Reel Facts & Opinions: Fass-assin's Creed

FACT: Earlier this week, it was announced that critically-acclaimed actor Michael Fassbender will star in and co-produce the big-screen adaptation of ASSASSIN’S CREED, Ubisoft’s popular video game franchise. The game is an award-winning historical-fiction action-adventure series spanning across several games, comic books and novels.

OPINION: Not so long ago, when it was announced that Andrew Garfield had been cast as the new Peter Parker/Spider-man, this Blogger let out an “ugh”. Although Garfield is a terrific actor, it just seemed like the kid’s future was much too bright to be messing around with the utter drek which passes off as a decent SPIDER-MAN movie these days. The same sort of “ugh” can be said over Fassbender taking on this project. Although Fassbender has already successfully dabbled in sci-fi/fantasy (his turns in last year’s X-MEN FIRST CLASS and this year’s PROMETHEUS were stunningly good), it just seems that he is just too good of an actor with limitless potential to be playing around with video game movies. The man seems destined for Oscar gold (his role in last year’s SHAME earned him a total of 29 acting nominations with 13 wins), and rumors are strong that he may be the next 007.

Such an acclaimed actor should be doing better things than stepping into the black void which is the world of video game adaptations. It can be argued that there has never been a good adaptation, with every film since 1993 receiving mixed to dismal reviews. All those failures can be blamed on a lot of things; bad directing, casting, writing, or even the studios not taking the material seriously. Now Fassbender certainly has the chops to add seriousness and weight to a fantasy film, but the odds, and history are against him.

What say you?