I think including Frank is an interesting choice because he's woefully unable to help Peter with any of the villains he faces.  I do think they did the best they could to bring Frank into a PG-13 movie - I thought he cursed a lot for a family-friendly movie.  Maybe not the exact language that he would use in One Last Kill or Daredevil, but I'd say he was 95% of the cursing in the movie?  He was toned down but I wouldn't say they sanitized him all that much.

I wonder if this movie would've been better if it had been Daredevil instead of Punisher.  Daredevil, you gotta think, would have a better ability to fight Jean, and he'd have a better chance of surviving against the Hulk.  I wonder if Destin Daniel Cretton requested Punisher or if Feige pushed for Punisher.

I think if you're cool with Jean's characterization, then that was my major concern with the film.  I know Nando v Movies loved Brand New Day, and he's a huge X-Men fan.  If he wasn't upset about Jean, I probably shouldn't be either.

I thought it was really good too.

Jean Grey's most prominent story is losing control of her powers in "The Dark Phoenix Saga" and destroying a whole planet and then realizing she's lost control of her powers and ending her own life, so Jean mis-using her powers is a pretty definitive character trait, fairly or unfairly.

There's actually a Wilson Fisk poster in one scene. Ultimately, New York wanted crime to stop. Fisk seemed to accomplish that with this AVTF. Spider-Man also accomplished it.

I would say that the continuity for Frank is not super-tight: in ONE LAST KILL, he was in Little Sicily, a lawless neighbourhood where the police have given up and Spider-Man was inexplicably nowhere to be found (or he had not gotten to that city block yet and was working his way there). In BRAND NEW DAY, Frank is not living there (although he must have multiple bunkers) and his operations are across the city and not focused on the Gnuccis, who are not mentioned. But he may be rotating between missions as needed.

I also have to say, while I would rate the film as highly as you did, I must question Frank's progression from traumatized and dangerous war veteran whose grasp on reality is extremely shaky to mildly psychotic uncle with guns in comedy B-plots.

I had the pleasure of seeing it in motion-enhanced 4DX seats, so I'll have more to say later.

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I thought it was a really thoughtful movie that used a lot of MCU characters to make the world feel lived in and real.  I thought the performances were really good, the direction was great, and the story was a lot of fun.  It was really nice to see that Peter would go to Yelena for help with intel, to Bruce for help with science, to Frank with help on strategy.  It probably does the best job of using the shared universe in a really long time.

I don't have a ton of negative things to say, but a few things sorta bothered me.  Maybe just enough to bump it down to a 9.5/10.  I really liked it.

- Jean Grey.  Going in, that's who I assumed she would be.  But as the movie went on, I wondered if maybe I'd been tricked.  So when it was revealed, I was a little torn.  I don't read almost any X-Men comics, but do we think comic Jean Grey would do all the things that Jean does in this movie?  There were a couple of things that she did (putting civilians in danger and taking over MJ) that felt crueler than the Jean Grey that I know from movies and the cartoons.  I understand a) she was angry and b) she can change and be redeemed, but she could've easily killed dozens (hundreds?  thousands?) of people with her actions in this movie.  And I don't know if she came off as smart or impressive, either.  I think she probably could've been honest with Peter about 1/3 of the way through the movie and saved herself a lot of trouble.  I also worry about the whole body-snatcher aspect.  My understanding is that she can't traditionally do that.

- I'm still a little blown away by the lack of Sam Wilson in Phases 4-6.  He was in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and he was in Brave New World.  I think it would've made the Multiverse saga better if he was in 10 of these movies.  He should've been the Nick Fury of these movies, and I'm just not entirely sure why he's been almost completely absent for most of this.  If Sam is really doing some kind of secondary Avengers, why wouldn't Peter go to him?  I don't know which Avengers that Peter has spent any time with, but unless Yelena is way easier to get in contact with, he's at least fought next to Sam and Scott.  It would just be nice to have any information on what Sam is doing.

- No references to Daredevil: Born Again.  The same city that voted in Wilson Fisk is cheering on Peter all movie?

- I liked the Spider-Man post-credits, but I would've loved to have something with Jean teasing the X-Men, but it sounds like they don't have their ducks in a row to do that yet.

But great movie.  Really loved it.  Probably the best movie of this whole saga if I'm being honest.  Would love another several Tom Holland Spider-Man movies.  Maybe two more before they introduce Miles and then a couple Peter and Miles movies before Tom steps away.

