Batman: Assault on Arkham

It's weird that you'll ever find yourself rooting for the bad guys to win and "Assault on Arkham" makes you do this exactly.

The film introduces you to an ensemble of villains, given an objective that depends on their lives. You find yourself quite absorbed in the plot and the characters as they interact with each other (not always harmoniously), almost wanting to see them succeed when going to the lengths that they do.

If you're turning this film on expecting it to be a "Batman" film then you may be disappointed to know that he only appears for a few minutes at a time and that the central focus actually lies on the Suicide Squad, but, knowing this in advance allows you to enjoy and appreciate the film a lot more. Thankfully, I was informed of this beforehand and equally loved seeing either Batman or his adversaries on-screen, therefore making it all the more exciting to see them all appear at once at the same time.

The animation and art style is great and superb voice acting by Kevin Conroy (Batman), Troy Baker (The Joker), Neal McDonough (Deadshot) and pretty much everyone else; they really bring the characters to life, especially Conroy who has been voicing the caped crusader for decades and practically knows the character inside out.

My only issue with "Batman: Assault on Arkham" is that it is too short, especially when the film gets going in the final act and has a lot to potentially offer but doesn't really have the time or room to explore. This is a good animated film and definitely worth the watch if you're a Batman fan, especially if you're familiar with the "Batman: Arkham" video game series.

Batman is a real badass, the Joker is a total wacko, Harley Quinn is hot. What else do you need? No but seriously, Aussault on Arkham did many things right, the characters are fun (especially Boomerang who is the major comic relief in this movie, the Joker and of course Quinn), the action is pretty awesome and there were some very fine One-Liners also.

What I liked the most was the very mature style of the movie, there is blood spilled, heads are blown of and teeth get punched in but nothing is never totally over the top (as many already said it's very surprising Assault on Arkham was rated PG-13 and not R).

Altogether I liked:

-gritty style

-mature humor

-well animated action/fight scenes

-actuall plot surprises

-real fight consequences (villains DIE, and don't flee with a black eye)

-GREAT voice acting

Now for the things I did not like:

-not enough Joker (yes his role was pretty major but it was not quite enough screen time for my taste)

-overall to short (71 mins? really?)

Based on the so-called "Suicide Squad", 'Batman: Assault on Arkham' plays like a 'Dirty Dozen' comprised of mostly B-list Batman villains. Batman himself is really a side player here, and quite honestly by the time he becomes involved in the story, his presence is unwelcome. By that point we're fully invested in the Suicide Squad and Bats feels like a bucket of cold water.

I've seen a handful of these direct-to-DVD animated 'Batman' movies and I continue to be amazed by how far they push the violence envelope. I'd dare say this is more brutal than even 'The Dark Knight', with exploding heads, lots of human collateral damage and blood aplenty. There are even a couple of cases of near nudity (and I mean *near*) and implied sex. Definitely not for kids.

Good animation, solid voice acting and a refreshingly different story make this one a worthwhile watch.

I just finishing watching Son of Batman, and I was thinking to myself, this movie is pretty edgy and leans more toward adults than I would ever expected. Than I saw Assault on Arkham, and can see were the DCAU is going. This is far more Edgy.

The movie takes elements from the recent run of Suicide Squad of the new 52s revamp at DC comics and mixes it with elements of the Batman Akrham game series. Batman wears the costume from the game, but has the voice of the greatest man ever to play (voice) Batman, Kevin Conroy.

Batman takes a slight step back in this movie as Amanda Waller assembles the suicide Squad to get a thumb drive the Riddler has on all the members of the Suicide Squad before he makes it public. They have to infiltrate Arkham in order to do it.

The animated film is Dark, it reminds me of the late 80's early 90's anime like Gogolo 13 and fist of the North Star that got me into anime in the first place. I'm happy to see Warner Bros. animation go in this direction.

Two thumbs up!

Even though it feels more like a Suicide Squad film than a Batman movie, Batman: Assault on Arkham is an incredible DC animated movie that fits nicely into the Arkham video game timeline. Kevin Conroy is reliably perfect as Batman, Matthew Gray Gubler is excellent as The Riddler and Troy Baker is an amazing Joker. Neal McDonough and Hynden Walch are both great. It's extremely well paced. The animation and the direction by Jay Oliva and Ethan Spaulding are also great. It's effectively unpredictable and funny. The music by Robert J. Kral is really good.