Batman: Assault On Arkham Review

Batman fans this is a review that's been on my list of things to re-review for a while but I was saving it for a rainy day well it just starting pooring. I honestly couldn't have picked a better day to re-review this movie since there's just been a trailer released for the next animated Batman movie it has nothing to do with this movie but it's something that I thought i'd mention anyways. Alot of people myself included say that Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay is the first animated SS movie which is technically true but the team was also used in the movie i'm re-reviewing so here is my review of Batman: Assault On Arkham.

The plot of the movie is Batman works desperately to find a bomb planted by the Joker while Amanda Waller hires her newly formed Suicide Squad to break into Arkham Asylum to recover vital information stolen by the Riddler. Honestly the plot of the movie is perhaps it's weakest aspect since while it is a fun story it's a story that doesn't feel like it fits in the world of the Arkham games which isn't a good thing since this film is meant to be set in that world.

Starring in this film is Kevin Conroy as Batman / Bruce Wayne , Neal McDonough as Deadshot / Floyd Lawton , Hynden Walch as Harley Quinn / Harleen Quinzel , Matthew Gray Gubler as Riddler / Edward Nygma , Troy Baker as The Joker , C. C. H. Pounder as Amanda Waller , Giancarlo Esposito as Black Spider / Eric Needham , John DiMaggio as King Shark / Nanaue , Jennifer Hale as Killer Frost / Louise Lincoln and Nolan North as KGBeast / Anatoli Knyazev and Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin.

DC animated films usually have great casting and the same is true for this film every character is cast perfectly altho i;m not going to lie I prefer Tara Strong as Harley. What adds to the great performances at least in my opinion is that they got alot alot of actors from the Arkham games to reprise there roles in this film and to me that shows because those actors know those versions of the characters and can thus give a performance that is truly fitting.

The animation was done by MOI Animation who have worked on alot of DC animated films in the past and there usually a good choice for good looking direct to DVD animated films. The same thing is true here since the animation is honestly really top notch i'm not going to say that it's the best animated DC film out there because anyone with half a brain will know that honour goes to Mask of The Phantasm.

Like I said this film takes place in the world of the Arkham games so everything that happens in this movie is canon. Just that thought alone creates some issues with continuity with those games since alot of the characters seen in the movie don't look like there game counterparts but that aside it was while watching the film that I came up with a cool idea that would connect this film to the first game what if the start of the first game also served as the ending to this movie that to me is a really cool idea. 

If you thought that a certain scene in The Killing Joke was weird then you should really see this movie because the same thing happens only with Deadshot and Harley you all know the scene that I mean. In this movie tho the scene in question isn't as bad since there criminals so of course this scene would happen between them that said tho it's still weird seeing the whole thing play out but it's not as bad as the one in The Killing Joke.

This film isn't R rated but it really should have been since they get away with alot of stuff for a PG-13 film. There's alot of blood , alot of gore , alot of nudity and of course there's the scene with Deadshot and Harley which pretty much speaks for it self how this film was not rated R is beyond me but if I was to guess i'd say that the MPAA doesn't really care about direct to DVD films since that's the only reason I can think of for this film not being rated R.

I have to admit that I liked how this film introduces the squad and I honestly think that they did it better then the live action film. In this film were introduced to the squad by seeing them in action so that right there tells us all we need to know about the team and you could also argue that they give you some of the personalities of each of the characters. Where is in the live action we do get something similar but we don't get to find out about the characters but rather we're told about them which doesn't work at all.

Now this was something that I didn't notice when I first watched the movie but the cartoon Harley is watching on her phone at the start of the movie is the awesome Looney Tunes Show from 2011. That right there says that Harley is the best character because that show is a great show and the fact that she's watching it makes her awesome. I honestly can't believe that I didn't notice it before because i'm a Looney Tunes fan.

Now since this is a superhero movie we have to talk about the action in the movie and in my opinion that's where the movie excels both in terms of the animation and in kicking a*s. I don't know why this is but for some reason animation companies always put alot of effort into making the action scenes really well animated but hey it works in this film at least in my opinion. The action scenes are also really fun to watch since we get to see what alot of the characters bring to the team when it comes to fighting.

Overall this isn't that good of a movie but it's easily better then the live action Suicide Squad movie I only wish that they could have a better job of connecting it to the Arkham games. That said it is still a fun movie with all of the craziness that you'd expect from a Suicide Squad movie so it gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me.