I don't disagree with why you found it dis-satisfying in some areas, but from an Abed-esque, metatextual standpoint, all of those areas of non-resolution and withheld exposition and avoidance of connective tissue with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe were willful, not because Jon Bernthal is opposed to them, but because his goals for ONE LAST KILL strike me as prioritizing different concerns. This also seems to be why we don't see Frank shave his beard.

Bear with me...

Frank Castle's first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, regrettably, one of the most convoluted storylines ever lensed in this franchise. Bernthal's performance exuded care, craft, quality and skill: Frank Castle is feral, dangerous, ruthless, and yet has an impeccable morality that balances his murderous, bloodsoaked tactics to any and every threat. Despite being a softened, less sociopathic version of the comic book character (defined largely as a murder addict who has chosen acceptable targets in violent criminals), Bernthal made Frank reassuringly heroic, heartrendingly tragic, and disturbingly dangerous. His performance is compelling and viscerally immediate.

However, the story around Frank Castle in the Netflix shows has been an unfathomable mess.

Season 2 of DAREDEVIL (Netflix) establishes that Frank Castle's family was murdered in a shootout between three rival gangs in Central Park where the Kitchen Irish, Mexican Cartel, and the Dogs of Hell bikers exchanged gunfire with no regard for the civilians having a picnic. Frank savagely hunts down every gang member involved and murders them, and is brought down by Daredevil and charged with multiple murders in what District Attorney Samantha Reyes promoted into the trial of the century and Frank sentenced to life in prison despite the valiant attempts of his Marine commanding officer, Colonel Ray Schoonover, testifying in his defense. After Frank breaks out of prison, it's revealed that Colonel Schoonover and DA Reyes were running a heroin trafficking operation and engineered the three-gang conflict as a sting operation gone wrong to obscure their involvement and further used Frank's trial to distract from their crimes by involving three separate New York gangs in a massive shooting in a public location followed by national attention on a criminal trial and this story is nonsensical.

This convoluted 'conspiracy' of inexplicably covering up crimes by drawing as much attention as possible is the result of the Punisher's extremely simple storyline being stretched to breaking point to pad out the second season of DAREDEVIL, and this overextension continues unabated in the first season of THE PUNISHER.

THE PUNISHER's first season, trying to fill another 13 episodes and give Frank more reasons to be the Punisher after he's supposedly avenged his family, reveals: back in Afghanistan, Frank, Billy Russo, Colonel Schoonover, and William Rawlins were part of an off-the-books wetworks/assassination squad called Cerberus. Unknown to Frank, Cerberus was smuggling heroin back to the US inside the bodies of dead soldiers. Rawlins saw Frank as a potential loose end or whistleblower and organized a complex Central Park gang war between the Kitchen Irish, Mexican Cartel, and the Dogs of Hell bikers with Colonel Schoonover using it as cover to assassinate Frank and his family in order to silence Frank from potentially revealing a drug smuggling operation of which he knew nothing, and Billy Russo wasn't personally involved in the plan but knew it was coming and did nothing to prevent it. Because naturally, when trying to divert attention away from crimes, one wants to involve as many military assets and private contractors and criminal syndicates as possible.

It may seem hard to believe after reading all of the above, but the Punisher is in fact a very simple character: he is a Marine whose family was murdered by criminals and now he wages a high artillery war on crime. None of the additional details above are in any way germane to Frank's purpose and motives and origins. The added complexities are confused and confusing, filled with redundancies and irrelevancies, and Season 2 piles on even more with Amy Bendix's secret ledger which has nothing to do with Billy Russo and Krista Dumont's romance which barely intersects with Madani's hunt for Russo which does not connect to John Pilgrim's crisis of confidence.

For two seasons of THE PUNISHER, Jon Bernthal presented a purposeful, driven performance within a TV show that was meandering and aimless, struggling to contrive more and more reasons for Frank to be the Punisher.

ONE LAST KILL, co-written by Jon Bernthal, is a direct rejoinder to every previous PUNISHER production in which he has ever performed. The Special Presentation format of 51 minutes reduces Frank to his simplest core elements: he is a force of relentless violence in a city of sadistic predators; he is haunted by the deaths of innocents; he declares war on violent criminals.

There is no Byzantine Marine/CIA/DHS/Kitchen Irish/Mexican Cartel/Dogs of Hell/Anvil/Testament Industries/NYC DA/Veterans Affairs/Weapon X/Hellfire Club/Famous Original Ray’s Pizza conspiracy regarding Frank's past or present efforts to kill him. There is a troubled Frank Castle; there is a vindictive and bloodthirsty Ma Gnucci seeking revenge for Frank destroying her crime family; there are Ma Gnucci's forces bringing violent death upon Frank's apartment building. The special is straightforward and focused. Frank is a creature of violence in a land ruled by violence who has lost his capacity to do battle until war burns down his front door.

