Batman: Assault on Arkham

While the other animated movies in the DCU: Batman franchise have their fair share of cynicism and complicated storylines, this one manages to outdo them. The cynicism comes off as excessive and glib. The Joker's sick humor referencing his physical abuse of Harley Quinn when they were lovers comes off as, at best, an unnecessary revelation of the Joker's character (this just in: The Joker isn't very nice), and at worst, mining humor out of abuse. The cast is large and unwieldy; the conflicts between the Suicide Squad are nearly impossible to keep track of. Some of the characters fight each other, others sleep together. They're supposed to go into Arkham Asylum, but there are all these other side conflicts that get in the way of the main story.

The relative lack of Batman to counterbalance all the bad guys and ladies also wears thin in Batman: Assault on Arkham. Animated or not, the enigmatic Batman tends to heighten and exaggerate the flamboyance of his enemies. When the focus is almost exclusively on his enemies, that lack of contrast loses the integral part of an overall conflict that sustains the other Batman movies. The result is an overly complicated, overly cynical production best only for superfans of either the Batman franchise or the video game on which this is based.