Editor’s Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided Paul with a free copy of the Blu-ray he reviewed in this post. The opinions shared are his own.

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is the tenth installment in a shared DC Animated Movie Universe that began with Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox in 2013 and has built itself into a very intriguing world by releasing two films each year since (including Son of Batman, Batman vs Robin, and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract). It is the second film in this continuity to be released with an R-rating (after Justice League Dark in 2017). That R rating is important here because Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay takes full advantage of it from the opening moments, littering the screen with blood, body parts, and extreme violence.

This is not for kids.

Writer Alan Burnett and Director Sam Liu try their best to capture a seventies grindhouse feel with this film, which unfortunately doesn’t really come through very often due to the clean and over-simplified animation style. The opening and closing credits, on the other hand, feel like they were crafted by Robert Rodriguez for Planet Terror, right down to the guitars and the “scratched” film.

In an opening sequence designed like an intro adventure to a James Bond film, the overall tone is set: lots of murder, lots of blood, lots of betrayal. If you thought that the Suicide Squad live-action film made the team too honorable or likeable, worry not. This time around, everybody’s a bastard and nobody’s safe.

Well, nobody’s safe except for Deadshot (Christian Slater) and Harley Quinn (Tara Strong), of course. As a side-note, this makes the second time Slater has voiced Deadshot, the first being in the animated series Justice League Action – a very different take on the character.

The story has a surprisingly occult angle to it as Amanda Waller (Vanessa Williams) sends Task Force X after a buff fellow calling himself Steel Maxim (Greg Grunberg) in order to retrieve a mysterious card that was last seen in his possession. Turns out the card is literally a magical “Get Out of Hell Free” card that can only be used once to bypass hell and ascend to heaven – providing you’re in possession of it as you die. But they’re not the only ones after the card. Professor Zoom (C. Thomas Howell) is also on the hunt with his partners Silver Banshee (Julie Nathanson) and Blockbuster (Dave Fennoy). As another side-note, remember when having C. Thomas Howell in your film would have merited at least a notice? Not here.

Oh and Vandal Savage is after the card too. For some reason. You know, Vandal Savage the immortal.

Anyway, there are plenty of twists and turns plus the aforementioned tons of murder that might have had a stronger impact with a different animation style. The look of this film was off-putting for me from the very start. It’s simplified and cartoony with lots of bright colors that are at odds with the tone of the story. Something a little more naturalistic would have helped stick the grindhouse/noir approach the script seemed to be demanding.

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay would have also benefited from a more adult approach to its exploitation aspects, especially when it tries to be sexually edgy – although bravo for going the male stripper route. Better animation would have helped the scene seem less silly and more sleazy. In fact, more sleaze all around would have been a great help, especially given their R-rating.

Ultimately, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay doesn’t go far enough to make it something memorable, instead falling back on safe plot twists, childish excesses of violence with no real repercussions, tame sexual teasing that might illicit giggles from pre-teen boys, and a mystical plot that feels totally out of place for this kind of grindhouse approach. The opening and closing credit sequences were the most enjoyable parts of the entire 86 minute runtime.

The Extras

The special features on this one aren’t all that impressive either, although there’s plenty of them. There are two character profiles, for Deadshot and Captain Boomerang, that are somewhat informative, giving a glimpse at the comics history behind them. There are also sneak peeks at the upcoming animated films The Death of Superman and Superman and Batman: Public Enemies, which are pretty nicely done. Both films look more entertaining than this one was. There’s also a look at the making of Batman: Assault on Arkham.

Also included here are an episode each of Beware the Batman (“Instinct”) and Young Justice (“Terrors”). I guess the torture-to-the-eyes Beware the Batman episode is included since its villain, Professor Pyg, makes an appearance in Suicide Squad, and the Young Justice story takes place in Belle Reve Penitentiary, where Amanda Waller is the warden. All in all, they’re both just weird things to include.

The disc also includes a special feature called The Power of Plot Devices, MacGuffins, and Red Herrings where, embarrassingly, the makers of this movie demonstrate that they don’t actually know the difference between the three very different elements of storytelling.

If you watch this and feel the need to go back and make your way through it again, there’s also an audio commentary track by the producer and writer, where they make it plain that the film in their heads is not the film we get here.

 

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