Best movie of this year hands down!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Whoever was in charge of the audio is an a hole for bouncing the audio and making it unnecessarily high at times.

'Batman: Assault On Arkham (2014)' is the movie that 'Suicide Squad (2016)' should have been. Seeing it through the lens of a world which has now experienced the unfortunate attempt at a live-action incarnation of these characters makes you appreciate this piece even more. It's a unique approach, to focus on someone other than Batman in a feature named after him, more so when they are technically the villains. It's actually a bit of a shame that this wasn't pushed further, having the piece wholly from the perspective of the squad without the 'caped crusader' or with him as an antagonist instead of the strange half-and-half we get here, seemingly only because it is the 'dark knight' who has his name in the title and the star power to sell the picture. Yet, the balance is struck pretty well and our expectations are played with in a few fairly clever ways. Animation wise, the feature is crisp, fluid and aesthetically pleasing. It looks like proper effort was put into every frame - unlike some more recent efforts - and it all comes across as convincing, from the bigger action moments to the smaller character stuff. The voice-work sells a decent script which crafts some great, empathetic and suitably gritty characterisations. The flick is also pretty dark, too, with the stakes set early on and the tension maintained throughout. We care about the bad-guys and that's commendable considering they're properly bad, at times. Overall, it's an interesting, entertaining and unique film that draws you in with its premise and keeps you there with its execution. 7/10

Haven't seen SUICIDE SQUAD, and have no real intention of seeing it. Probably will, at some point, just by sheer odds. The premise is bad enough, and considering you have to be very careful when dealing with a bunch of rogues as the main characters, the writing has to be top notch in order to make the movie work. Considering that SUICIDE SQUAD is related to the same really horrifying universe that contains BATMAN V SUPERMAN, I have to say… I'm REALLY not looking forward to that one.All that being said… This movie is… Well… It's better than BATMAN V SUPERMAN, anyway.It's hard to sympathize with bad guys, unless the bad guys have a reason to be bad guys that goes beyond who they are. Mr. Freeze is a bad guy because of the tragedy that befell his wife, Nora. Edward Nigma (The Riddler) turned criminal when cheated out of his shot at glory by a corporate swindler (assuming of course that the episode of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES was true to his origin). On and on, the best villains are those that are, by far, ones you can either sympathize with… Or be terrified of.The Joker is always in the midst somewhere, and in the midst of this semi-mess of a film he is strangely a breath of fresh air. Most of the main cast is made up of heartless monsters that are not only portrayed as such from moment one on screen (such as King Shark's apartment filled with hanging corpses of his victims as he bathes in their blood) but whose behavior throughout the film gives us nothing to root for. Harley Quinn is at least amusing and strangely sexual (a very interesting decision by the folks making animated DC films these days) and Deadshot is clearly the best gray-area villain of the group. He's clever, deadly, careful, logical… When he and Batman tangle, there's the suggestion that, of all of the strange selections of this particular rogues gallery, he is the one that is the most dangerous to Batman. You have to admire an assassin with a heart. And you should fear that man, as well. So, in that regard, those two villains of the main cast are the ones to watch, and bring the most to the game.The rest are the types you'd see in horror movies, waiting to see when they would buy the farm and in what gruesome way they would buy it. You feel nothing when they get injured, nothing if they die, nothing for them at all, even when the plot is trying to make you feel something for them. They brutally, needlessly slaughter without care or concern, and this brings the worst part of the movie to attention.If you're going to create a "Suicide Squad", the mission you send them on should be almost hopeless. By creating a random team of expendables, you're main concern should only be the calculation of their abilities versus the odds at hand, and no real expectation of victory. Or at least I think that's how you should do it. Hiring a bunch of criminal maniacs to invade a civilian institution at the cost of the lives of the poor schmucks caught in the crossfire is sloppy, reckless, and plainly unnecessary, in regards to the operation in question and with the overall quality of the film itself. Deadshot should have made himself clear as the leader of the pack, and should have controlled his cronies in some way that would have made the death toll less random and pointless.What's worse is the twist of the film, and Batman's behavior, which does not seem to jive with who he is and what he's supposed to mean. On one hand, it feels like a mistake, and on the other, it feels like sloppy writing. With his behavior, the film feels like a commercial for the video game that succeeds it, which, according to the trailers, is the whole point of the film in the first place.Is it fun to see Batman be the bad-ass character he always is? Absolutely. The reaction of the criminals, as vile and monstrous as they are, is absolutely priceless once they realize he's in the game. And the way they handle him overall certainly delivers enough of a punch to satisfy, which is why my rating is a 7 instead of a 6 or 5, which is where it would be if Batman was completely off-target. So there's that, at least.Deadshot and Harley, as I've said, are the semi-protagonists to watch, and the Joker is thrown in for excellent measure to straighten out the plot's wrinkles. Once again, giving enough satisfaction to make you at least appreciate that there are more highs than lows.But not by much.

With "Suicide Squad" coming out in a few weeks, it's gonna have to be pretty good to beat this. Everyone and their mom is gonna have an opinion on "Suicide Squad", but I'm only gonna really see it for one reason, Joker. The only thing I care about is how Jared Leto plays Joker. I don't care about Will Smith, or Margot Robbie, or anybody else in this movie, just Joker. But I'll get to that when I actually see "Suicide Squad", this on the other hand is great. The action's great, the story's great, the animation's awesome, it has everything except one thing. I don't know if it's just that I have this movie on Blu-ray, but during the first half of the film the audio BLARES during action scenes, even on low settings. I've watched this twice on two different TVs, so it might just be the version I have, but I still found it distracting. Everything else though, is top notch. Also, props to Troy Baker for playing a great Joker, I already adore Troy for everything else I know him from, but he nails Joker in this. So I guess the best way to end this review is to say, if you end up not liking "Suicide Squad", just watch this. That's what I'm gonna do if I don't like it.