Unfortunately DC's animation has been in decline for some time now. Green Lantern: The Animated Series was great (though would have been even better with traditional animation), but Beware the Batman was only so-so, and both are gone now, and their movies since The Flashpoint Paradox have been downright terrible. I hope Gods and Monsters will reverse that process, seeing how it's the return of Bruce Timm.

Beware the Batman and Green Lantern was meh.

Young Justice though I have not seen much of it (And thought Teen Titans was better) was a worthy successor to the old DCAU.

The current DC animated movies were not that bad. Just that they are still under the shadow of the much superior DCAU, its hard to top the quality of Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Teen Titans.

Batman: Assault on Arkham was pretty good IMO, much edgier then any other animated movies since it primarily involves the Suicide Squad. I am really excited for Gods and Monsters, great to see Bruce Timm involved with a new JL movie. From the trailer it looks like the classic animation style from the Justice League series is back and is a Bruce Timm signature, a different take on the same characters will be refreshing.

Here is the Justice League: Gods and Monsters Trailer if anyone else is interested. Also includes a short interview with Bruce Timm afterwards.
Young Justice was fantastic, you should watch the rest of it as I think it was a great series which unfortunately got cancelled due to the lack of toy sales.

Exactly like what happened to Sym-Bionic Titan :(

I think it's the exact opposite. Young Justice was overrated and not very well written (pretty though) and Green Lantern felt like it belonged in the DCAU. It was very well written, had great characters and provided some nice opportunities for them to grow.

Edgie it might have been, but mostly terribly stupid. The whole premise was idiotic. The head of a secret goverment intelligence force needs something done stealthy in Arkham... so sends in a team of crazy mercaneries, including a Hulk-like half-shark albino giant. They could not even drive into Gotham in a van or something, not edgy enough, they had to be dropped from a plane over goddamn Gotham. Stealthy as shit. I mean really, Waller could have just bribed a guard in Arkham and had him poison Riddler's soup. There, mission accomplished.

But what really pissed me off the most, was (SPOILERS) when Batman "joined" the Squad pretending to be the Black Spider. 1) Everyone knew that's Batman. I don't believe a single person in the audience bought that for a single second. 2) While undercover with the Squad, Batman just let them kill the guards at Arkham en masse.

To further add to what Wolfsite has already said, anyone remotely interested in this movie would do themselves well to read this graphic novel if they haven't already. I'm not a die-hard comic book guy, but even I was blown away by the writing in The Dark Knight Returns.

Keep in mind, it's heavily inspired, not based directly on, as Wolfsite said. I doubt the movie will follow it scene for scene, but it gives you an idea on how a mere mortal with an unlimited budget could ever even up the odds against Superman in a fight.

Heck, even if you're not interested in the movie, it's still a great read.

SPOILERS for Batman: Assault on Arkham

It seems to me that you were expecting too much from a comic book animated movie inspired by the video game series. Thats quite a deep analysis of a movie that wasn't meant to be taken seriously at all. They were dropped from a plane because probably Waller wanted to drive home the point that they were merely puppets under her control, completely disposable. So why would she bribe the guard and make the job any easier when she obviously didn't give a crap about any of them.

I agree though that Batman allowing guards to be massacred is really uncharacteristic but part of the reason why I liked the movie is because people were dying left and right which for once depicted that Batman really can't save everyone. As for King Shark, ofcourse he is a dumb character straight out of the comic books but you gotta admit he did have the best lines no matter how cheesy they were. Well I still enjoyed the ride and think it was fun for what is was. :)

That's not a deep analysis, that's giant, immediately obvious plot holes you could drive Batmobile through. When I make a deep analysis it takes longer than the movie :D And I don't think I was expecting too much, I was expecting what I got from many of the previous DC animated movies- good story and writing. I mean really, they handled a similar premise superbly in one episode of the Justice League Unlimited, why should I be forgiving of a feature lenght film supposedly meant for older audience?

Because that would be much easier for her. Why go through all the effort and risk in running a rogue covert superhuman team and breaking into Arkham (and getting Batman's attention inevitably) if you could solve the problem with a 100$ bill and a spoonfull of rat poison?

This could be so easily solved too. Just have the plot be about Joker or Black Mask having taken over part of Gotham, and Waller needs something or someone he has. So she sends in a team of super villains, because they can go undercover as part of Joker's gang. There. Here's the plot. Makes way more sense, actually fits the Arkham games series much more, and I came up with it in 30 seconds. If people who get paid for it can't do as well, I feel I have every right to bash their movie for bad plot and lazy writing.

Well not an in depth analysis but it is nitpicking and if you wanna do that then "The Dark Knight Rises" had a really ridiculous plot and story as well which was clearly meant for a mature older audience. This animated movie was squarely aimed at teens so I managed my expectations accordingly. ;)

Getting Batman's attention was the whole point of this mission and it had to be elaborate to keep him occupied I guess. Besides it wouldn't be interesting just poisoning The Riddler as then there would be no movie. Such concessions are mostly made in these comic book stories for the sake of the coolness factor which is why most of these movies are conceived anyway.

This possibly would have worked better but then it would have been a rehash of what has already been done in the games. The writers are indeed lazy but it is difficult when most of these plot lines and stories have been done multiple times, although I do agree that the overall quality of these DC animated movies has dipped significantly since they have stopped adapting classic and fan favorite story arcs from the comics. :)

Is it a language barrier thing, or does the "dawn of justice" title make everyone's eyes roll ?

I don't get it, why would it?

Just for the exagerately cheesy pompous emptiness of it, even by comics standards ?

I mean, so, this is the story where we'll witness the Dawn of Justice ? Because the Birth of Righteousness and the Rise of Nice are planned for the sequels ?

I wonder, could it possibly have anything to do with this movie leading into the Justice League movie? Nah...

It sounds awesome. Like a purring lion. Not that it actually sounds like a purring lion, it just sounds equally awesome as a purring lion. Which is, like, really awesome.

Ooh.

'kay, would make sense a bit.