion. This is also when we are given the worst thing about this trailer; the music. What bonehead thought that a rap song would fit the tone of an Assassin's Creed film? The music almost ruins the greatness of the rest of the trailer -- almost.

And the rest of the trailer is essentially a string of action scenes. The second half of this trailer does not give us any plot details, I believe. We are shown various fight scenes that seem to embody the feel of the game. The assassins jump down from above, using the element of surprise to take out their foes; there is a quick glimpse at a rooftop fight scene that looks pretty sweet; and the female assassin looks like she will be quite the crowd pleaser and perhaps an interesting character.

Even though the rest of the trailer is composed of back-to-back actions snip-its, the action does look varied and locations do not seem reused. The fight choreography looks inventive (as does the cinematography) and there are plenty of parkour scenes. The assassins scale walls with monkey-like ease and they frequently jump from rooftop to rooftop, pursuing their quarry. Near the end of the trailer we cut back to the future and see that Lynch is performing everything he sees with the help of the machine. Though I will be more invested in what is happening in the past, I really do want to know what the meat of the story is of the present plot thread. And then the trailer ends with a tremendously iconic shot of Aguilar purposely falling off a building and diving towards the city below before cutting to black.

And those are my thoughts on the first Assassin's Creed trailer. Not a very long trailer, and an even shorter reaction. The trailer gives us the rudimentary plot with as little information as possible. Perhaps the studio is trying to keep it all a secret? But if the trailer is any indication, this picture could be pretty darn satisfying. Michael Fassbender fits the role perfectly and Marion Cotillard should give a great performance. The action looks incredible and the cinematography and tone are on point. Setting the poor song choice aside, I do have one other issue with this trailer, and that is mainly speculative on my part. The second half of the trailer is filled with action, and I am worried that the trailer may have shown us too much. Maybe the studio just wants to sell the movie the coolest way possible? Or maybe they are hiding a weak story behind the impressive fight sequences? This is all conjecture on my part, but I will say that I am excited to see this and that there has to be some degree of confidence from the filmmakers because it is opening around the same time as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I have high hopes, so long as there is no actual rap music in the final product.