Frank Castle, also known as the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), is, first and foremost, interested in punishing himself. He grabs a rod covered with prickly wires and does 40-plus pull-ups. He sees his reflection and punches the mirror with his bare fists. In moments of crisis, he also doesn't mind jumping from terraces. If The Punisher: One Last Kill had shown Frank in a private moment watching porn, one imagines he'd be watching BDSM. Why does Frank inflict so much pain on himself? He is mourning his family's death, which, in One Last Kill, feels aestheticized. Frank's grief allows director Reinaldo Marcus Green to come up with scenes such as the one where Frank, after buying coffee, walks through the streets paying no attention to the surrounding chaos. The camera keeps him in sharp focus while the violence—with its blurred, soft focus—registers as elegant background noise.
One Last Kill is, in the end, all style, filled with decorative flourishes like Frank's hallucinations and the video game-like fight sequence where he dispatches goons and contract killers sent by Ma Gnucci (Judith Light) to avenge the deaths of her own family members, who were killed by the Punisher. Ma Gnucci, like Frank, is consumed by grief. Light plays her with a grief-stricken face and a limp; she needs sticks to rise from her wheelchair and move around, as though sorrow itself has crippled her. One Last Kill leans heavily into its R rating, using it to stage grotesque acts of violence. Frank crushes a man's head, a jerk does something horrible to a dog, and Frank's neighbor is sexually assaulted during the riot orchestrated by Ma Gnucci's men. Green, along with his co-writer Bernthal, uses the early scenes of chaos in Little Sicily as a warm-up. When Frank, consumed by rage, starts dispatching people, we are asked to cheer for him and scream with excitement.
What's missing from all this bloody razzle-dazzle is any real emotional tangibility. One Last Kill doesn't want you to feel sorry for Frank Castle or sympathize with him. It wants you to revel in the Punisher's assault on demented criminals with giddiness, with extreme pleasure. For Green and Bernthal, Frank's tragedy functions both as franchise bait and violent spectacle. To them, the Punisher's punishments carry the seductive appeal of sadomasochism.
Final Score- [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times