Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Batman: Assault on Arkham Blu-ray Movie Review

It's good to be bad...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown August 12, 2014

Tucked away in Rocksteady Studios' wildly -- and rightfully -- popular Arkham videogame series is one of the better Batman adaptations to grace the small screen, with a story and cast of characters as addicting as the gameplay itself. So it may come as some surprise to gamers that Batman: Assault on Arkham often distances itself from the franchise upon which it's based. Other than costume design, setting and some character posturing, there isn't a lot drawn from the game saga when it comes to the villains on parade. (The Joker in particular.) Not a gamer? Don't worry much then. As a DCU animated original movie and, more importantly, as an adaptation of DC's New 52 "Suicide Squad" comic series, Assault on Arkham is a twisted, entertaining, nearly R-rated blast of explosive fun, and that rare Batman production that doesn't focus on the Dark Knight. He's a bit player here, little more, and it makes for a fresh, violent plunge into the Gotham City underworld. The script isn't great, but it's decent enough, delivering a forced but fierce, sometimes funny mash-up of Batman's baddest baddies behaving badly. Say that one five times fast.

When Batman (Kevin Conroy) thwarts U.S. government heavy-hitter Amanda Waller's assassination of Edward Nygma (Matthew Gray Gubler), aka The Riddler, and instead takes him to Arkham Asylum, Waller (C.C.H. Pounder) organizes a team of villains -- Deadshot (Neal McDonough), Harley Quinn (Hynden Walch), Captain Boomerang (Greg Ellis), Killer Frost (Jennifer Hale), King Shark (John DiMaggio), Black Spider (Giancarlo Esposito) and KGBeast (Nolan North) -- to infiltrate the facility and execute the madman. But the newly formed "Suicide Squad" isn't comprised of volunteers. The members have surgically implanted explosive devices that will detonate if they get out of line, refuse to obey orders or cross Waller in any way. Now, with Batman in pursuit, Deadshot, Harley and the rest of the Squad have to gear up with the help of The Penguin (North), sneak into Arkham without raising unwanted suspicion, locate The Riddler and, eventually, deal with the recently incarcerated Joker (Troy Baker), who's stashed a dirty bomb somewhere in Gotham.

Assault on Arkham is the new bad boy of the DCU animated lineup, although that reputation comes at a cost: the film so wants to live its PG-13 life on the R-rated edge, to push a few boundaries (sex, borderline nudity and exploding heads among them), that it crosses into desperation once too often. (The New 52's M.O.) It works... I suppose. There's no doubt Deadshot is a different breed of night-stalker than Batman -- that the only things Harley is princess of are pain and punishment -- but the lame excuses for Harley and Killer Frost to strip (hiding in a body bag apparently requires being naked) and the movie's sex-n-violence cocktail occasionally feels tacked on and counter-productive. It doesn't help that the script isn't as sharp or serrated as its antiheroes' villainy, or that, every now and then, it presses its advantage in all the wrong places. So parents beware. No one will mistake Warner Animation's latest for a kid-oriented adventure once it gets going. But somewhere in middle America there'll be a poor, uninformed dad who'll hit play without doing his homework and find himself diving for the remote as his seven-year-old asks why Deadshot and Harley are wrestling without any clothes on.

Kids aside, the attention director Jay Oliva and screenwriter Heath Corson pay to a wide and colorful array of diverse villains -- some familiar, some obscure; some devious, some downright devilish -- is most appreciated. The DC animated movie universe has been so fixated on Batman and Superman of late that any break from the norm is welcome, especially when the Dark Knight's presence is limited to the shadows, a few slickly animated fights and the film's climax. Even then, it isn't Batman who takes down Assault on Arkham's Big Bad. Mild spoiler: it's Deadshot who dishes out justice. Batman actually comes closer than he's ever been to being a distraction. We, the faithful DCU animation fold, have been so rigorously trained to keep our eye on the hero that it would be easy to make it an hour into Assault on Arkham before realizing Batman is a third stringer. He doesn't have an arc at all. Is his minimization refreshing? Yes. Confusing? A bit; enough to make subsequent viewings more rewarding than the first. Deadshot and Harley are the highlights of the movie, the characters with the most compelling paths to travel, and the best written of the bunch. (And thank the maker for that, because Corson's Riddler certainly isn't. Tossing out "when is a door not a door?" as if it's a riddle of the highest caliber. That's Nygma's big opener? Not to mention one of the opening lines of the movie? He improves dramatically by film's end, I'll give ya that. But his introduction falls dishearteningly flat.)

