Batman: Assault on Arkham

I just finished watched the new DC animated “movie” Assault on Arkham, and I have to say that to date it’s probably the best of the direct to video animated films DC has done. This might be because the main character, despite the title, is actually Deadshot (who is leading the Suicide Squad) not Batman. Batman is more of a presence/antagonist to the main characters, and this provides a nice change-up of the usual roles that makes the story kind’ve refreshing.

This is also the most “adult” of the movies they’ve done, which is probably meant to be in line with the “New 52” dark and dirty philosophy, and there’s a fair amount of sex and graphic violence in this one as well. (Perfectly in keeping with “villains” being the lead characters.) I’m generally not a fan of this new “darker” DC approach, but in this case it actually works for the story, so I’ll give it a pass. The story itself is full of odd holes and logic gaps, but that’s par for the course for these DC movies, and they’re not as bad as some of the other movies they’ve done. (Batman: Son of the Demon was so stupid I had to turn it off halfway through because I couldn’t take it anymore.) In fact, the only real complaint(s) I have about this movie are Batman’s costume (which is this weird half-armored thing) and the fact Batman has pupils, which bugged me a lot every time they showed them.

And hey, Kevin Conroy is back as Batman! C.C. Pounder is Amanda Waller (who is the real Waller, not an anemic model like the New 52 version) and hearing the two of them spar off against each other really is like old times. That alone made the watch worth it for a Batman:TAS series fan like me!

Rob

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