Frank is snapped out of his withdrawal from the world, acting on pure, savage instinct against those who mean him and his neighbours harm. The thugs and predators of Little Sicily ravage their victims with impunity only to find they have unleashed a monster who feeds on the suffering and agony and death of the guilty, who exists simply to plow forward through the ranks of violent criminals with gunfire and grenades. It is primal, minimalistic, and while psychologically complex, the plot is utterly devoid of needless complication. The Netflix seasons tied themselves in knots to give Frank a new reason to punish evil every 2 - 4 episodes. ONE LAST KILL dispenses with any need for conspiracy-based motivations and simply deposits Frank in a world where his violence is a necessity and war is his default.

ONE LAST KILL makes a cursory connection to BORN AGAIN, tacitly indicating that Frank's mental paralysis and hallucinations are why he failed to return to Matt and Karen. However, ONE LAST KILL is very clearly not about tying into BORN AGAIN or a Spider-Man movie. ONE LAST KILL is about shedding and dispensing all of the narrative convolutions surrounding Bernthal's Punisher and to refine him into his purest, clearest and most propulsive depiction: as a force of vengeful, bloodsoaked wrath; a demonic cry of outrage cast by the innocent against those who would harm them. The immediacy is why Frank goes straight from the deranged madness of the apartment building battle to reconnect with his family to donning his skull insignia to cleanse the streets of monsters without the special stopping to show him shave or groom himself. ONE LAST KILL does not pause to show Frank shaving; it cuts to Frank resuming his war and launches itself forward like a bullet from the Punisher's barrel.

The special deliberately eschews any ending: Little Sicily is a war zone; Ma Gnucci is still gunning for the Punisher; he is likely still wanted by police after killing corrupt officers. The special has given Frank a mission, a setting, a community, a location, an archenemy, and the understanding that any victory over criminals will leave survivors that will produce more enemies. ONE LAST KILL makes it clear that Frank's war is without end.

ONE LAST KILL is not a film or a tie-in to BORN AGAIN or BRAND NEW DAY. ONE LAST KILL is a repilot, a second beginning that demonstrates Bernthal's very specific and focused vision of the Punisher as a man engaged in an endless war. ONE LAST KILL lays the foundation for how a Punisher series would continue to function as an ongoing television show, provides Frank with a motive that is as streamlined as Bernthal's performance, and sets aside the unfathomable continuity of the Netflix years.

(Just my highly meta take on it all.)

I like that explanation.  I like the idea of a prequel, but a prequel wouldn't offer any explanation as to where Frank was during Born Again season 2.  And yours covers that.

Another weird continuity thing.  As far as I can remember, Frank has been clean shaven in the four seasons of MCU television.  He's certainly clean shaven at the end of Born Again season 1.  He has a beard in One Last Kill which makes sense because, prequel or sequel to his last appearance, he's really struggling.

But why does he have the beard at the end when he's re-embraced being the Punisher?  Especially since he's clean shaven in Brand New Day.  I know he could've easily shaved in between these products and maybe he just temporarily likes the beard even if he's focused himself again.  But it would've been something to tie the projects together.

All in all, I still think it was great.  I still think it should've been a movie.

ONE LAST KILL shows that Little Sicily (and presumably other parts of New York) has become a lawless land with the NYPD completely unable to address wanton violence on civilians. This is undoubtedly the result of Fisk leaving office and creating a massive power vacuum with all the AVTF officers jailed.

ONE LAST KILL shows that Frank is hallucinating: he sees his wife and daughter; he sees visions of Curtis and Karen haunting him, mocking him, deriding him. As a result, when Frank walks the streets and is surrounded by civilians being assaulted and murdered, he does nothing; he isn't indifferent, he simply cannot tell what is or isn't real anymore. The beating he sustained at the free port by cops wearing his insignia has fractured his mind; his mission has been co-opted by 'fanboys' and he is unable to process it.

He does not contact Matt with information about the cells; he does not go to Karen's aid -- he doesn't do anything but basic survival in one of his bolthole apartments because he does not know if anything around him outside of immediate needs are real, or if he even actually escaped the free port. It's only when gasoline is poured under his door and set aflame that he finally returns to reality. He didn't help Matt or Karen in BORN AGAIN's second season because he couldn't trust anything he was seeing.

