Above: The Joker returns in DC's latest
DC
Comics’s Suicide Squad is one of my favorite concepts that, sadly, hasn’t made
much impact beyond the panels of its books. It’s essentially “The Dirty Dozen,” but with
comic book villains: a group of super-powered convicts are recruited by
different government agencies to do off-the-books black-ops missions with high
fatality risks.
While the characters’ loose moralities and conflicting natures
make them interesting to read about, they also limit what the Squad (a.k.a.
Task Force X) can do in franchises that are mostly aimed at younger demographics. Case in point—the Squad has made it to television
all of three times: once in an excellent show (“Justice League Unlimited”), but
twice in lower-quality programs (“Smallville” and “Arrow”). However, with
“Batman: Assault on Arkham,” the Squad has, for the first time, a movie all to
themselves, and they make the most of it.
Set in the same continuity as the
popular “Arkham” video game series, “Assault” begins with the Riddler (Matthew
Gray Gubler) betraying federal agent Amanda Waller (C.C.H. Pounder) and
stealing files on all of the Suicide Squad members. In response, Waller assembles a new Task Force
X to break into Arkham Asylum to retake the files. However, an ulterior motive from Waller and
another face-off between Batman (Kevin Conroy) and the Joker (Troy Baker)
threaten to put the mission and our leading bad guys in harm’s way.
“Assault” is, as I stated before, a
Suicide Squad story through and through, with the Squad in this case made up of
Deadshot (Neal McDonough), Captain Boomerang (Greg Ellis), Black Spider
(Giancarlo Esposito), Killer Frost (Jennifer Hale), King Shark (John Dimaggio),
and Harley Quinn (Hynden Walch), plus KGBeast (Nolan North) acting as the
requisite red shirt. And the
interactions between the convicts are what make the movie, from Shark and
Frost’s odd friendship to Spider’s disdain for his compatriots to Deadshot and
Boomerang’s bickering. They’re a diverse
group and it’s their well-defined and explosive personalities that keep the
momentum of the film going.
Also, the cast is uniformly good,
with all of the principle actors being veterans of DC Animated work. Mr. McDonough brings an icy professionalism to
Deadshot, Ms. Pounder plays up a certain viciousness to Amanda Waller that we
haven’t seen before, and Mr. Baker continues to shine as the Joker, doing a
good impression of Mark Hamill’s take on the character (while still making it
his own).
The film does have some flaws.
One weak link in the cast is Ms. Walch as Harley Quinn, less so because
of her performance and more because the character’s high-pitched Brooklyn
accent can grate after extending listenings.
Even less welcome is the change in the music; while most of the movie
flows with the operatic score often heard in other DC products, some segments
feature an ugly dubstep beat that breaks the flow and doesn’t fit the mood.
Luckily, you can more or less ignore
these shortcomings since the action in the movie is strong, albeit quite a bit
more brutal than some fans may be used to.
The Suicide Squad is a group of hardened killers, after all, and they
don’t hold back against the Arkham staff—they shoot and behead guards without restraint.
Beyond that intriguing change of pace, “Assault on Arkham” is a
disposable popcorn movie; the kind of story that would typically start with the
phrase, “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” But
it’s still a fun film, an action/adventure black comedy led by some interesting
bastards. If you’re a fan of DC comics
or just the “Arkham” games, give it a look and enjoy the madness.
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