Brief Story Line
Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal - His & Hers mini series, The Amateur etc) who was suffering from PTSD had trouble in dealing with his loss and having no life purpose. But things became really bad for him when Ma Gnucci (Judith Light - The Menu, Who's the Boss? sitcom etc), the head of Gnucci crime family put a bounty on Frank.
With so many people trying to kill him, Frank had no choice but to fight them all.
So what would happen to Frank? You could find out in this TV Special.
End of Brief Story Line
Yes, the story was indeed that simple. When I began to watch it, I was pretty surprised to see the duration only 48 minutes. I even double checked if I made a mistake and it's actually the first episode of a series. Anyway, after confirming that it was really that short, I continued watching. It took a short while to show what Frank was experiencing, but once Ma Gnucci appeared, it became very interesting, with the nonstop fight between Frank and the swarm of thugs and killers as the greatest highlight. It was satisfying seeing The Punisher returned to action by brutally killing all the bad guys. Be warned though that it was truly violent. No wonder it got a TV-MA rating (suitable only for 17+ in US).
Unfortunately even though it was truly wonderful seeing the action sequence, but I do believe it was too brief. Obviously with just 48 minutes that included closing credits (without any mid or post end credit scene), and the first half showing Frank's struggle, it would not be enough to fully satisfy my hunger of seeing Frank in full action. It felt more like a teaser to a bigger story instead of a full movie. Nevertheless, the fight sequence was truly awesome and credit must be given to the fight choreographer and all the stunts working here cause they really did a wonderful job creating a solid and entertaining scenes. In fact I read that Jon Bernthal performed his own stunts here which was just amazing.
The TV special was directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green whose previous credits were drama films like King Richard, Bob Marley: One Love and few others. So it was kind of a surprise that he was appointed to direct this. He was also credited as co-writer along with Bernthal in his writing debut. Btw, this one was part of phase six of Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since Frank did not appear in second season of Daredevil Born Again, I guess the timeline would be during the same or after that period. Oh there were other people who reprised their roles from the original series, i.e. Deborah Ann Woll (Escape Room, True Blood TV series etc) as Karen Page, Jason R. Moore (First Kill TV series etc) as Curtis Hoyle and Kelli Barret as Frank's deceased wife Maria. Other than those, the rest were support cast in minor roles.
For a TV special, this one seemed to be well received by critics while audience seemed to enjoy Bernthal's portrayal as the Punisher which I totally concur. I agreed with most people's view that he was indeed really convincing as Frank Castle and not only on the brutality side but also his personal despair and desperation. My only wish was for the Special to have been a little bit longer and more action. But as it happened, I will have to settle with this as we wait for him to appear in the subsequent Spider-man movie. So if you miss the Punisher that you admired from the time he appeared in the Netflix series, then this would be a good enough preview or a reminder. Let's hope his brutal action style could be seen more in future.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment