Assassin’s Creed believes combat trumps coherent plot

The new movie Assassin’s Creed, based on the popular video game series, offers slim pickings in the hero department. On one side lurks evil corporate type Alan Rikkin (perennial cinematic bad guy Jeremy Irons). Alan heads Abstergo Industries and holds a high rank in the Knights Templar, a secret society. Opposing the Knights Templar are the Assassins, who “work in the darkness to serve the light,” according to their creed. But their work involves a good deal of stabbing and throat-cutting. Hypocritical scientists fit somewhere in between.

The contested prize is the Apple of Eden, “the seed of man’s original disobedience”—not perfect, although close to a core Biblical principle. But all involved also believe the apple contains “the genetic code for free will.” The film’s hardly intended as theology. Still, it serves up a piece of modern philosophy’s rotten fruit: My chromosomes made me do it.

To protect free will, the Assassins for centuries have hidden the apple—a glowing, softball-sized orb that lacks what would be an authenticating pair of bite marks. For just as long, the Knights Templar have tried to procure the apple for their world-dominating purposes.

Enter 21st century science, that noble and neutral referee, embodied by the attractive Sophia Rikkin (Marion Cotillard), Alan’s brilliant but manipulated daughter. Sophia, like Alan, understands the apple to contain the “complete genetic program to humanity’s instincts.” Sophia reasons dissecting the apple will lead to the eradication of violence. Alan wants to control humans’ will. But the apple was last seen during the Spanish Inquisition. How will they get it?

As the film opens, the state of Texas executes Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) by lethal injection. Hours later, Callum revives at Abstergo’s Madrid facility. The welcome wagon, Sophia and her team of research scientists and security bulldogs, waste little time in hooking Callum up to the Animus machine. Fusing atomic and genetic technologies, Animus forces Callum to experience the thoughts and actions of his ancestor, Aguilar (also Michael Fassbender), who was an Assassin. Alan and Sophia hope Callum-qua-Aguilar will lead them to the apple.

Prisoner, patient, and involuntary guinea pig, Callum shadowboxes in Abstergo’s cavernous laboratory as scientists chart (and viewers watch) Aguilar’s movements through late-15th century Spain. The Biblical artifact search recalls Raiders of the Lost Ark, although there was more to Indiana Jones’s adventures than hand-to-hand combat. The special effects are laudable even if the fight sequences are routine, except for a clever plum where Aguilar shoots around an ally at an enemy by ricocheting an arrow off a wall. And one vivid scene finds Aguilar and his fellow Assassins trying to avoid being burned at the stake.

Viewers walking in cold to Assassin’s Creed (rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, thematic elements, and brief strong language) will struggle to make sense of the plot. But perhaps, the seemingly incoherent storytelling is director Justin Kurzel’s ploy to build empathy for Callum, who for much of the film can’t figure out what’s going on, either.

The producers know what they’re doing, though. Just as a video game isn’t meant to be played only once, the film’s finale sets the stage for a second go-around.