DC Animated Superhero Retrospective Series – Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)

Written In July 2014

You know, I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that this movie would absolutely suck. I was absolutely certain that this movie would be frothing at the mouth awful, but now that I’ve seen it, I feel like I owe my friend Sean an apology. We were talking the other day about how Bruce Timm was involved with an animated DC movie again and I said, “Maybe we’ll finally get some good stuff back in here!” And he told me that Throne of Atlantis, the DC movie set to follow this one, would be awesome and I replied “Oh, of course it won’t!” And a few months earlier when the trailer for this movie got dropped he posted a link to it on his Facebook saying he thought it looked awesome and I just commented saying “It’s gonna suck.” I was completely wrong and I honestly owe him an apology. My bad pal, they gave us a fun ride, and I was wrong. Let’s dig into this.

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

Amanda Waller forms the Suicide Squad where their mission is to break into Arkham Asylum and recover top secret information from Riddler. Suicide Squad member Harley Quinn ends up freeing Joker who makes plans to blow up Arkham Asylum and Gotham City causing Batman to spring into action.

No seriously, that’s all Wikipedia had to say about the movie. I thought about mixing it up for once and actually grabbing the summary from IMDb, but they had even less to say on the matter! But the funny thing is, they said that this movie is based on the Arkham games from Rocksteady… And it really shouldn’t because this movie shares none of those games’ atmosphere, ambiance, writing, or tone. It takes some their designs

And two of their cast members

But it literally has nothing to do with those games. The Arkham games have been described as combining the best parts of the Nolan films with the general atmosphere and focus of Batman: The Animated Series. This is basically if you made Batman the main cop in a 70’s pulp movie. It literally has ZERO to do with the Arkham games at all. But if we’re honest with ourselves, I think we all know that this game

Is gonna be far better than anything the people in charge of DC Animation can come up with at this point. But, we all need a little bit of stupid bloody fun in our lives every now again, so let’s see how Assault on Arkham stacks up against the likes of Justice League War and Son of Batman.

PROS:

• Neal McDonough as Deadshot is the star of this show, and he shines bright throughout! I think his design is probably on the high end for this movie, and his voice just fit this character perfectly. I’m more familiar with Deadshot as a more rogueish character, and there’s plenty of that left here, but it just comes off as more leading man friendly. Great work Mr. McDonough, you make everything cool.
• CCH Pounder returns as Amanda Waller who kills it as always in this role. If anyone of actual influence at DC Entertainment is reading this review, please please please cast Miss Pounder as Waller in one of your movies, you will not regret it!
• Matthew Gray Gubler does the voice of the Riddler and he’s absolutely perfect throughout. Excellent choice!
• Giancarlo Esposito doesn’t say a ton as Black Spider but he’s Giancarlo Esposito so he’s automatically awesome!
• Greg Ellis does a fun job as Captain Boomerang, and I love Boomerang and Deadshot’s rivalry, that made for some good stuff.
• Jennifer Hale as Killer Frost. She’s Jennifer Hale, that’s an automatic pro.
• Nolan North does a kick ass Penguin.
• Kevin Conroy doesn’t do a ton as Batman, but it’s Kevin Conroy. What more do I need to say?
• That last scene is perfect. Let’s be honest here, if you read comics, or if you’ve watched these cartoons, you’ve wanted to see that bitch, Amanda Waller, dead for a long ass time! Thank you so much Deadshot!

CONS:

• I hold no disrespect at all to Troy Baker and Hynden Walch, I think they’re both absolutely terrific voice actors and I’ve loved them in lots of stuff, but good God did they make for a terrible Joker and Harley. My issue? They’re both impersonations. I know DC struck gold with Mark Hamill and Arleen Sorkin, but if they both gave up the role, you really shouldn’t be trying to recreate them, give someone a chance to do something different. Also at one point, Joker barges in on the Suicide Squad and proclaims “I’M HERE BITCHES!” That’s not a Joker line, that’s a fucking Deadpool line, and you know it. As for Harley, why the fuck did you need to show her tricking Deadshot into sleeping with her? This is an actual movie people, not fucking fanfiction!
• Is there any particular reason why they strip the women down so often in this movie? Any reason that makes sense and isn’t just an excuse to put titties on the screen in some capacity?
• Whoever these KGBeast and King Shark people are, they really don’t need to be in more movies.
• How do make a movie that’s only 75 minutes feel too long? You could’ve easily cut out the entire sequence where Deadshot has to wrestle with Captain Boomerang for control of a helicopter, and then wrestle with Joker while Harley tries to figure out what the hell to do. And then you could’ve cut the fight between The Joker and Deadshot inside the building where the helicopter crashes into, and the fight between Batman and Harley for the Joker’s hammer.
• A subplot in this movie is that the Joker has a dirty bomb planted in the city. Okay let me explain something here; The Joker always justifies his crimes as being a form of comedy. So what in hell is comedic about blowing half the city to hell with a nuclear bomb? What could be even remotely comedic about that?

All in all, despite my quibbles, Assault on Arkham is a big step forward after the last three DC movies ranging between okay, awful, and even worse. I’m gonna give this one a 7.2 out of 10.