The one thing that DC always seems to get right is their animated featured films. You may still want another season of Green Lantern Animated or Young Justice, that’s because they are just that good. When I heard the next DC animated film was going to borrow from the Arkham series of games, I was a little timid. The series of games have been amazing, except for Origin, and would an Animated feature be able to capture the world that had been created by RockSteady Games?
I sat down and got an early look at the film, and it’s an interesting style. Is it the next best Batman animated, or just another New52?
The film takes place after the events of the Arkham Origins game. While Batman is present, the film’s focus is on the Suicide Squad. Being somewhat of a comic book nerd, I knew who the Suicide Squad was, and having a knowledge of pre-New52 history, I at least had a bit of foundation to each of the character’s backstory. Anyone else watching the film should probably have a Wikipedia page open before watching, as there is no backstory to anyone in this film, unless you count Deadshot looking at a picture of his kid. Everything else is assumed knowledge.
The movie starts with Batman taking down the Riddler, the Joker has planted a dirty bomb somewhere in Gotham, and Riddler was one of Batman’s leads. Unfortunately, the Riddler is under Amanda Waller’s territory and she decides to assemble another Suicide Squad. This is where you get your lovely character intro for all of the Suicide Squad, it follows a sort of weak attempt at doing a Guy Ritchie Snatch movie intro with everyone essentially getting a couple of seconds to express their character. The Suicide Squad lineup consists of: Deadshot, Black Spider, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, King Shark and KG-Beast.
With a bit of a Battle Royale twist, each member of the Suicide Squad has a bomb placed in the back of their neck, and if they don’t obey… BOOM! So the game plan is essentially to break into Arkham and retrieve a USB Drive found on the Riddler’s staff. With no choice in the matter, they all band together to perform this larger then life heist.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/rL8VnOUtoCg?list=UUK5BOPJc2bxfrvT5AUtilDQ[/youtube]
Other Thoughts
I more than like the concept we were told at SDCC. The film was taking that Heist genre starring the Suicide Squad, and roping Batman into the story . The result, however, is far from appealing, there was something quite a miss when watching the movie. It was something of a misunderstanding of the DC Universe. It felt like I was watching an Image HBO special of “Spawn” or “Youngblood”, where the entire goal was to shock you. Violence has always been in a lot of these DC Animated Movies, and they all follow a pace set by the Comic it’s based on. But watching this film, it seems violence was supposed to be so over the top that it was “fun.” Kind of a Kick Ass sort of approach.
While I can see the appeal to this sort of thing, I wasn’t enjoying it, there wasn’t much humor to it, and it also felt really forced, as if they didn’t understand the characteristics of each member. The same went with the sort of “Nudity” and “Sex” found in this film. Both of the women characters in this film, Harley Quinn and Killer Frost, go topless. While it’s not shown to the audience, they keep their back to the screen while doing it. It felt a tad shameful, especially with the implied characteristics of Harley Quinn.
In Arkham Assault, you watch her in front of the group mention that she wants to have “fun” with Deadshot, only to have Captain Boomerang make a pass at her. Later in the film, Harley sneaks into Deadshots room naked and proceeds to sneak up on him. He flips out, pinning her to the bed, then says “Eh why not”. Cue instant sex scene as Harley flips him over, and then the scene fades out, only to have the SFX of things breaking…
I understand what was trying to be achieved in this film, but again it felt really forced and a tad out of place for the film.
Sound
While it seemed the script fell short, it was by no means the actors’ fault. Everyone seemed to work with what they were given and delivered some A+ work, especially considering some of the voice talents. Returning to his role as Batman we have Kenvin Conroy, Tony Baker returns as Joker, and John DiMaggio as King Shark. It’s a solid enough cast, the movie just felt lost at what it was trying to achieve. Though you could tell everyone was giving it their all.
Overall
Not the best of the DC Animated Movies, in fact, it’s probably one of the worst in my opinion. The movie is by no means unwatchable, but it certainly wasn’t up to the caliber of the other films, especially when it comes the sub characters of the DC Universe.