Film
Task Force X, of Suicide Squad fame, is tasked with stealing a mystical, powerful object, once again needing to risk life and limb, and possibly betrayal, to make the world a better place.
With the voice talents of Christian Slater (Hot Tub Time Machine 2), Vanessa Williams, and Tara Strong (Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Gnome Alone), to name a few, there is no shortage of talent in this film. As with Batman: Attack on Arkham, it bests its namesake, to deliver a fun film, expanding on the DC Universe, and showing us that, yes, we can get a good movie, with these characters.
While the animation in the film is rather simplistic, waving photorealism in favour of more comic book style, the film is by no means a children’s film, staving off the watered down depictions of kiddies movies, and presenting the viewer with an adult film, with adult themes, and one devoid of childish detour.
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay has a similar visual style to Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, however lacking the nostalgic appeal that movie delivers. However, it does bring its own to the table, and deliver a thoroughly entertaining and engrossing action story, with our favourite anti-heroes.
A fun jaunt into the DC Universe, and an entertaining movie, all in one.
Disc
Overall, the disc is of an average technical quality. Both video and audio might have benefitted from a higher bitrate encoding, and audio might have been more encompassing had there been more discrete use of the surround channels.
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.
Video
Video is encoded at a decent average bitrate, with no visible artefacts on-screen. While there is no visible colour bleed, some colour does feel slightly washed out, lacking vibrance, and some scenes do feel a bit soft due to compression. Darker scenes do maintain adequate detail.
Scaling up to a larger or higher resolution screen would depend on the scaling method used, but viewers with the necessary hardware or software might find that the restrictions imposed by a lower bitrate might become more obvious.
Audio
Sound is encoded at a decent average bitrate, and presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Dialogue is clear via the centre channel, with most of the weight of the soundtrack carried by the front channels. Surround channels are not used much, other than to create a small amount of additional ambience, with almost no discernable discrete audio used here.
Navigation
Navigation is simple, and easy to follow. The main menu is static, with accompanying music, and the films poster as background image.
There are text links to play the main feature, languages, and special features.
The languages sub-menu has text links to pick the desired audio languages, and desired subtitles. There are subtitles in English for the deaf or hearing impaired.
The special features sub-menu has text links to the three included special features.
Bonus Features
There are three special features included on the disc, with each short clip being not just a trailer, but an introduction to each of The Death of Superman, Batman: Assualt on Arkham, and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
These are not just mere trailers, but rather including short sound bites from the filmmakers themselves, giving their own take on teasing each film.
While these may not actually be bonus features for a film, per say, they are still a nice inclusion on the disc, and should whet the appetite for any DC fans.
Packaging
Packaging is pretty standard for the disc, with a poster, with title on the front. On the back of the packaging are a few stills from the main feature, a short synopsis, a listing of bonus features (in an incredibly small font), and the usual technical information.
There are no package inserts, such as chapter listing.
