Critics were overreacting to video game movies as usual because this wasn't that bad. It's just a very generic movie. Like despite the minimal characterizations the stuff during the Spanish Inquisition was easily the best stuff in the movie. You could tell Kurzel was in his element with those scenes the most because he really nailed the atmosphere and although it suffers from some shaky cam issues, the action was pretty good. I also appreciate the fact he actually had the (limited) dialogue in those scenes in Spanish, even though they could've easily used the Animus/memory link as an excuse to have all the dialogue in English.
The present day stuff was clearly the red thread of the movie and they had the right idea but it just needed so much work. Like the basic plot threads all make sense but it's like they wrote the plot out on paper, then did nothing with it except fill it up with generic dialogue. The machine-arm Animus made a bit more sense plot-wise too since they emphasized that through synchronization the current day users of the Animus were learning the abilities of their ancestors, but it still looked unnecessarily convoluted and feels like another thing that just needed more thought and work.
But for what it's worth, you can't deny Fassbender was committed. Even if the screenplay left him down dude was fully into the role, probably the highest praise I can give to the movie. In the end it's like a 2.5/5 and if this somehow ends up doing good enough internationally to warrant a sequel, I wouldn't even mind it.
