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I always thought it was strange how there were DC Universe Original Movies animated with child-like cartoon violence but with adult and sexual themes. Straight-to-DVD movies always had a stigma for being low quality and not good enough to be used in an actual movie theater, so it was always surprising to me that these videos ever made enough money to continue being made and sold. Batman: Assault on Arkham is no exception. From a team of people slow walking to rock music, to The Joker dodging projectiles like The Matrix, this video is chock-full of dumb cliches.
Thanks to the unexpected success of the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game, we now have to tolerate the permanent costume change of Harley Quinn and promiscuous nature which deviates from her Animated Series Roots. The theme of this movie, The Suicide Squad, continued to drum interest due a film focusing on the group being released a couple years later. In this case the cast included King Shark, Captain Boomerang, Black Spider, Harley Quinn and Deadshot. I guess KGBeast is also included, but he gets his head blown off near the beginning of the movie.
Our leading lady is given special attention and flaunts her sexuality. We see Harley Quinn topless and nude in two separate scenes, one being a sex scene where she is getting plowed by Deadshot. Killer Frost is naked also. Why all the T and A? Who knows. This is what I was talking about earlier. The rest of the movie seems as if it was written for teenagers, full of cheesy moments and cartoon violence. Sneaking in content for adults makes it confusing what age group Assault on Arkham was intended for.
What is surprising is that this movie has no background or origin based on a graphic novel. Usually a popular or classic story is turned into an animated cash cow while the hype is still high. This is apparently a special case. From just hearing the title, you already know what is going to happen. Suicide Squad breaks into Arkham Asylum, which gives purpose to giving all the villains in the Batman universe some screen time. The Joker conveniently helps all the convicts escape, causing chaos. Again. This has happened so many times that you would think that Arkham Asylum would improve its security. We even see Poison Ivy, wearing her barely-there outfit from the aforementioned video game.
Thank God that Batman makes an appearance to save the day from this list of B-class villains. We see Batman making things straight and saving the day. Without him, this movie would have been more disappointing than it already is. After all, his name is in the title of the movie.
What is weird about this movie is that about an hour into the film, we see Killer Frost step into a police car, trying to escape. Bane then picks up the car, throws it into a wall and it explodes. That is the last time we see her in the film. So did Killer Frost die or what? It was never acknowledged or given any emphasis afterward.
What were your thoughts about Batman: Assault on Arkham? Leave a comment.