Review: Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay
Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay is the latest DCAU movie to come out and you can bet that it looks like one hell of a ride. Does the movie live up to the hype? Or should it just be terminated?
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
What makes this movie different from the rest is that it is a 100% brand new story. Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay doesn’t base itself on any previous Suicide Squad arc or comic. It goes to show that DC Animation can craft their own stories and they can be entertaining as hell.
Another thing I want to address is that this is an R-rated movie. While you may be thinking that it doesn’t hold much significance, DC has been giving most of their Animated Movies R ratings nowadays. While most of them don’t really feel like an R, this one is the first true DC Animated movie that actually earns its R rating. There is plenty of blood, violence, partial nudity and swearing that it makes it entertaining and not safe for kids.
The story follows the Suicide Squad as they go out on a mission to find a literal “Get out of Hell” card. Amanda Waller (Vanessa Williams), wants this mystical card so she can use it on herself, either today or maybe a couple of years down the line. This mission sees the squad go on a road trip in an RV (To keep things lowkey), to track down Maxum Steel (Greg Grunberg), who is a previous host for Doctor Fate. Steel lost the card after it was stolen from him by two women who he was looking to score with. These ladies were Scandal Savage (Dania Ramirez), and Knockout (Cissy Jones). Scandal wants to give the card to her Dad, Vandal Savage (Jim Pirri), so he can use it to finally die and go to heaven. Halfway through the mission, Waller calls up Deadshot (Christian Slader), and she tells him that if he can deliver the card to her personally, she will let him walk a free man. This doesn’t go as planned because we learn that Eobard Thawne (C. Thomas Howell), who we last saw got shot in the head in the Flashpoint Paradox, is somehow alive and he is also after the card. Thawne is barely still alive and is running on borrowed time (Sorry, not sorry). This all leads to a battle at the end in Vandal’s HQ where we see that Vandal used Professor Pyg (James Urbaniak), to surgically put the card into him. This guarantees that anyone who tries to take the card from Vandal will kill him and the card will be used up. This leads to a bloody battle with only Deadshot and Captain Boomerang (Liam McIntyre), left standing. Before Waller arrives, Deadshot gives the card to the dying Bronze Tiger (Billy Brown), and is able to let him use the card so he can die in peace. Deadshot gives Waller the card, doesn’t tell her that Tiger used it and he is now a free man, Deadshot is now able to see his daughter for the first time in a long time.
The voice acting in this movie is awesome. Christian Slader voices Deadshot and he does an amazing job. Slader brings his own uniqueness to the character and it helps him stand out from the rest. C. Thomas Howell is amazing as Thawne and I didn’t think he would be in this movie so it’s truly a surprise. Howell voiced Thawne in Flashpoint Paradox as well and he is truly a standout villain in this movie. I also loved Vanessa Williams as Waller. No matter what version I see, I have never heard a bad Waller before and Williams is able to continue this streak. I really do love Amanda Waller as a character in general and she is both fierce and manipulative at the same time. Everyone else did an awesome job in this movie.
One thing I can say about this movie is that it is filled with dark humour and is wildly entertaining. I love how the squad just travels around in an RV and they keep getting into trouble and screwing up. Along the way, we see various people get shot, frozen, taken over by mind control and also have their explosives go off.
This movie doesn’t hold back when it comes to the main characters. By the end of the movie, half of the cast is dead. The only ones left standing are Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerang. While this isn’t a bad thing, you think they would keep some of the members alive for future movies but no. It really does show that the writers knew what kind of movie they were writing and that on the Suicide Squad, everyone is replaceable (Except for the three mentioned above, they are the money makers after all).
The Verdict:
Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay is a dark, bloody, entertaining and funny animated movie. I wasn’t expecting to walk away loving this movie so much. The movie isn’t perfect by any means. However, if you are looking for a bloody good time, look no further then Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay. Just don’t try and look for any connections to past stories, you won’t find any here.
8/10
The Joker Origin Movie Developing Without Jared Leto
Deadline has reported that a new Joker movie is in the works over at Warner Bros… without Jared Leto.
As we know, Leto was the latest actor to take on the Joker on the silver screen, a role who has been brilliantly played before by Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson. Even though Leto’s performance was criticized by a lot of fans, others admired his work as the character and are genuinely upset to see that he will be left out of the movie.
These fans mustn’t worry, however, Leto is not out of the DCEU as he was confirmed to make appearances in both Suicide Squad 2 and the Harley Quinn solo movie.
Now the question becomes, why is Leto not reprising his role as the Joker in this origin movie? Well, according to the article, this origin movie would be the first of a new set of DC movies that would “expand the canon of DC properties and create unique storylines with different actors playing the iconic characters.”
The Joker origin movie already has some behind-the-camera talent attached. Martin Scorsese (Taxi Drivers, Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street) is set to produce alongside Todd Phillips (The Hangover, War Dogs) who will also direct and co-write with Scott Silver (The Fighter, The Finest Hours).
The movie would be set in the 80s and have a very different feeling from current DC films, leaning more towards the sensation of a Scorsese movie of the same time.
The movie doesn’t have a release date as of now.