The Punisher: One Last Kill

TW: There is an incident of animal abuse in the opening scene. (Skip to five minutes in if you don't want to see it.) Didn't need that. It's just meh. First off, let me thank whoever concocted 'One Last Kill' for making it a mere 48 minutes instead of feature-length. Please let this be the last time any of us has to sit through Jon Bernthal's iteration of The Punisher and the over-wrought writing his version of the character has received. A quarter of the time spent in this show is literally just street criminals doing things to try to convey why the Punisher might crack and start going after people again, instead of a 30-to-60 second sequence with some narration. And then after that we get yet another scene of re-explaining Frank Castle's trauma, which none of us need, because it's now been explained multiple times across multiple films and TV franchises sufficiently. This really could have just been a cool 45-minute mini action film, but instead, it's an uninspired, boring retread and unnecessarily graphic one at that. The Punisher is a character that deserves way better than this junk.

It is good to see Frank again. This isn't a movie. This is the start of a movie, or maybe the middle of one, with the leadup happening in a flashback. There is no conclusion to the narrative, and no motion to the story, but that's ok, because it is good to see Frank do Frank-things in a Frank-way, setting up for a possible movie, arc in a tv-show, or just a plain nothing, and this is just a massive tease. I am just happy to have seen Frank again. The production itself isn't flawless, but it is more than good enough for what it is. Don't expect high cinema. Just expect Frank doing Frank-things.

Hated this movie, for a moment I thought it would be about something else but it didn't end up materializing the promise it established in the first few scenes, instead it turned into Temu John Wick. I had high expectations that were shattered quicker and more brutally than a lot of the props and set elements during the making of this film.