Posted in: Movies, Netflix, TV | Tagged: Deborah Ann Woll, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, entertainment, HRL, jon bernthal, Marvel's The Punisher, Metallica, netflix, television

Marvel's The Punisher – Music Maketh The Trailer

I'm the West Coast guy here at Bleeding Cool, which means a lot of the new trailers are already posted by the time I sit down at my desk. That happened this morning, as Netflix released a full trailer for Marvel's The Punisher. Another writer had already posted it, but I had some thoughts on the trailer that I still wanted to share.

Let me start by saying that this is one the best trailers I've seen in a while.

I think the choice of music is a huge part of making a good trailer. I'm not a fan of Nirvana, so the Marvel's The Defenders trailer didn't resonate with me. It didn't seem to fit the feel of the series. On the other hand, the choice of Metallica's One was absolutely inspirational for the Punisher.

If you're not familiar with the song, it tells the story of a soldier wounded in battle. He has lost both his arms and legs. His eyes, mouth, ears, and nose are also destroyed. He is trapped inside his own body with no way to communicate. He finally figures a way to tap out words in Morse code with his head. He keep tapping out 'Kill Me'. When the song debuted on their …And Justice For All album in 1988, it received critical praise for both the song and video. It was similar in theme to the 1971 film Johnny Got His Gun.

The song isn't just playing over the footage in the trailer, though — it's mixed in. The sound of the gunfire at one point mimics the drums from the song. It interweaves different sections of the music to fit the theme, saving the lyrics until Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) is fighting back. But Frank relates to the song because everything that made him human was taken away. He is trapped and just waiting to die. He has no purpose. He's killed those that took his family, now he just wants to join those he loved.

That is, until Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) reaches out to him. He shows Frank there is still work to do. And where interviews have talked about how Frank and Micro are opposites, we see very clearly why they work well together. They have the same goal in mind, and Micro has no qualms about Frank's methods. Frank lays out his one condition to working together: "I'm going to kill them all." Without hesitation, Micro says, "Yeah, I can live with that."

The trailer sets up the conflict that there are some bad men from Frank's past that want him dead, and Mirco and Karen Page (Deborah Ann-Woll) are going to help Frank take them out. We'll also get to see the set up for Jigsaw, one of the Punishers main villains — but I don't think he will have a big part in this. Ben Barnes, who plays Billy Russo (pre-Jigsaw), is only listed in four episodes of the series. I think he will be more of a setup for Season 2.

The other interesting thing to take away from this is at the end. The two homeland security agents are talking. Agent Madani (Amber Rose Revah) mentions the Punisher, and Agent Stein (Michael Nathanson) says he's dead. When we last saw Frank, he had escaped prison, but was not believed to be dead. Sounds like we're going to have some action in the beginning of the series to set that up.

Between the way they wove the music into the trailer, the footage they showed, the themes they portrayed, and some of the dialogue, I am now looking forward to Marvel's The Punisher more than any movie coming out the rest of this year. That's a damn good trailer.

And we still have no release date other than 2017 — but I'm still betting November 10th.

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