When I heard that Marvel had announced a team up movie for Punisher and Black Widow I had recently come from watching Iron Man: Rise of the Technoverse and Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United. Both movies underwhelmed me immensely, and I started to doubt that Marvel could contend with DC in the animated film front.
While
Black Widow & Punisher is no means revolutionary, or able to present a real threat to DC's animated efforts, it also does make strides in the right direction. With markable improvements over it's predecessors, I'm starting to see a niche that can be filled, and a animation studio that is up to the task.
When watching
Black Widow & Punisher I was blown away by how strong the opening is. With the Punisher, Marvel introduces him in the most badass (and yet PG-13) way possible. Shying away from gratuitous violence and blood, it instead implies the type of death and destruction Castle is capable of without hitting you over the head with it. Many people will wonder how a character like the Punisher can be introduced into the MCU; and while
Black Widow & Punisher never quite definitively states as much, there's a great template here to follow and grow on.
While the film started strong, and ended strong; I found the middle part of the movie to be rather dull and poorly paced. A mediocre sotry of a duo infiltrating a compound, SHIELD not giving the information they should; this has all been done before, and arguably better then how
Black Widow & Punisher does it. It is however bookended with a lot of great set pieces, themes, and phenomenal imagery.
One part of this movie that threw me off was the lip syncing. In animated films the production company always runs the risk of the dialogue being off from the animated character's mouth. It's ridiculously bad in
Black Widow & Punisher. So bad, that I kind of wonder if instead of sprucing it up, Marvel just decided to rush it out to coincide with the release of
The Winter Soldier.
What makes Marvel (or specifically MCU) movies so great is the idea that the film is loaded with cameos. While this is a Black Widow and Punisher centric movie, during the final act of the movie we see characters such as
(Spoilers! Highlight text to find out) Thor, The Hulk, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Hawkeye . The film even manages to work in cameos from villains such as
(Spoilers! Highlight text to find out) Grim Reaper, Graviton, Griffin and Baron Zemo
In terms of voice work both Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, White Chicks) and Brian Bloom (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The A-Team) do commendable jobs as both Black Widow and Frank Castle respectively. They don't quite make a huge impact either way in the film.
SCORE:
I will ultimately give this movie 9 Uncle Joey's out of 10.
CLOSING THOUGHTS:Ultimately I will say this,
Black Widow & Punisher is miles above Marvel's most recent animated efforts, and while it gets a lot wrong, it generally gets more right and gives the characters a generally enjoyable arc, with an enjoyable movie going experience overall. At the end of the day, I know it won't be for everyone, but I think at the very least you should check it out.
If you liked this review, please give it a thumbs up; and as always, whether you AGREE, DISAGREE, or figured I just missed a point, you know where your thoughts go. Here on Hulksta articles I accept differing opinions, and defend your right to speak your mind