The Dirty Half-Dozen – Batman: Assault on Arkham Review

This has got to be one of the most divergent DC Comics animated movies I’ve ever seen. Reserved for the villains, Assault on Arkham is entirely focused on the rogues captured and forced by secret services to pull off dangerous missions. They accept/succeed in their mission to shave off some time from their sentence or decline/fail so their heads can be blown off via microchips in the brain. There’s a reason this group is referred to in the comics as the Suicide Squad as things can get real bloody real fast. This movie stays true to that formula so well it seriously makes me question the PG-13 rating.

The result is something that feels less like a superhero film and more like a gritty action ensemble in the spirit of The Wild Bunch or Inglorious Bastards. Unlike most stories that focus on the villains, it doesn’t compromise that hard with our protagonists to make them more likable. A good villain can hold his/her own in their story and there is a handful here to make this project work.

The misfit gang of rogues features B and C-listers that include Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, Black Spider, King Shark, KGBeast and Joker’s now ex-girlfriend Harley Quinn. Amanda Waller, head of the secret organization responsible for Suicide Squad, assigns the task of breaking into Arkham Asylum and murdering The Riddler for security purposes. Given the rewards and punishments for this mission, few of them actually question the reason why. There’s some chemistry between a few of them, but most remain selfish individuals just barely willing to work together so they’ll survive. At the same time, they’ll also have to deal with a cackling Joker breaking free in the asylum as well as Batman investigating a dirty bomb case related to the clown prince of crime.

While there’s some sympathy given to the character of Deadshot who’s pretty much our main character, the villains here are balanced in being likable and despicable. Despite their efforts at working together, they don’t even have to blink at the chance for letting their egos soar. There’s still some real connection between the group as when Harley decides to take a one-night stand with Deadshot which is consented with a “oh, what the hell.”

The relationship between Killer Frost and King Shark’s much more subtle (thankfully). Their personalities and smarts on the mission make them just likable enough to care for when they start getting picked off in gruesome ways. Characters experience every painful amount of violence from grizzly decapitations to stabbings so frequent they’d be turned into swiss cheese. I didn’t think DC Comics animated films could get more bloodily dark than The Flashpoint Paradox, but this one manages to outdo itself in that department.

Aside from all the heaps of blood, the direction also manages to be very divergent from previous animated superhero movies. The film begins introducing all the key characters as they’re captured for Suicide Squad as if it were a Tarantino film. It’s not only a great way to introduce the ensemble, but gives the film a real sense of style. It does away with the usual swelling orchestra and trades in for edgy hard rock. In any other superhero film it would seem inappropriate, but for a film about a group of misfit criminals on a government mission, it’s a perfect fit. It manages to hit the right tone with a certain level of fun brutality.

You don’t typically want to root for a group of criminals who end up murdering those on the side of justice, but they’re charismatic enough that you start caring which ones will make it out alive once the tables are turned. You’d think with all this attention that Batman would be shoved into a corner, but he does make a brilliant return to form in the second act while not completely taking over the story. His big twist with infiltrating Suicide Squad’s very obvious for how long it builds, but the payoff is still quite pleasing.

While it’s not exactly the more well-written of these DC animated movies, Assault on Arkham succeeds at providing a lot of character and style to a not-so-intricate prison break-in plot. It makes all the right moves by giving the characters enough personality, delivering some unexpected surprises and just being so unapologetically heavy with the sex and violence. Watching this movie reminded me a lot of those campy action movies from the 1980’s that were far more daring and imaginative than most modern action flicks.

It just goes to show how much more experimental and creative these animated movies can be with superhero material than their live-action counterparts. I’m not saying I’d like to see more animated films like this one in particular, but I’m all for them trying out different styles as Assault on Arkham was willing to go in a direction few superhero pictures will tread.

Did you have a chance to watch Assault on Arkham? Let me know what you thought of it in the comment section below. In meantime, check out more of my movie reviews.