Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher
Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher | |
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File:Avg confid bwandpunish.jpg | |
Japanese | アベンジャーズ コンフィデンシャル: ブラック・ウィドウ & パニッシャー |
Hepburn | Abenjāzu Konfidensharu: Burakku Widō & Panisshā |
Directed by | Kenichi Shimizu[1] |
Screenplay by | Mitsutaka Hirota[1] |
Story by | Marjorie Liu[1] |
Based on | |
Produced by | Taro Morishima |
Starring | Miyuki Sawashiro Tesshō Genda Hideaki Tezuka Hiroki Tōchi Masashi Sugawara |
Cinematography | Kenji Fujita |
Music by | Tetsuya Takahashi |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment[2] Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan |
Release dates |
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Running time | 83 minutes[3] |
Country | Japan |
Language | Japanese |
Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher (アベンジャーズ コンフィデンシャル: ブラック・ウィドウ & パニッシャー, Abenjāzu Konfidensharu: Burakku Widō & Panisshā) is a 2014 Japanese superhero anime film by Madhouse. The film is produced by SH DTV AC BW&P Partners, another partnering of Marvel Entertainment with Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan and Madhouse, following up on the Marvel Anime series. It was released in North America on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital on March 25, 2014.[2][3]
Plot
Punisher busts black market weapons dealer Cain who is in possession of stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. technology and takes him hostage, inadvertently interfering with Black Widow's secret mission to uncover a larger terror plot under investigation by S.H.I.E.L.D.[4] Widow attempts to subdue Punisher and Cain escapes during the altercation. S.H.I.E.L.D. take Punisher into custody. Having lost their sole lead, Director Nick Fury offers Punisher his freedom in exchange for going on mission with Widow to locate Cain and stop the global terrorist group known as LEVIATHAN, who plan to auction the stolen technology to the highest bidder.[1]
Widow and Punisher track Cain to a Leviathan base in Slovenia, and discover a lab filled with pods containing spies who have been turned into super-powered soldiers by Orion. Punisher captures Cain, but the latter activates a special function on his cellphone that emits a blinding flash of light directly into Punisher's face and causes him to lose time. When Punisher comes to, Cain has escaped. Widow crosses paths with a former lover and ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Elihas Starr, who was presumed dead but has been working for Leviathan. He reveals himself as the creator of the super-soldier serum and confesses he did it to become worthy of being with her, hoping she would join him. Widow declines and they fight while Punisher detonates explosives around the base. Punisher extracts Widow and Elihas disappears. Punisher reveals Cain's stolen cellphone, but it is heavily encrypted and they are unable to retrieve any information from it. They take it to S.H.I.E.L.D. super-genius Amadeus who decrypts the phone, but unknowingly activates the flash function. When they come to, an emergency countdown signalling an impending explosion has been activated. Punisher suddenly attacks Widow and kills several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Unable to stop the countdown, Amadeus incinerates the cellphone, destroying it completely and causing Punisher to snap out of the trance he was under. Widow tells Fury about Elihas' brainwashing technology, suspecting it was controlling Punisher, and advocates against his imprisonment. Fury reveals prior knowledge of the Leviathan technology based on possibly compromised past S.H.I.E.L.D. projects about mind control that had never been fully implemented, informing Widow that she and Punisher were specifically assigned the mission because S.H.I.E.L.D. had contingencies in place should either or both of them be compromised. The same risk could not be taken with the Avengers due to the powerful nature of the tech. Fury also knows that Elihas stole classified data from S.H.I.E.L.D. including samples of the Avengers blood to use for his project. He orders Widow to complete the mission on her own.
Angered that Fury would sacrifice them both, Widow defies his orders and takes Punisher with her to Hong Kong to meet Ren, an information handler with ties to the criminal underworld, who gives them the auction's time and location: in Madripoor that same night. The auction begins and Elihas is alerted to their presence on the compound. They are instantly overrun by the super soldiers. Hulk and Amadeus join the fight and Elihas activates the mind control technology. Punisher shields Widow while Hulk is protected by a nano-device coating over his eyes that Amadeus created to block the broadcast signals. Punisher and Widow use it on themselves before being attacked by more soldiers. Widow goes after Elihas and they fight on a catwalk above where the batch of super-soldiers for the auction are being kept. Elihas kicks Widow over the catwalk's railing but she manages to hold on. Realising he still loves her, Elihas pulls Widow to safety and they kiss. The two team up to retrieve an emergency kill-switch from Orion that Elihas created as a safety precaution against the super-soldiers. Hawkeye, Iron Man, Thor, War Machine and Captain Marvel arrive and breach the auction hall. Together with Punisher, Hulk, and Amadeus, they battle the Leviathan troops. Orion attacks Widow and Elihas when they confront him, but they are able to gain control of the switch and activate it, disabling all the active bio-soldiers. Punisher locates and attempts to shoot Elihas, which distracts Widow who is still fighting Orion. Orion fires a fatal blast at her, but Elihas jumps in the way and is hit instead. Punisher kills Orion and Elihas dies in Widow's arms.
