Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and written by Jon Bernthal, The Punisher: One Last Kill takes place several months after the events of Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 and follows Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) as he searches for meaning in his life without the need for revenge while being haunted by ghosts of his past, until an unexpected force pulls him back into conflict and sets the stage for his return to the streets as the ruthless Punisher.
Jon Bernthal’s casting as Frank Castle has been widely considered as one of the best castings in comic book adaptations, as he has managed to deliver an amazing portrayal of the character in every single appearance, from his beginnings in Netflix to his recent appearance in Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 last year. However, his resurgence in the MCU needed more than just a special guest appearance in someone else’s show, and instead a full on comeback, and that is exactly what we ended up getting with this new Marvel special presentation brought to us by Jon Bernthal, who wrote the special himself alongside King Richard director Reinaldo Marcus Green.
The Punisher: One Last Kill is a dark, visceral, and brutally relentless tale of rebirth that is magnificently crafted with enormous passion for the titular character. It is a condensed hybrid of an intimate character study that takes us deep into the broken psyche of one of Marvel’s most tragic antiheroes, combined with a superbly executed hyper-violent action flick that fully embraces the vicious nature of the source material. Featuring amazing performances, a solid story, and incredible technical elements, this special presentation serves as a near-perfect and proper reintroduction of the Punisher in the MCU before his appearances in future projects, including the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and will more than likely satisfy long-time fans of the character.
This film features a small cast, but all of the major performances involved were truly fantastic across the board. But of course, the most phenomenal performance of the bunch is our lead reprised by Jon Bernthal, who delivers his darkest and most psychologically complex version of the character yet. Bernthal has become the full embodiment of the character by this point, and yet he always manages to add even more tragic layers to him with every new appearance. I have always felt so much emotional investment for his work as Frank Castle, yet his performance in this film was enough to tear my heart up and really hit hard with his realistic portrayal of torturous mental anguish. He also manages to keep being phenomenal with the primal and ferocious nature of Frank when he goes loose upon those who dare bring harm to others, showing no hesitation or mercy.
Jason R. Moore returns with an excellent performance as a haunting illusion of Frank’s close friend and a former compatriot Curtis Hoyle, who acts as the main voice of mental torment for Frank in his self-exile. While the true fate of Curtis is largely left ambiguous, he’s a clear and ever-present part of Frank’s past that plagues him just as much as his family does.
Also plaguing him in this film is a new villain that is pulled straight from the Punisher comics and known simply as Ma Gnucci, played by Judith Light. She is a ruthless matriarch of a New York crime family that has an obsessive vendetta against Frank Castle after he killed her entire family for their connection to his family’s murder. She uses whatever remains of her influence to hunt him down and cause chaos in the process, not caring for how many innocents get murdered in the crossfire. Despite having a short appearance in this film, she leaves a major impression due to her relentless drive for vengeance and Judith Light’s fantastic performance that creates a scary villain who has nothing to lose and is willing to do anything to see Frank dead. She’s set up to be more than just a one-off villain, so who knows when and where we may see her next, but I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of her.
Similar to the original Punisher series on Netflix, this presentation takes a slow-burn approach in the beginning with its narrative that starts with a beautiful character-driven psychological journey before exploding into an extremely brutal action flick that is executed extremely well. We are given a visually intimate look into Frank Castle’s current mental state since we last saw him and we can clearly see he is not ok in the slightest as the grief, trauma, rage, and war-torn past comes flooding in like a twisted carousel of memories, ready to break him completely just as he gets pulled into action again by a new threat created by his past actions as the Punisher. It is an emotionally raw and heavy story that isn’t afraid to go to dark places as Frank tries to find some form of solace, even if he has to gain it through violent means. It does get hard to watch at times due to some disturbing visuals and moments, yet it manages to maintain all the heart and the passion of a great Punisher story that was clearly made by the hands of someone who understands the character more than most in the past.
The overall narrative and themes of this film are fantastic, but admittedly, it doesn’t add anything entirely new to the character that we haven’t seen before in his previous outings. In some ways, this felt like a reintroduction to the Punisher through another writer’s perspective, which is similar to how comic book characters are passed on through different comic book writers that sometimes choose to revisit the origins and themes of those characters in their own runs but through a different perspective or complete reimagining. While I would have preferred to get something more new, I wasn’t completely against seeing Green and Bernthal’s unique take compared to the Netflix adaptation. I was still very much emotionally invested in everything that was going on with the character in this film, even if it was revisiting things we’ve seen before, which is more than I can say with his last leading appearance in season 2 of the Netflix series that honestly contributed nothing of investing value looking back on it.
The short length also served as an unfortunate negative for the film, despite the great pacing, because I was definitely left wanting a lot more and was saddened by how quickly it came and went. Thankfully by the end of the film it’s made very clear that there is a lot more story to come for this character, starting with his upcoming appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it is likely to continue on having future appearances afterwards, with perhaps a revival series or even a longer film.
The action is unapologetically vicious and gory as one would expect from a Punisher project, but it is also perfectly choreographed and precisely shot to perfection in every way possible. A lot of the action feels like a combination of the bloody primal chaos from the two seasons of the original Netflix series mixed with the smooth and fast-paced brutality of The Raid and John Wick films, which I honestly really loved. This higher budget and stylistic approach to the action is extremely fitting for the Punisher, and it really doesn’t hold back on delivering super graphic kills that are definitely not for the faint of heart.
The practical effects, sets, stunt work, and fight choreography really sell the adrenaline-fueled ultra violence and is also made to look visually stunning thanks to amazing cinematography and editing. The cinematography and editing is also really excellent for the more quiet and somber moments involving Frank’s spiraling mental state. The only technical issue I found was a very noticeable and odd use of CGI for one scene that I feel could have been done easily with a stunt person instead.
Adding on to the awesome action is an equally awesome score by composer Kris Bowers that is heavy metal themed and fits with the relentless violence on screen. There’s also some great uses of some licensed songs that are also very fitting for the Punisher, including “Mother” by Danzig and “I Will Be Heard” by Hatebreed.
While some faults hold it back from being perfect, this special presentation is a proper return of the Punisher in the MCU and is guaranteed to have fans, like myself, craving more of him and his story going forward. Given how violent, intense, and heavy it is as a whole, I can completely understand that it may not be for everyone, much like how the original Netflix series wasn’t for everyone. But for me personally, I’m going to give The Punisher: One Last Kill an A- = 93.
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