BATMAN: ASSAULT ON ARKHAM - REVIEW


Set before the Arkham Asylum video game but after Arkham Origins, Batman: Assault On Arkham is an animated feature by DC which sees the Suicide Squad attempt to retrieve The Riddler's cane from Arkham under Amanda Waller's orders.

Two years before the Suicide Squad live-action movie, we got this animated adventure focusing on the dysfunctional team of villains which, this time, includes Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and new recruits Killer Frost, Black Spider and King Shark. They are assembled after Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy) captures The Riddler who may be holding information on the Squad he's planning to release to the public. Along the way, the team encounters Batman and The Joker (Troy Baker) who has his own agenda as he is plotting to unleash a dirty bomb in the city, just to make things more difficult for everyone. This is a busy little film with a lot of main characters to keep track of but it somehow holds together better than Suicide Squad.

The story is a bit too scattered to the point where it's easy to lose interest in what's actually going on but the action is relentless enough that there's always something fun taking place. Like the new film, this Suicide Squad is hit-and-miss with most of them not really having any personality and Harley Quinn saying maybe one annoying jokey line too many. Unlike the new film, however, the plot at least includes some genuinely enjoyable set-pieces as well as lots of Batman action, a Joker subplot that makes sense and a really cool third act in which all the villains locked-up in Arkham are let loose. This one's a bit different than most of the other Batman animated films in that it's clearly trying to be a little edgier with more sex and violence but that frankly just feels gratuitous.

While no masterpiece, Assault On Arkham remains an entertaining adventure with less discrepancies than the live-action Suicide Squad movie. It's a cluttered story but it's cluttered with fun elements so it works. Fans of the villainous super-team and the Batman games should have a ball with this one.

Worth a watch.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT - REVIEW

Image
Finally free from the clutches of the iconic Original Series , Picard and co. finally got their own movie to play with and delivered this much better, much darker, much less gimmicky outing. This time, we're introduced to the Borgs, a race of soulless, zombie-like drones capable of assimilating people completely. A popular race of bad guys in the series, their Hellraiser -style S&M look certainly begged for a movie! First Contact opens with Picard having a nightmare about the time he almost became a Borg forever and little by little, as the current Borg threat increases, he starts to crack up, feeling a responsibility to sort that problem out himself as he still has a slight connection to them but also wanting a kind of revenge, closure if you will, for what they did to him the first time around. The plot sees the crew of the Enterprise witness the Earth get completely assimilated by the Borgs so they go back in time before Earth made its "first contact" with al
Read more

24: SEASON 1 - REVIEW

Image
I know, I'm like 100 years late. But I'm The "Retro" Critic! :P I remember catching a glimpse of this iconic show back in the day and actually finding it pretty entertaining. Sadly, I hadn't followed the thread from the very beginning so it felt like catching the season about halfway through would be a bit of a waste. I decided to wait until I could check it out on DVD. 10 years later... Well I finally made it, that's the main thing, right? So was it worth the wait? What do I make of this very first season? It's good. I thought it would be quite good and it was. Basically I'm rarely taken by a cop-themed series unless you've got a mad scientist in there ( Fringe ), evil twins ( Alias ) or... Columbo ( Columbo ). But 24 did a hell of a good job keeping me entertained throughout and making me care about MOST of what was going on. Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer is a hard one to dislike and is pretty much the glue holding the whole sho
Read more

THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL - REVIEW

Image
 Looks like every Broadway comedy musical these days is trying to be The Producers ... Mel Brooks' hugely successful show now being the basic template for shows based on movies (with the exception of the admittedly *ahem* unique Spiderman musical), after Dirty Rotten Scoundrels we're treated to Broadway's The Addams Family. An odd release but probably an inevitable one. Not based on any of the movies, the story actually follows up from past adaptations and sees a now grown-up Wednesday falling in love with a "normal" dude and having to face her unconventional family. It's essentially Addams Family Values with Wednesday taking on the Fester role. A good idea which should please both fans of the films and those looking to see something new. But what works for The Producers just doesn't work for everything. Nathan Lane as Gomez Addams? So much for the tall, suave, maniacal Gomez we all know and love! Don't get me wrong, I love Nathan Lane but list
Read more