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| Review by Steven Scott |
Batman: Assault on Arkham is the latest DC Comics animated movie to hit direct to video and is one of their most unique entries so far.
Unlike many of the recent offerings, which have relied on adapting popular graphic novels from DC’s back catalog (sometimes painstakingly faithful, as was the case with Batman: Year One), Assault on Arkham tells an original story, albeit, set in the world of the successful Arkham series of video games.
As with previous animated DC movies that use the art style of books as a guide, Assault is informed by the look of the Arkham game series with the character designs closely modeled after their pixelated counterparts and the set design replicated to a T.
For those familiar with the games, the scenes in Arkham will conjure up memories of exploring the cellblocks of the infamous asylum.
The majority of the voice cast has carried over from the games as well, creating a sense of continuity. The Joker is obviously not Mark Hamill to the trained ear (or anyone who grew up with the ‘90s animated series) but Troy Baker, who voiced the clown in Arkham Origins, does a pretty spot on job of imitating his predecessor. Typically when other actors stepped into the role Hamill owns, they didn’t attempt to emulate and provided their own flavor but this time they got a sound-alike to fit in with the Arkham version. The actress who portrayed Harley in Batman: The Animated Series voices her here and while she isn’t bad, I miss Arleen Sorkin.
Kevin Conroy reprises his role as Batman, which is always a major plus. If Conroy were to ever follow in Hamill’s footsteps and retire from the role I think there might just be riots in the streets. Or at the very least, a lot of angry fanboys on message boards. The Penguin also makes an appearance, but feels shoehorned in here to reinforce the Arkham connection, and comes off as filler.
But the real stars here are the Suicide Squad themselves. Often the output from the DC Original line of movies have been criticized for being very Batman heavy although, despite being the headliner, Batman is relegated to a supporting role here.
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| The Suicide Squad: Captain Boomerang (Greg Ellis), Killer Frost (Jennifer Hale), King Shark (John DiMaggio), Deadshot (Neal McDonough), Black Spider (Giancarlo Esposito) and Harley Quinn (Hynden Walch) |
This allows the Suicide Squad to take center stage, with this incarnation borrowing heavily from the New 52 lineup. Outside of Harley Quinn, there are very few characters I think general, non-comic fans would recognize. That’s a good thing, as it’s a great way to introduce casual fans to what the rest of the DCU has to offer.
On the downside, just because the movie stars a bunch of second-rate villains, doesn’t mean they deserve a second-rate plot.
The squad are forced against their will to break into Arkham and take out the Riddler under Amanda Waller’s command and while that should be enough of a hook to carry the story, it starts to wear thin and you can kind of feel the plot chugging along without it unfolding in a natural way. There are few surprises, jokes fall flat, and Harley and Killer Frost are little more than eye candy in this, with a handful of moments that felt unnecessarily gratuitous to keep the audience’s attention. However, there are a couple of fun Easter Eggs for fans such as the Joker mask from The Dark Knight making an appearance and references to other lesser known villains Firefly, Killer Moth and Maxie Zeus, with a sly nod to the fact that few would recognize our lead characters either.
The standalone nature ensures that you don’t have to have played the games in order to dive into this story, so there is really no other reason to set this in the Arkham universe other than to cash in on the popularity of the franchise as it does not directly tie-in to any of the events in the games. There are little touches that will be familiar to gamers, but all that will do is probably just make you wish you were playing the game instead of passively observing the action unfold.
As far as extras go, we’re offered a couple featurettes. One that focuses on the origins of Harley Quinn which explores her transformation from sidekick to the Joker from the ‘90s animated series, to breaking out on her own as one of DC’s most enduring female creations over the last couple decades, with plenty of insight from her creator Paul Dini.
We’re also treated to a longer documentary delving into Arkham Asylum and catching us up to speed on what’s been going on behind its gates in the comics for the last few years in the comics. While this is all good and well, it’s odd that there’s not a Suicide Squad-centric feature, arcing their evolution as a team. Seems like a missed opportunity.
In addition, there’s the standard 4 episodes from a variety of DC animated shows including the Harley Quinn episode of the aforementioned The Batman series and the Task Force X episode from Justice League Unlimited.
Although the movie matches the aesthetic and may occupy the same universe, tonally, what we end up with is far removed from the games and the result is an odd hybrid between being connected to the Arkham games, but also infused with the New 52. I applaud DC for trying something new, featuring less known characters in the lead roles, and trying to tell original stories with them, but Assault on Arkham is better in concept than execution.
Steven Scott is a comic book writer and publicist with a background in film and television. He blogs about comics at Great Scott Comics and self-published his creator owned sci-fi comic ‘Cryozone’, available in print and digital. Sometimes he tweets at @Scott_Duvall.
