AKA Suicide Squad the movie, AKA Harley Quinn soft core
We start with Batman (Kevin Conroy...the one true Batman) happening upon The Riddler (Matthew Gray Gruber) when he is being arrested by Amanda Waller (CCH Pounder). It turns out The Joker (Troy Baker, because Mark Hamill won't reprise his role, sadly) has planted a dirty bomb somewhere in Gotham and Batman is getting desperate to find it. During this time Amanda Waller calls in her special forces team, Task Force X, (AKA The Suicide Squad) to deal with her Riddler situation. Our team consists of highly dangerous convicts made to do Waller's bidding because of some small explosives Waller has put at the base of their necks. The team consists of Deadshot/Floyd Lawton (Neil McDonough), Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel (Hayden Walch), King Shark/Nanaue (John DiMaggio), Captain Boomerang/George Harkness (Greg Ellis), Black Spider/Eric Needham (Giancarlo Esposito), and Killer Frost/Louise Lincoln (Jennifer Hale). The team's mission is to find the Riddler's cane, which is supposed to have a thumb drive with files on the entire Suicide Squad in it.
The story in this movie isn't what I would call the best I have seen from DC animation studios, definitely not the worst (looking at you Justice League: War) but I have seen better. The thing about this movie is that it seems to be HEAVILY influenced by the Arkham videogames. There is nothing wrong with (most) of the Arkham videogames, I find (most) of them quite enjoyable; but when it comes to storyline they fall a little flat in comparison to other classic storylines I have read. The problem with the storyline is that it lacks substance, it feels like it is just a fun ride watching some villains that the majority of people (not me) haven't heard of yet, fight there way through Arkham and try to avoid Batman in the process. I think they definitely nailed the team dynamic down, it feels a little more like watching convicts try to be a team instead of your usual Justice League story we have seen fifty times over (one of those fifty times unfortunately having to be Justice League: War, AKA The New 52 movie). There are some more subtle points that I like in this storyline, like: Deadshot's relationship with his daughter, the Joker and Harley relationship is always fun, the Black Spider being a member adds a bit of transgression, and the Killer Frost/King Shark relationship is cute. Unfortunately, they don't really do anything with that material, just keep it as a whisper in the back of the movie while you watch Harley Quinn be overly sexual and Deadshot be crazy-accurate. A missed opportunity to expand the characters into something more than villains hired by the government; but, I guess I can't blame them for not wanting this movie to be too long. 
The real winner here is the dialogue between the characters. There are some obvious points where they are trying to make characters have catchphrases, like: Harley Quinn saying "Yahtzee!" but, for the most part the dialogue comes across strong. A couple of my favorite lines are Harley telling Boomerang "someone that uses Boomerangs as a weapon has some real trouble letting go," and there is always Deadshot hurling insults at Boomerang like "you low class, C-lister." The dialogue here is fun, and deceptively good, so audiences shouldn't have a problem finding a favorite member of the team after a while.
Let's go ahead and talk about the acting here (since I view voice acting as an unsung art form). Kevin Conroy as Batman will always be good; but, since Batman isn't in this too much I get to talk about the other people. Neal McDonough did a fine job as a more serious, less articulate Deadshot; but my heart for that role will always belong with Michael Rosenbaum. Hynden Walch is a master of her craft and she has played this character before, you may also know her from "Teen Titans" and "Adventure Time." Troy Baker isn't Mark Hamill but he does his best to fill the shoes and actually is pretty decent at it. The rest of the voice actors did well in their own rights, those are just the ones I thought required special notation.
In the end, this isn't the greatest story you will be able to find out their, but it might be worth a look. The Suicide Squad is one of my favorite villain team ups, and it is nice to see they did the team some justice. I don't usually like talking about the animation because I am no artist; but, if you want to know, I liked it. I liked the whole anime-esque feeling it had, and it seemed to make the action scenes come through seamlessly. Not going to go down as one of my favorites, but it could be the gap that bridges some Batman fans from "Just liking the videogames/major motion pictures" too "Reading the comics," so you might want to introduce your friends to it.
