海角大神

'Assassin's Creed' shows why a video game isn't always a good movie

'Creed,' the newest movie based on a video game, is now in theaters and has received poor reviews. Fellow 2016 video game adaptations 'Ratchet & Clank' and 'Warcraft' also had a negative critical reception.

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Kerry Brown/20th Century Fox/AP
'Assassin's Creed' stars Michael Fassbender (l.).

鈥淎ssassin鈥檚 Creed,鈥 which is now in theaters, is the latest movie to attempt to translate video game success to the big screen. But, like other video game adaptations debuting this year, it has received poor reviews from critics.

鈥淐reed鈥 stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard and is based on the popular video game series about the battle between a force called the Templars and the Assassins. The newest game in the series, 鈥淎ssassin鈥檚 Creed Syndicate,鈥 was released in the fall of 2015.聽

鈥淐reed鈥 is one of several movies based on video games to be released this year. Some have done better than others. The film 鈥淩atchet & Clank,鈥 for example, which came out in April, received bad reviews and was seen as a financial disappointment. Similarly, 聽the summer movie 鈥淲arcraft,鈥 which is based on the popular 鈥淲orld of Warcraft鈥 game, failed to attract American audiences and was also the subject of negative notices 鈥 but it was more of an international box office success.

鈥淭he Angry Birds Movie,鈥 which came out shortly before 鈥淲arcraft,鈥 did the best financially out of the latest in the genre and is now domestically the second-highest-grossing movie based on a video game, second only to the biggest hit so far, the 2001 鈥淟ara Croft: Tomb Raider.鈥 (However, critics were not impressed with "Birds" either.)

Now 鈥淎ssassin鈥 has been released during the holiday movie season and debuted to negative reviews, showing that at least creatively, video game stories may be difficult to bring to the big screen.

鈥淚 can't really think of a movie coming out from a game that has been very successful in the market and also has been really any good,鈥 Simon Tarr, associate professor of art and media arts program coordinator at the University of South Carolina, told 海角大神 earlier this year.

Hollywood is going to continue to try, however, with one project, for example, returning to the genre鈥檚 biggest hit: a new 鈥淭omb Raider鈥 movie starring Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander is planned for 2018.

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