Batman: Assault on Arkham Review

Arkham Asylum has lousy security. You'd think that a place that has pretty much weekly breakouts (holidays too when you have Calendar Man) would try a little bit harder. Like maybe not let in someone suspicious who the system couldn't recognize the first five times you ran his ID, but then suddenly did. Or maybe change the passwords every once in a while, especially when a former member of your staff has gone homicidal and is a wanted criminal. You know, the little things.

The main "heroes" of Assault are the Suicide Squad, a bunch of B and C-list villains rounded up by the US government to run dangerous missions in exchange for reduced sentences. It's a good set-up and a fun bunch of characters - Killer Frost, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, King Shark and Harley Quinn. Boomerang and Deadshot have a rivalry, which results in some fights and a couple of funny lines, nothing really special there. Shark and Frost have a "cool" dynamic (the movie makes plenty more ice puns, don't worry) going on and watching them interact was kind of fun. Harley and Deadshot have a sort of romance going on, which at first I really got into, because it was nice to see Harley taking interest in someone other than the Joker, even going as far as making her hate him for what's he done to her. Unfortunately, it doesn't really go further than that and the implication is that everything goes back to the way it was by the end, which annoyed me. Deadshot sometimes shows off a picture of him and a little girl, which I guess is supposed to mean we should be sympathetic towards him, but it doesn't really work, because he never talks about his daughter with anyone. We don't see them interact in flashbacks or anything, so it was impossible to care about that at all. The plot follows the Suicide Squad as they must break into Arkham to retrieve something from The Riddler, which seems like overkill, considering the aforementioned blatant security problems. Then there are set-ups, double-crosses, ulterior motives, all very predictable and unexciting. Nothing really happens, plot or character wise. Nobody learns anything or gains anything. The action is decent and frequent, but without a good story and character development to back it up, it just ends up feeling rather dull, watching people you don't really care about punching each other. 

Assault on Arkham is supposed to fit with the Arkham video game franchise continuity, which at first I thought would be great. Arkham Origins failed to deliver on its promise to shine a spotlight on a bunch of secondary villains and instead made its story about the Joker and Bane, and while it wasn't a bad story, it threaded familiar ground for the franchise, so I was hoping Assault would make up for that. It kind of does, because it is ultimately about the Suicide Squad and sticks with them for the majority of the time. Batman and the Joker are present, but are definitely side characters. Like I said though, while Assault is about the Suicide Squad, it doesn't really do anything with them. They fight together, share a few memorable moments and lines, they start double-crossing and going their separate ways, or are unceremoniously killed off. That's it. Trying to fit it in the Arkham game continuity makes it even more of a mess though. The Penguin looks and acts nothing like The Penguin from the games and even though he had only scene, it was very distracting. Breaking up Harley and the Joker is a cool concept, but it's wasted in this continuity, because the two are together in the games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, which clearly take place after Assault. The movie is riddled with oddities and inconsistencies like that, and it's frustrating and distracting. 

The animation is decent. The actions scenes in particular look great, but the backgrounds are very lackluster and bland, which kind of sucks the excitement right out of the fights. The character designs, while distinct, didn't really astound and having the guys all dressed up and the gals in revealing skimpy outfits and frequently undressing was just as tasteless as it was pointless. I also noticed a pretty glaring mistake at one point, as Deadshot switched facial hair several times within the same scene. The voice acting is top-notch, with Bat-veteran Kevin Conroy once again donning the cape and cowl and Troy Baker reprising his spectacular debut from Arkham Origins as the new Joker. Even three years later, it's still sad that Mark Hamill retired from the character, but Baker seems more than worthy to fill in those clown shoes His performance is reminiscent of Hamill, but still has its own unique flavor to it. Hearing the Joker cuss thanks to the R-rating was also quite fun. 

Overall I thought Assault on Arkham was a pretty big waste of time. Even die-hard Batman fans won't be able to glean much from this one, sadly. Go back and watch Superman/Batman: Public Enemies or Batman: Under the Red Hood (yet another stellar Joker, this time by John DiMaggio) again, while you wait for Arkham Knight. 

Here we see The Joker about to break out of his cell because the wiring for the door was in the wall of said cell. Yet another brilliant decision by Arkham Security.