Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) For DC comic fans, it’s worth noting that this Batman: Assault on Arkham, featuring the Suicide Squad, dates from 2014—two years before the much-derided 2016 David Ayer one, and seven before the somewhat better James Gunn version. As is often the case with the oft-neglected animated version of Batman, this one is surprisingly solid, and sometimes better than the live-action ones. I found the Ayer version too dumb and the Gunn version too gross, but this one feels a bit more balanced: Not as much gore, and yet the renegade personalities of the Squad members are portrayed somewhat credibly, and this animated take on Amanda Waller is far scarier than Viola Davis can be in the live-action ones. While the result is solid, watchable and surprising (most notably in sidelining Batman for a long time while it develops its anti-hero protagonists), it’s not quite great filmmaking: it’s a bit blunt, and the R-rating often feels used in a juvenile way rather than truly freeing the filmmakers from overly restrictive constraints. Still, Batman: Assault on Arkham does have the advantage of a distinctive storyline and doing the Suicide Squad better than the live-action films. That’s not bad at all, especially given the curiously low-profile nature of the DC animated filmography.