In the aftermath, Fury orders Widow to arrest Punisher, who faces life in prison for killing Orion. She instead releases him once Fury leaves, saying "It's because you do things your way, and I do things my way…", and throws his handcuffs into the ocean. Later in Miami, Punisher tracks down Cain and kills him.
Cast
Role | Japanese voice actor | English dubbing actor |
---|---|---|
Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow |
Miyuki Sawashiro | Jennifer Carpenter |
Frank Castle / Punisher | Tesshō Genda | Brian Bloom |
Elihas Starr / Egghead | Hiroki Tōchi | Grant George |
Orion | Masashi Sugawara | JB Blanc |
Cain | Ryūzaburō Ōtomo | Kyle Hebert |
Tony Stark / Iron Man | Keiji Fujiwara | Matthew Mercer |
Amadeus Cho | Daisuke Namikawa | Eric Bauza |
Maria Hill | Junko Minagawa | Kari Wahlgren |
Clint Barton / Hawkeye | Shūhei Sakaguchi | Matthew Mercer |
Bruce Banner / Hulk | Yuichi Karasuma | Fred Tatasciore |
Ren | Hisashi Izumi | |
Nick Fury | Hideaki Tezuka | John Eric Bentley |
In addition, Thor, War Machine, Captain Marvel, Grim Reaper, Graviton, Griffin, Taskmaster, Count Nefaria, and Baron Helmut Zemo also appear in uncredited roles.
Crew
- Jamie Simone – Casting and Voice Director
Featurettes
The discs contains two featurettes: "Espionage and Punishment" and "The Vigilante Vs. The Spy", while the Blu-ray features an additional bonus, the Conceptual Art Gallery. "Espionage and Punishment" shows the adaptation of the characters to anime and a "making of" film including early concept art and storyboards. "The Vigilante Vs. The Spy" profiles Frank Castle (The Punisher) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow).[3][5]
Reception
IGN awarded it a score of 8 out of 10, saying "Avengers Confidential: Black Widow and Punisher is a complex and effective animated offering from Marvel."[6] Den of Geek awarded it a more negative score of 2 out of 5, criticising the dialogue and characterisation but praising the fight scenes.[7]
The film earned $723,507 from domestic DVD sales and $635,698 from domestic Blu-ray sales, bringing its total domestic home video sales to $1,359,205.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d McMillan, Graeme (January 21, 2014). "'Avengers Confidential' Offers Black Widow Some Time in the Spotlight". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
- ^ a b Busis, Hillary (January 21, 2014). "'Marvel's Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher': See the trailer here! EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
- ^ a b c Gallagher, Brian (January 22, 2014). "Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher Trailer!". MovieWeb. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
- ^ "Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
- ^ Vejvoda, Jim (January 22, 2014). "Black Widow and The Punisher Team For Animated Feature Film". IGN. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
- ^ Wheatley, Cliff (March 14, 2014). "AVENGERS CONFIDENTIAL: BLACK WIDOW AND PUNISHER REVIEW". IGN. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
- ^ Jasper, Gavin (March 26, 2014). "Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, Review". Den of Geek. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
- ^ "Avengers Confidential Black Widow & Punisher (2014) The Numbers listing". The Numbers. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
External links
- Official website
- Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher at IMDb
- Articles with short description
- 2014 films
- Template film date with 2 release dates
- Articles containing Japanese-language text
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- Comics navigational boxes purge
- 2014 animated films
- 2014 anime OVAs
- 2014 direct-to-video films
- 2010s direct-to-video animated superhero films
- Superheroes in anime and manga
- Animated films based on Marvel Comics
- Avengers (comics) films
- Direct-to-video animated films
- Madhouse (company)
- Japanese animated superhero films
- Punisher films
- Black Widow (Marvel Comics)
- Films based on works by Stan Lee
- Films set in a fictional country
- 2010s crime drama films
- Anime films based on comics
- Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan films
- 2014 drama films
- Japanese direct-to-video films
- Superhero drama films
- 2010s American films