it might have spawned a million margot robbie-based harley quinn costumes and been a huge financial success, but the live action suicide squad was not a good film. with a poor storyline and incredibly weak villain, the movie failed to enchant critics and left many hardcore fans cold. even though it earned $746.8 million at the box office, that doesn’t automatically make it a great addition to the dc extended universe. sure, some of the visual effects and costumes might have been impressive -- it even won best make up at the oscars -- but the narrative was a disjointed mess.
luckily, thanks to the dc animated universe, we’ve finally been given the suicide squad movie that we deserve. and thankfully, it doesn’t include an awful romantic subplot between rick flagg and june moone.
the animated film follows task force x as they’re assigned a personal, off the books mission by amanda waller to obtain a mysterious artifact that could provide the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card. although it’s a simple plot device, it works thanks to all the villains that appear throughout the film. the team is made up of deadshot, harley quinn, captain boomerang, copperhead, bronze tiger and killer frost. and the plot device is a basic excuse to have them interact with iconic characters like the reverse flash, professor pyg and vandal savage. as such, it boasts some truly incredible villains that don’t feel forced into the story.
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but the real stand-out of the film is deadshot a.k.a. floyd lawton, voiced by none other than christian slater. the actor brings a quiet rage to the assassin without sucking energy from the other characters. and whilst the dceu’s suicide squad was very much the will smith show, christian slater’s iteration doesn’t make everything about him. nor does he drag the squad along with his own agenda. he’s mainly mission focused, aside from a slight detour in which he goes looking for his daughter since he’s nearby anyway. remember how the daughter sub-plot and origin was thrown in for dramatic effect to make a vague pass at making the audience care about will smith’s deadshot? it was a messy way of finding an arc for him amongst a film full of other half-attempted character arcs.
the animated film makes no attempt at finding redemption for him. floyd lawton knows exactly what he is: a bad guy. he’s killed people, and isn’t trying to make amends for it. if he gets out from underneath waller’s thumb, he’ll continue to be a killer -- he’ll just be able to see his daughter more often. plus, we don’t see his daughter used as bait or a threatened by the main villain of the film like she was in the dceu. plus, although hell to pay offers a rough direction of what happens to lawton and his daughters relationship, it doesn’t give us a concrete resolution. and honestly, that’s for the best. some things are better left unsaid.
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and then there’s the deadshot costume. there’s no rubber white mask here, instead we get the metallic helmet that we all know and love. the most interesting thing part is how it retracts and re-forms around his face. the easiest thing to compare it to would be star-lord’s helmet in the marvel cinematic universe. it’s a slick way of using the iconic deadshot look without compromising to a modern translation of the mask. and although he does use his wrist guns on multiple occasions, he also utilizes pistols and assault rifles to get the job done. his red, black and silver body armor is complimented by orange straps and pouches to finish off the classic look. it fits in with the rest of the dcau suicide squad costumes as a uniform, rather than in live action where he dresses like a slightly eccentric soldier.
and although suicide squad was very much spun out of batman v superman, thanks to waller wanting a force that could combat metahumans, hell to pay is its own beast even amongst the dceu. it has one tie to a previous film, but the bulk of the plot is very much self-contained without needless cameos or attempting to set up solo spin-off films. because once the live action suicide squad debuted, it became very clear that spinning off characters like harley, the joker and deadshot was very much a priority for warner bros.
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but hell to pay spends less time setting up solo movies or ‘exploring’ a backstory, and thoroughly revels in the excitement of seeing the interactions between some of these characters. for example, instead of telling you exactly who the reverse flash is and what his emotional motivation is, the film gives us captivating scenes like attempting to leap up a building or deadshot trying to shoot the speedster before he catches them. it’s full of incredible moments that perhaps wouldn’t work in live action, but really lend themselves to the world of the dc animated universe.
one of the most annoying moments in the live action film was seeing this group of killers and rogues bond together and become a cliché dysfunctional ‘family’ unit. no, they’re not family whatsoever -- and that’s exactly what hell to pay acknowledges. for the most part, they can barely stand to be in the vicinity of one another, let alone be comfortable as a family. when deadshot and bronze tiger come to blows about floyd sneaking off, it’s not done because bronze tiger is looking out for him – he’s doing it because he truly believes that floyd is too dangerous and should stay away from his own daughter.
whilst jai courtney’s captain boomerang was surprisingly overlooked in the dceu, his animated counterpart’s rivalry with deadshot was genuinely quite entertaining. thankfully, the animated film also doesn’t feel the need to try and pair up floyd with harley quinn much like david ayer did. it was actually a relief for the film not to focus on harley for once, and just let her be part of the ensemble rather than as a domineering character that demands so much screen time. we’re not saying that suicide squad: hell to pay is a perfect film. it does have some pacing issues with its plot, and relies heavily on the use of a single plot device that characters are forced to retrieve rather than to achieve personal gain. but it just seems to flow so much better than the live action version. this is the suicide squad film we deserve.