Ugh this and Arrow have both done what Suicide Squad had the potential to do.
shareHaving seen this before Suicide Squad made me even more disappointed about it. Still don't understand why they didn't use this to get some inspiration.
shareYep, Assault on Arkham is the better Suicide Squad movie, probably because it's actually a Batman movie, but also because Assault on Arkham does a better job of making Amanda Waller look totally evil, and shows the conflict within members of Task Force X while also making the bonds between some of them more believable. The action and death scenes of Assault on Arkham are far more intense too. I was surprised when KG Beast's head exploded, but in the film, even if you didn't already know it was going to be Slipknot, you don't even care because he isn't a popular character at all. Assault on Arkham shows the more abusive side of the Joker-Harley relationship whereas the SS film totally sugarcoats it. Joker actually interferes with the Squad's plans in a big way in B:AoA, but in SS he isn't of any real importance outside of trying to help Harley escape (only for her to willingly return to task force x right afterwards). Batman strongly disapproves of Waller's methods in AoA, but in SS Batman is more concerned about using her for intel. I think the only thing done better in the SS film is the inclusion of Rick Flag, but swapping King Shark for Killer Croc in SS was a mistake. Croc does not work well as an ensemble character, and a CGI King Shark probably would've been cool. He has the more interesting backstory too (but apparently Croc's whole backstory was deleted from SS, so maybe they would have done the same to Shark).
shareYep, Assault on Arkham is the better Suicide Squad movie, probably because it's actually a Batman movie
Batman is not just a supporting role in "Assault on Arkham", you're the delusional one. This is a crossover film, they didn't put Batman in it just for sales. It's primarily based on the Batman: Arkham Asylum series. The game "Arkham Origins" introduced Amanda Waller & the game "Arkham Origins Blackgate" had the Suicide Squad, thus they already existed in the Arkham universe before this movie was released. The marketing strategy was to have an Arkham Asylum movie that featured the Suicide Squad as a way to promote the Suicide Squad live-action movie, as a way for people who weren't familiar with SS to get familiarized. It is still very much a Batman movie. He appears throughout the movie... stops Waller's team from killing Riddler, stops Zsasz in the city, beats up on the entire Squad by himself, disguises himself as Black Spider, uncovers Waller's plan, stops an Arkham riot caused by Joker which included big threats like Poison Ivy & Bane, and also saved the city from Joker's dirty bomb. That's a lot more than just a supporting role.
Also, keep in mind that the two main Suicide Squad team members are key characters in the Arkham series, so Harley & Deadshot are just as much Arkham characters as they are Suicide Squad characters.
The facts are AoA is a Batman/Arkham movie featuring Suicide Squad, not an SS movie featuring Batman.
The Suicide Squad movie is the one guilty of throwing in Batman in a minor role to increase sales.
That's not a delusion. It's truth.
I agree with your points.
The marketing strategy was to have an Arkham Asylum movie that featured the Suicide Squad as a way to promote the Suicide Squad live-action movie, as a way for people who weren't familiar with SS to get familiarized.
If you ask me, I would say yes, it helped the box office success slightly. People would have still seen it regardless because of Harley, Joker, and Batman, 3 of the most popular that DC own - but 'Assault on Arkham' was a nice beginners guide for Batman fans who weren't too familiar with Suicide Squad. It gave people who didn't know an idea of what a Suicide Squad film would be like (a heist movie), rather than getting the wrong impression (which people still did because Joker was overused in Marketing the SS film). I imagine 'Assault on Arkham' hurt the critical reception of 'Suicide Squad' though because it gave people some false expectations, like people who imagined more Joker & Batman in SS.
And that goes back to why I say AoA is without a doubt (to me) a Batman movie, because let's imagine it was titled "Suicide Squad: Assault on Arkham".
I imagine that movie would have gotten the following complaints;
-Where is Rick Flagg?! It's not SS without him!
-Why is there so much Joker?! WB/DC only put more of him to increase sales!
-Where are the other DC heroes aside from Batman!? Why is there so much Batman?
-Where are the backstories for the Task Force X members outside of the brief opening montage?!
-Why does King Shark look nothing like himself?
-How dare the movie imply Waller's death!
-Waller needed a team of meta-humans to break into a prison?!
Thus Suicide Squad: Assault on Arkham would not make sense for the title... it's not a Suicide Squad film, it's an Arkhamverse Batman film featuring the Arkhamverse Suicide Squad.
I think maybe the issue may be with the way this movie is directed. It's a movie that focuses on the perspective of the villains more than the hero, ala Suicide Squad, except AoA has a real hero with Batman throughout it, and SS doesn't since flashbacks don't count. Another issue I could see people having is we never see Bruce Wayne in this movie, just Batman, but that's pretty much how it was in the original Arkham Asylum game, so it didn't bother me. I liked this movie's take on Batman because he has no emotional baggage here. We see Batman on the job, doing his thing like a strong, silent warrior. No romantic interest. No Oracle yappin' on Batman's Skype. No flashbacks to his depressing childhood. Just the butt kicking Batman who could defeat Bane in 2 minutes. I could see how people may interpret this as a minimized role for Batman, but I thought it was a refreshing take. Far better than how Batman is portrayed in those Damian Wayne movies.
'Assault on Arkham' was a nice beginners guide for Batman fans who weren't too familiar with Suicide Squad.
I imagine 'Assault on Arkham' hurt the critical reception of 'Suicide Squad' though because it gave people some false expectations
Yeah, avoid Son of Batman and Batman vs Robin, you'll hate them if you dislike Damian. You don't need to see them to enjoy Bad Blood luckily.
Bad Blood is far from flawless though. It's a very unfocused film, but they jam packed it with so many characters that you're statistically bound to like something about it.
Thanks for the confirmation and yeah, I might just invest in Bad Blood.
All for a box of chocolates...
This is a crossover film, they didn't put Batman in it just for sales. It's primarily based on the Batman: Arkham Asylum series.
Batman is not just a supporting role in "Assault on Arkham"
it's astonishing. i have not seen suicide squad as the trailers put me off, but sure if WB had just adapted this they would have had a huge hit on their hands?
I wish even though i liked suicide squad they would have used this script. This was pure 10 out of 10
shareAssault on Arkham was soo much better than Suicide Squad. A live action version of this would have been amazing.
shareThe writing was far better in this. For a start the Squad actually seemed like they were villains and not anti-heroes. Then there was the fact Harley tricked everyone into thinking she hated The Joker when actually she knew where the bomb was the whole time. Thirdly, Amanda seemed more cruel in this. Towards the end of SS, she became quite soft I thought.
SS was still a good film but this was surprisingly good for an animated film.
Agreed.
Assault on Arkham had a good plot, structure, better joker and more batman, congruent tone and most importantly: villains acting like villains;
I rwmatched this after I saw Suicide Squad in cinemas, Assault on Arkham is vastly superior.
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I felt tricked. I assumed Suicide Squad was gonna be a live action version of Assault on Arkham. Suicide Squad was trash.
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