Most of the villains, though, are the stuff of comic geek daydreams. Deadshot is cold, disciplined and calculating. Harley Quinn is pure, unchecked id; an off-her-rocker Joker uber-groupie worthy of going boot to boot with good ol' Batsy. The Joker is fantastic and fantastically frightening too, a tad too far removed from his videogame counterpart but still backed by a dizzying mix of unpredictable, deadly and insane (a combo perfected by Mark Hamill and imitated brilliantly here by Baker.) The bullish intensity of Waller. The cocksure swagger of Captain Boomerang. The icy demeanor of Killer Frost. The amusing big dumb lug-iness of clamp-jaw behemoth Killer Shark. The snarling, fish-gnawing crime lord that is The Penguin (probably the closest the movie comes to paying homage to the games' spin on the characters, along with Batman and Harley). Two-Face, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy and other cameos hit the right notes too, brief as their screentime may be. Add to that another first class voice cast -- the only small issue resting with McDonough, who sounds too much like Conroy -- along with killer action, terrific pacing and a smartly balanced string of backstabs and betrayals sure to keep even the most seasoned comic readers guessing, and Assault on Arkham starts to inch its way up the DCU animated movie food chain. It's not as refined as the best in the series, but it entertains from start to finish, and that goes a long way.

Batman: Assault on Arkham Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Banding, banding, banding. If you've read a review for any DCU animated movie, you know what's coming next. Warner's 1080p/AVC-encoded presentation looks great, outclassing its DVD counterpart in every way. But... but it's riddled with banding (and a hint of macroblocking here and there). As usual, despite an unimpressive video bitrate, the issue appears to be inherent to the source animation, which helps relieve some of the sting. It's still a distraction, though, especially for those who are sensitive to the anomaly. (Ahem. This guy.) Otherwise, there isn't much to complain about. Even though the color palette favors dark grays, piercing whites, darker grays, pale greens, inky blacks and, erm, even darker grays, there's plenty of primary punch to go around, with grisly reds, splashy purples, neon pinks and electric blues growing bolder as the movie nears its climactic, bomb-defusing endgame. Contrast remains consistent as well, and detail is excellent. A few soft shots creep in (most of which are tied to Oliva's faux camera zooms), but the animators' line art is crisp and clean, backgrounds impress and the slightest nuances are intact. If Warner Animation ever manages to rid its productions of banding and other artifacts, the studio's DCU Blu-ray releases will be be nigh unstoppable.

Batman: Assault on Arkham Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Assault on Arkham arrives on Blu-ray armed with a terrific DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Granted, the movie's sound design isn't on the same level as that of a multi-million dollar animated feature film, but for a direct-to-video animated actioner, it boasts plenty of power and presence. The LFE channel lends notable support to gunfire, explosions, helicopters and other devices of destruction, while the rear speakers spread the devastation around the battlefield quite nicely. Directional effects are plentiful and reasonably precise, the soundfield is immersive (even though quieter scenes lack the ambient prowess of more intense or suspenseful sequences), and dialogue is intelligible, neatly prioritized and believably grounded throughout. Will Assault on Arkham's Master Audio track blow people away? Best not to overstate things. However, it's more than comparable to past DCU animated original movie lossless mixes, which almost always deliver a sizeable payload.

Batman: Assault on Arkham Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: DC Comics Animation creative director Mike Carlin, Assault on Arkham writer Heath Corson and executive producer James Tucker cover every major aspect of the film's development, adaptation, voice casting, animation and music. Director Jay Oliva is nowhere to be found, though.
• The Joker's Queen: Harley Quinn (HD, 14 minutes): A look at the animated origin of Harley Quinn, her move to the printed page and the evolution of her character through various media, with Carlin, Quinn co-creator Paul Dini, "Suicide Squad" and Supernatural writer Adam Glass, and Entertainment Weekly writer Geoff Boucher.
• Arkham Analyzed: The Secrets Behind the Asylum (HD, 27 minutes): "All things are possible here and I am what madness made me." The not so hallowed institution of Arkham Asylum, its inspiration, and its place in Batman comic books, television shows, videogames and films, with another lineup of interviews with key industry professionals.
• Justice League: Throne of Atlantis Sneak Peek (HD, 9 minutes): An extended behind-the-scenes promo detailing the production of the next DCU Animated Original Movie, Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, the sequel to Justice League: War.
• From the DC Comics Vault (SD, 91 minutes): "Task Force X" from Justice League Unlimited, "Infiltrator" from Young Justice, "Emperor Joker" from The Brave and the Bold and "Two of a Kind" from The Batman.

Batman: Assault on Arkham Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Is Assault on Arkham the next great DCU animated original movie? Not quite, but it's a helluva lot of fun, not to mention a Gotham-set film that focuses on someone other than Batman for a change. Did I say someone? How about an entire legion of the Dark Knight's most notorious foes -- The Joker, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, The Penguin and The Riddler, just to name a few -- and an extended lineup of more obscure second, third and even fourth tier beasties and baddies. It may be flawed, but it sets itself apart, and far enough to make the Blu-ray edition well worth a spin. Backed by a solid video presentation that trounces its DVD counterpart, a strong DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and a decent armament of special features, Assault on Arkham may even be worth a blind buy.