Today’s quick review: Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay. Deadshot (Christian Slater) and Harley Quinn (Tara Strong) headline the newest incarnation of the Suicide Squad, a black ops team of super-powered convicts working for the US government. Their latest mission is to retrieve a mystical “Get Out of Hell Free” card for Amanda Waller (Vanessa Williams), the team’s dying handler. But with other villains after the card, securing it won’t be easy.
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is an animated superhero movie set in the same continuity as DC’s other recent animated offerings. Hell to Pay takes advantage of a laxer rating to dip into the mature side of the DC Universe, including sex, swearing, and gory violence. The film’s main draw is its complex web of villain-against-villain conflict, which is brought to life with solid animation and a fair amount of action.
Hell to Pay has a lot going for it. The premise is intriguing: a dying Amanda Waller sends the Squad after a card that can save her soul from a nasty fate. That leads to a potent three-way conflict between the Squad and two separate groups of supervillains who want the card. The result is an elaborate, no-holds-barred battle royale between a dozen of DC’s deadliest villains. Decent writing and polished animation round out the package.
The one major weakness of Hell to Pay is a shaky plot structure. To get the card, the Suicide Squad embarks on an RV roadtrip that borders on surreal. The fights along the way live up to their promise, but the investigation itself doesn’t. The hunt for the card veers in different directions with no sense of overarching structure, while the roadtrip itself is executed blandly, with little of the comedy or character development the idea should entail.
Still, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is a strong pick for DC fans who want to see a dozen or more villains duke it out. Its gore and swearing will turn off fans of the lighter side of the superhero genre, but those who don’t mind them will appreciate the film’s interesting, self-contained story. For another mature animated movie from DC, try Justice League Dark. For more Suicide Squad, try either the live-action movie or Suicide Squad: Assault on Arkham.
7.0 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for good action and an interesting premise hurt slightly by the way its plot is set up.