I am very behind with watching all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe stuff. I mean, it should be easy since I do have a Disney+ subscription. And yet I’m still playing a whole lot of catch up in order to prepare myself for the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Well, truth be told, besides Eternals, I’ve already seen all of the movies. It’s the television shows I haven’t been keeping up with. So, I actually booted up my Disney+ app and decided to look at what I’ve missed. And wouldn’t you know it? They added a new thing in the Marvel section called The Punisher: One Last Kill. I honestly forgot all about it. Honestly, I wasn’t really in the mood to start a new binge watching session. So I decided to check out The Punisher: One Last Kill as it was only one episode! It was perfect for what I needed at the time.

It turns out this has already been out for around a week now. And I just didn’t notice since, like I said, I haven’t really been keeping up with my Marvel media diet. So, as The Punisher: One Last Kill is relatively new and there may be fans who are like me and haven’t been keeping up with everything Marvel, this is going to be a SPOILER FREE review.

The Punisher: One Last Kill sees Frank Castle AKA The Punisher finally taking out the final members of the cabal who took out his entire family. With that, however, Frank feels like he has no purpose anymore as his “mission” is complete. However, Frank didn’t take into account the wife of one of the mobsters. She now wants revenge and puts a bounty on head and this leads to chaos in the neighborhood Frank lives in as every thug, hitman and killer is now out to get him, innocent bystanders be damned.

There’s a lot to like with The Punisher: One Last Kill. For one, it’s a very quick watch. Clocking in less than an hour, including credits, this is a very digestible special to watch. Because of its compact runtime, they don’t really waste a lot of time with setting up the plot. While it is helpful to have watched both the Daredevil and Punisher television programs to fully understand the character, the special does a fine job of giving you enough information. So, even if you’re like me and haven’t seen Daredevil: Born Again or any of the programs I mentioned, the show holds your hand just enough so you get a broad idea of who Frank Castle is.

I also have to hand it to Jon Bernthal, the guy who plays The Punisher/Frank Castle. Part of the reason why you do get the character is his performance. The script does show he’s a little bit damaged and suffering from PTSD because of all he’s been through and Jon Bernthal’s performance is powerful in conveying all the pain he feels in his head. This is especially true at the start as he feels directionless as he’s already “punished” all the people who are responsible for his family’s death. But when he locks in, he becomes an unstoppable force.

I also do have to give a shoutout to Judith Light, who plays the widow of one of the mobsters who put a hit on Frank. It’s a pretty small role as she’s only on screen for a few minutes. But she has to deliver a really big speech while confronting Frank about the atrocities he has done to her brood. She may not have a lot of screen time but Judith Light did make the most of it.

Of course, as this is a television special based on The Punisher, there was always going to be a lot of action. What I didn’t expect was the second half of the special to be practically one colossal action scene! Now, sadly, I do think this is kind of hit-or-miss for the most part. It’s a hit because the action can get pretty gruesome and violent. I mean, that makes sense for The Punisher, right? After all, he’s a vigilante killer who’s not afraid to use whatever he has on hand to take out his enemies. And he does get pretty creative with some of the kills here and it’s glorious! I guess I do have to put a warning for those who are a little squeamish as they might feel some of the acts of violence can be a little too graphic. Not me, though. I loved it!

I also to have to mention how well choreographed the fight scenes are. I do love how Frank has to keep on moving around and just using everything he has around him, even using the various hitmen out to get him, in order to keep himself safe while also taking them all out at the same time!

I also said the one big action scene is also a miss for a couple of reasons. First, they did use a lot of shaky cam with a lot of the close up fights. I understand using shaky cam makes things look much more hectic and it certainly does here. But I do wish they actually set up the action scenes a little more so that you do get a good view of what’s happening on screen. The second big issue is, well, there’s this one scene where it looked like they used CGI and it just looks awful! As this is a SPOILER FREE review, I won’t say when it happens but, believe me, you’ll know it when you see it! Clean up your act with the CGI already, Marvel! Even with these issues, I do think this one big action scene is fantastic as you don’t really get to take a breath while it’s all happening.

I do have to mention one huge issue I have with The Punisher: One Last Kill and it’s more of a technical issue than anything else. I’m not sure if it’s because I watched it on my laptop but the volume for the dialog comes off as very low. I actually thought there was something wrong with my computer’s speakers. But when I tested it out by playing different stuff on Disney+, they sounded fine. So, I have to conclude this is just with The Punisher: One Last Kill. It’s instances like this when I actually am thankful for subtitles! If there weren’t subtitles, I might not have understood some of the spoken lines with how low the volume was!

All-in-all, The Punisher: One Last Kill was a pretty fun ride. It’s great that Marvel and Disney decided to make a television special that does feel like it has a big budget. The big action scene at the end is a bloody hoot and Jon Bernthal does give an excellent performance here as Frank Castle/The Punisher. However, I can’t really give it a solid recommendation because of the audio problem as it does take away from the experience. Hopefully, Disney will re-release it with a better sound mix. If it does, then this is would be an easy must watch for me.

Have you seen The Punisher: One Last Kill? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!