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I was thinking it couldn't, because the whole Arkham Asylum concept gets it's power from "oh shit, a bunch of supervillains!", so it doesn't really work if the audience doesn't know who all the supervillains are (in fact, do they even know what Arkham Asylum is? It was really only a plot point in the first movie, and there really an extension of the Scarecrow's villainy). But then I thought that you could reintroduce any villain that's been previously used in a Batman movie and with a tiny refresher course, audiences will get who they are: so there's the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Riddler, Two-Face, Bane, Scarecrow... plus, how much effort does it take to get Killer Croc's deal across? "He has a birth defect and he kills people. Hit him, Batman!"
Then get, say, Hugo Strange as the Big Bad, cherry-pick plot stuff from the video game and the Grant Morrison GN, and put together a simple, action-heavy movie, like The Raid. No big plot to destroy the city, just a bunch of dangerous lunatics threatening to kill hostages. Maybe some grand scheme to free a very special prisoner, a la Con Air (maybe Harley Quinn trying to free the Joker? Ra's al Ghul trying to free Poison Ivy? This stuff writes itself), just to make things interesting, but there's no need to bulk the Joker up on Venom or anything. You can even have the obligatory Big Vehicular Action Scene as either the opener or the climax with Batman trying to catch the escapee before he gets clear.
Hell, you could even steal a plot point from Dredd 3D and have it be Robin or Batgirl's first day on the job. Or add in a subplot of Catwoman on the outside, reluctantly helping Batman with some investigating while he's occupied in Arkham. "Hey, Bats, I jumped between all the lasers in Hugo's office, it was really cool--guess what? He's planning to blow up Arkham to cover his tracks. Cat-pun."
Then get, say, Hugo Strange as the Big Bad, cherry-pick plot stuff from the video game and the Grant Morrison GN, and put together a simple, action-heavy movie, like The Raid. No big plot to destroy the city, just a bunch of dangerous lunatics threatening to kill hostages. Maybe some grand scheme to free a very special prisoner, a la Con Air (maybe Harley Quinn trying to free the Joker? Ra's al Ghul trying to free Poison Ivy? This stuff writes itself), just to make things interesting, but there's no need to bulk the Joker up on Venom or anything. You can even have the obligatory Big Vehicular Action Scene as either the opener or the climax with Batman trying to catch the escapee before he gets clear.
Hell, you could even steal a plot point from Dredd 3D and have it be Robin or Batgirl's first day on the job. Or add in a subplot of Catwoman on the outside, reluctantly helping Batman with some investigating while he's occupied in Arkham. "Hey, Bats, I jumped between all the lasers in Hugo's office, it was really cool--guess what? He's planning to blow up Arkham to cover his tracks. Cat-pun."