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I've seen it said that there's a chance the Punisher special either a) takes place before Daredevil Born Again Season 1 or b) takes place entirely in Frank's head.

I think both are plausible and might explain some of the incongruity with the rest of the MCU (even just the Daredevil corner of the MCU).  It would've been nice if that would've been referenced.  If it is a prequel, I'm going to have the head canon that it takes place during the Blip which is why everyone is crazy and on edge

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The Good - It's really well done.  Gets you in the mind of Frank Castle.  They also don't hold back - they didn't "Disney-fy" the character, and there's some dark material you wouldn't expect from the MCU.

The Bad - It's short.  It's 51 minutes with extended credits (no post or mid credits).  By the time you feel like it's getting going, it's over.  This could've certainly been a theatrical movie with one more act if they wanted.  I also feel like it's super small on plot.  It feels like 75% of a movie with a huge action set piece missing.

The Cinematic Universe - It's crazy.  This story does literally nothing to explain why Frank was missing in Daredevil, does nothing to follow up on what happened in Daredevil, and does nothing to set up Frank in Spider-Man.  There's no reference to Matt or the AVTF or Fisk or anything.  There's one reference to the bigger world (that I caught, maybe there's more) but this is 100% an isolated story.  Which is fine.  I don't think everything needs to be connected to the bigger universe, and I'm glad they told a story (albeit one that feels truncated) that they wanted to tell.

And honestly, I'm more upset about Daredevil avoiding MCU connections than I am the Punisher.  Frank kinda does his own thing and is on a side quest.  But for Frank to be absent from Daredevil entirely and then to show up here with no ties to anything before or after just feels odd.  I really thought they might end this with Frank thinking he went too far and promising his family that he'll tone it down.  So when he shows up in Spider-Man, he's a little more toned down.  But nope.  Not how it ends.

Which is fine.  Maybe Spider-Man explains it.  Or maybe it doesn't.  Or maybe Frank somehow isn't toned down.  It's just a little bizarre to me that you have a character who was literally just absent for the whole season (but still referenced...like "don't forget about this guy, he'll be back soon") and is about to be a part of your big summer movie, and you make no effort to connect those two things.

I get that Berthal wrote this and it's a character piece for Frank.  But you have a short runtime.  You can add ten minutes to this with fan service and it's still only one hour.  Say what Frank was doing during Born Again season 2.  Mention what happened to Fisk and/or the disbanding of the AVTF.  Wherever Frank starts Spider-Man Brand New Day, bridge that gap.

You have this cinematic universe and you have this playground, and then you don't use it.  It just feels super weird to me.  You don't need Sam Wilson to show up and beat up a gangbanger, but I just don't understand why this happens.

Also, on another note.  Jon Berthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach literally just filmed a special presentation for FX with a road trip sidequel of the Bear.  Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays the Thing and is tied in with Marvel.  Ebon Moss-Bachrach played Microchip in season one of the Netflix Punisher.  How did Ebon Moss-Bachrach not cameo in this???

Although I'll be fascinated to see if anything from Daredevil (other than Frank himself) is referenced in that movie.

Spoilers for Daredevil

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Well, season 2 wrapped up in a way where almost nothing from Daredevil would need to be addressed, unless its something in passing about what Peter did during the Safer Streets Initiative.  I gotta think, in terms of the show, that Peter was not considered a vigilante (meaning that Kingpin has a better relationship with Spider-Man than in the comics).  And I would think that Peter either didn't have any way of getting to Matt, or he was hesitant to get involved (maybe he sees Matt and Frank as dangerous).

I would be super interested in knowing what Peter did during that time, but I doubt it ever gets addressed in anything.

First off, I agree that it's a bit of a waste.  I don't want to rush Dr. Doom, and I think there was a lot of wasted opportunity with phases four to six.

But I guess my main response is "Thanos was barely in the movies until Infinity War." - he was in a couple of post-credits, and he was in one scene in Guardians.  This wasn't exactly Darth Vader until he finally made his move.  I think one of the strengths of the MCU was creating these heroes and their relationships to each other, and how they end up working together.

And I don't think a villain needs to be set up.  99% of all villains are introduced in the movie they're in.  It doesn't take a ton of work to set up a great villain.  The Joker in the Dark Knight is completely set up in the opening five minutes.  He's in one movie with no other set up, and he's one of the best comic book villains ever.

So did the MCU drop the ball with Kang and maybe rush Dr. Doom?  Absolutely.  But is that necessarily a problem?  I don't think so.