Final Verdict: Rent it A big step up from "The New 52," but still a little lazy in some areas. I could make a few more suggestions of good animated movies, but as far as this one goes it is worth a watch, but I wouldn't spend 20 bucks on it.
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Little less sociopath, little more honorable street-punk
We start our story with The League of Assassins being led by Ras Al Ghul, while his grandson Damien (Stuart Allan) looks over the league that is soon to be his. The League is beset upon by an old member Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke (Thomas Gibson) who takes the life of the leader in his coup. Damien's mother, Talia (Morena Baccarin) fears for the life of her child and sends him to be with his father, Batman (Jason O' Mara). Batman has to reteach his son that in order to be a worthy successor to the Batman lineage he must drop his homicidal upbringing and learn to seek justice the Batman way. Batman.
The storyline here is the major fault in the movie (again). I love Damien Wayne as a character in the comics, he was my second favorite Robin (yeah, Dick Grayson is still numero uno); but, here they make him seem like a more acceptable Jason Todd (Jason Todd is the second incarnation of Robin, more on him in another review....*wink*). It isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a little more PG13 then I remember Damien being (as opposed to R). Unfortunately, we still see Nightwing as a side character instead of part of the major plot, and my wishes for a Nightwing animated venture still go unanswered. The rest of the storyline is pretty basic as far as Batman/Robin stories go, except this time the kid doesn't really need to be trained. The disturbing part of this was the date rape arc that led to Damien's birth; but, I guess that is just DC's way of saying "Batman would always use protection unless he was drugged. Wrap your tool kid's." They even went so far as to put a line of dialogue in it that specifically has Nightwing saying "after all the lectures he gave me about protection."
The dialogue here isn't as big of winner as the movie above; but, has it's decent moments. Most of the fun dialogue was given to Damien (as it should be). You really get a sense of the kid's personality as he order's Alfred around, interrogates criminals, and talks to his father. You get even more of a sense for the kid's lifestyle before Batman, as he tells of his training under the league of assassins. He hacked in NATO when he was such and such an age, he climbed a mountain at such and such an age with a broken arm. He really makes Batman seem like he has had an easy life, but we still get the sense that Batman is the end all be all ass kicker. Somehow, his legend seems to pale in comparison to Damien, and I feel that if we got to see this arc go further down the line we would have seen Damien over take his father as a teenager.
The acting in this is great, but we are missing Kevin Conroy as our caped crusader; which sucks but at least they brought in someone who has done it before. Jason O' Mara may have only had his chance at the voice of Batman once (and that one time was unfortunately Justice League: War); but, he does well enough without over doing the bit. Our child actor Stuart Allan is the real star here, giving the lines as Damien flawlessly and making us really think that this kid really has no moral compass. Thomas Gibson is no Ron Perlman, but I guess they were trying to go more random villain then ultimate bad guy. The rest of the cast does well as support, but they never separate themselves from that assigned role, never distinguish themselves. Instead they get lost in the ether and are easily forgotten.
As I said before, I am no artist; but, my take on the art here is more lazy anime than anything., It really goes over the top with its call back to anime by making the Assassins in The League of Assassins look like Naruto ninjas (I have never watched Naruto, and therefore have no ill will towards that show, but the animation in this was a bit much). There are too many moments of empty space, and way too many moments where the characters are looked at from afar so we don't have to see their lips move. Aside from that this movie falls to the wayside on many different fronts. Easily forgotten, a fair attempt at trying to convey the Damien Wayne story arc, but ultimately a misstep in DC's nearly perfect lineage of animated features. I have always said that if DC keeps failing at making big budget movies, they at least have animation to fall back on; but this just seems too run of the mill for me to condone that statement (and Justice League: War was awful, you might be able to form a drinking game out of how many times I have said that). Not the best, not good, just fair enough.
Final Verdict: Netflix it Not worth your money, but good for a lazy day when you have nothing to do. Both movies I have reviewed are not necessarily intended for children, so you might want to wait before showing this to your adolescent.
Like this? Tune in tomorrow as I answer a reader request for "Dark Knight: Returns" Part 1 and 2; as well as "Batman: Under the Red Hood."
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