About half of The Punisher: No Mercy is effective. From the credits, it appears the fan short is a labor of love for star Shawn Baichoo–who apes Karl Urban’s voice from Dredd, which doesn’t work here. Baichoo cowrote the script and choreographed the fight scene between himself and Amber Goldfarb.
The fight scene isn’t very good. It’s hard to tell if it’s the choreography, Jason Ambrus’s lackluster action direction or James Malloch’s decidedly limp editing. Mercy, throughout, has terrible sound effects. They should have splurged for a better sound effects CD.
The script’s multi-layered, which is almost neat. The problem is that fight scene. It takes up most of the second half and between the boring fight and Goldfarb’s terrible performance (not to mention it’s all on a confined set)… the short loses all momentum.
Mercy shows talented amateur filmmaking; it’s too bad it’s a waste of time.
Not Recommended
CREDITS
Directed by Jason Ambrus; screenplay by Shawn Baichoo and Davila LeBlanc, based on the Marvel Comics characters created by Gerry Conway, John Romita Jr., Frank Miller and Ross Andru; director of photography, Jean-Maxim Desjardins; edited by James Malloch; music by Shayne Gryn; produced by Baichoo and Amber Goldfarb.
Starring Shawn Baichoo (Frank Castle), Amber Goldfarb (Elektra Natchios), James Malloch (Dominic Duran) and Giancarlo Caltabiano (Rizzo).
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