Assassin’s Creed
Cinema is the capturing and creation of space, within which events and characters take shape. Frequently films create a semblance of unified space, but in the case of Assassin’s Creed, space is often fluid and inconstant. Justin Kurtzel’s adaptation of Ubisoft’s blockbusting computer game achieves the remarkable feat of creating an immersive experience that allows the viewer to vicariously undergo the experiences of Cal Lynch (Michael Fassbender), descendant of assassin Aguilar (also Fassbender), as he enters the Animus, a device that causes him to relive the experiences of his ancestor. The technobabble explanations provided by Dr Sophia Rikken (Marion Cotillard), part of a modernised Templar Knights, adds to the mystery of the events that understandably confuse Cal, but once he enters the Animus and his movements and feelings blend with those of Aguilar, the viewer is set for a visceral and enthralling experience where space, time and personality shift dramatically and arrestingly. Kurtzel stylises speech, location and action in a manner similar to his superb Macbeth, and while the emotional heft of Assassin’s Creed may not reach that of the Shakespearean tragedy, it does succeed as a strong film based on a video game (a rare beast indeed), and confirms Kurtzel as a promising talent to watch.
Review of the Year – 2016
There is significant consensus that 2016 was a thoroughly horrible year, with the deaths of many beloved figures and the ascension of hateful policies and individuals. However, the rot did not affect film releases, which remain as varied as any year. Perhaps inevitably, many films passed me by but, nonetheless, here are my top twelve films of 2016, and all titles ranked in order of preference. As always, my list is based on U.K. release dates.
Top Twelve (in musical form)
On the twelfth day of Christmas
The movies gave to me
Twelve Anthropoids
Eleven United Kingdoms
Ten Revenants
Nine Eagle Hunts
Eight Big Shorts
Seven Spotlight scoops
Six Strange Doctors
Five Noc-tur-nal Animals
Four Eyes in the Sky
Three Zootopians
Two in a Room and
A heptapod Arrival!
In more traditional list format:
Film of the Year: An eerie, enthralling, exquisitely balanced, inspiring and magnificent sci-fi drama.
A sublime, magnificent, heartwarming, heartbreaking tale of the terrible and the wonderful.
A brilliantly inventive, hilariously zany, poignant and intelligent anthropomorphic comedy.
A tense, nerve-shredding thriller of surveillance, globalization, military, political and ethical conundrums.
An exquisite, haunting, beautiful and intoxicating drama, suffused with style, pain and regret.
Inception crossed with The Matrix, enhanced with Harry Potter and amped up to ‘Are You Nuts?!’
An enthralling, absorbing, compelling journalism thriller about community, tradition and responsibility.
An equally hilarious and horrifying tale of economic, intellectual and moral bankruptcy.
An enthralling, inspiring tale of courage, determination and the tensions between genders, tradition and modernity, wilderness and civilization.
An immersive, enthralling, ethereal yet tactile portrait of survival, nature and revenge.
An epic yet intimate tale of love, duty, defiance and justice, in equal parts angering and uplifting.
An exquisitely detailed, brutally grim and unflinchingly gruelling wartime thriller.
Honourable Mentions
A gripping, atmospheric, terrifying Iranian Gothic of fears both natural and supernatural.
A dark, gripping tale of fractured minds, damaged lives, voyeurism and victimhood.
An unsentimental yet heartwarming and progressive tale of hardship, courage and strategy.
An intricate, stylish tale of identity, loyalty, moral, legal and financial interconnections.
A measured, melancholic and gripping modern western of bonds and devotion between little people.
A measured yet thrilling, warm and intelligent sci-fi adventure of duty, family and purpose.
A gorgeously imaginative and sumptuously realised tale of storytelling, destiny and belonging.
A fast, furious blend of high octane action, knowing humour and politically incorrect fun.
A truly epic super-bonanza of power, regret, choice and destiny.
An intense, gripping globe-trotting revenge thriller of loyalty and the proper uses of power.
A gorgeously designed, sometimes meandering but ultimately uplifting retelling of a timeless tale.
A stirring, planet-hopping, slightly unbalanced but compelling sci-fi war movie.
Pretty Solid
A warm, wacky and wild watery wonder of family, memory and destiny.
A sweeping, moving and enthralling romantic epic of repression, duty, desire and love.
A squifflingly scrumdiddlyumptious felim of dreams, delights and whizzpopping wonder.
A grim, brooding, lumpenly paced yet intriguing exploration of power and our responses to it.
A gorgeous, sumptuous adult fairy tale of identity, duty and desire.
Decent Enough
An endearing and moving portrayal of connection and choice, in equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking.
A slick, stylish sci-fi tale of memory, identity and the panopticon.
A sharp, witty and often hilarious buddy comedy of 70s’ shadow and sleaze.
A grim, gripping, muscular thriller of concerns new and old.
A boisterous and energetically scrappy if somewhat overstretched paranormal comedy adventure.
A shambolic but stylish assembly of freakish figures and super villainous set pieces.
Disappointing
A politically correct and well orchestrated if sanitised and far from operatic action western.
A detailed, measured period spy romance of loyalties, devotion and nostalgia.
An atmospheric and sometimes gripping but also unbalanced and messy thriller.
A quirky, creepy, kaleidoscopic portrayal of Sartrean social insanity in the Infernal Tower.
An over-designed but still stylish splat of a fantasy epic.
Turkeys
An attractively designed but uneven and lacklustre fantasy adventure.
A hollow, preposterous, unengaging, mess of a thriller.
Turkey of the Year: a disparate, discordant and messily inferior sequel.
Rogue One
It opens with absence. The absence of John Williams’ theme, the screen crawl and even the words Star Wars, instead presenting the viewer with a planet in the emptiness of space. As a Star Destroyer slowly moves into view, the tropes of Star Wars reveal themselves and we quickly settle into familiar territory with mention of various planets, Jedi, the Empire and the Force. Yet, paradoxically, absence remains a dominant presence throughout Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One, a spin-off story that takes place leading up to the events of Episode Four: A New Hope. Protagonist Jin Erso (Felicity Jones) feels the keen absence of her father Galen (Mads Mikkelsen); Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is spurred by righteousness but also makes hard choices; Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) feel the absence of the Jedi under the rule of the Empire; Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) physically manifests absence through his damaged body. Sometimes the various characters are not given as much motivation or background as they could have, but for the most part absence works as a strength in the film rather than weakness, as the emphasis upon absence and loss conveys a palatable sense of what the Rebellion fighting for, described by Saw as ‘the Dream’. Edwards skilfully creates a sense of the odds facing the Rebellion, the superior weaponry of the Empire – including the Death Star – as well as the ruthlessness of Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelssohn), Governor Tarkin (Guy Henry in a digital Peter Cushing suit) and, in a spine-tingling cameo, Darth Vader (Spencer Wilding/James Earl Jones). As a result, the viewer is unlikely to feel shortchanged by this additional story, as Rogue One strikes a fine balance between material familiar and new, resulting in a film that bodes new hope for the future of this franchise.
Vincent's Views 