The Punisher: One Last Kill Review: Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle Returns in This Pointless Marvel Special

Jon Bernthal's guest role in Daredevil: Born Again offered an unexpectedly self-aware take on the Punisher last year, tackling the character's controversial legacy as a role model for far-right groups and violent cops. His new standalone Disney+ special, The Punisher: One Last Kill, throws all of that insight out the window. In a virtually plotless 48-minute story, we're treated to a tiresome retread of the Punisher's self-destructive grief, paired with another of his bloodthirsty killing sprees.

Narratively speaking, One Last Kill is such a nothingburger that you may wonder why it exists at all. The answer potentially lies behind the scenes. Keen to wield more creative control over a character he's been playing since 2016, Jon Bernthal pitched and co-wrote the script with director Reinaldo Marcus Green. We'll never know if Marvel would've greenlit a similarly vacuous Punisher concept if it had come from a different writer, but as it stands, there's an ominous whiff of vanity project in the air.

Marvel's Disney+ specials are meant to be event programming, starting out with a Halloween horror experiment (Werewolf by Night, starring Gael García Bernal) and a nostalgic blockbuster spin-off (The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special). With Punisher: One Last Kill, the goal is to give fans more time with vigilante Frank Castle (Bernthal) as an R-rated solo act, sandwiched between his supporting roles in Daredevil and the more family-friendly Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But as a showcase for Bernthal's Punisher in all his gritty, muscular glory, this special has nothing new or interesting to offer.

2.0

The Punisher: One Last Kill

at Disney+

Like

• It's short?

Dislike

• Embarrassingly unoriginal concept
• Has nothing insightful to say about its protagonist
• The violence feels gratuitous and unearned

We open with Frank Castle stewing in his own juices, enacting a montage of macho antihero clichés: doing shirtless pull-ups, chugging whiskey, vomiting whiskey, glaring at his murder wall, and (naturally!) punching a mirror in disgust at his own reflection. For the past decade he's been single-mindedly focused on a quest for revenge, hunting down everyone responsible for the death of his wife and kids. Now that all of his targets are dead, he has nothing left to live for.

The old adage states that if you seek revenge, you should dig two graves. In Frank's case, you also need to factor in considerable collateral damage. His final victims were a crime family in Little Sicily, and their deaths throw the neighborhood into disarray, sparking a crime wave that resembles a paranoid boomer fantasy of New York as a lawless dystopia. Gangs roam around killing people's pets, masked vandals throw Molotov cocktails into storefronts, a torn Stars and Stripes flag hangs symbolically from a barbed wire fence. Deadened by PTSD, Frank strides through the chaos in grim silence, contemplating suicide until a surprising encounter forces him back into action. 

At this point it's hard to discuss anything further without spoiling the entire plot, because barely anything actually happens in One Last Kill. Suffice it to say that for much of the episode, Frank returns to familiar territory by massacring dozens of hitmen to a thrash metal soundtrack. It's an embarrassingly lazy use of the Punisher brand, reveling in gratuitous violence with a shallow nod to the character's defining trauma. Does that include a classic dead wife dream sequence where Mrs. Castle lies in bed smiling lovingly at the camera? You betcha!

In theory, this is a transitional moment for Frank, as he figures out what to do now that his revenge quest is complete. There's even a scene where the ghost of one of his military buddies asks him, "What's your purpose now, Marine?"

Of course, in addition to being clumsy writing, this question already has an obvious answer: The Punisher will inevitably move on to target other criminals as a general-purpose vigilante. With that in mind, the film doesn't bother digging any deeper.

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One of the main problems here is that the Punisher concept doesn't benefit from a back-to-basics approach. "Ex-military guy with a dead wife" describes the protagonist of a thousand other revenge thrillers, and if you serve that idea without any seasoning, you're wasting everyone's time. To make this special worth our while, it needed to either give Bernthal a meaty dramatic role, or go the John Wick route by prioritizing cool action and visual flair. However, director Reinaldo Marcus Green — best known for the Will Smith sports biopic King Richard — doesn't do much to elevate the paper-thin script. Instead of feeling like an important chapter in the Punisher's life, it's more like a forgettable B-plot from the old Netflix show, boosted slightly by having a bigger budget for stunts. 

Compared to the success of Daredevil: Born Again, it's frustrating to see the Punisher franchise backslide like this. With the right material, Bernthal is still great casting for the role, but One Last Kill simply has nothing to say. 

Premieres: Tuesday, May 12 at 9/8c on Disney+ 
Who's in it: Jon Bernthal, Judith Light
Who's behind it: Reinaldo Marcus Green (director, co-writer), Jon Bernthal (co-writer)
For fans of: Jon Bernthal