BlacknWidow and Punisher are teamed up to get to the bottom of some mind-control shenanigans which preclude the use of super-powered Avengers.

This animated feature has an almost entirely Japanese production team and is anime-style rather than western-style.

The story is dull and uninvolving, production design is drab and gloomy, script and dialogue don't grab you, there are too many dramatic tableau poses with no movement, vocal casting isn't great, the style doesn't fit The Avengers and, if pushed to come up with a reason for recommending this, I don'tbthink I could.

**Although every effort was made to be objective, this review is not flattering. If you are a die-hard fan of Marvel animation, regardless of quality or execution, what follows may elevate your blood pressure and cause mild discomfort**

First thing you have to know, I love Marvel, grew up on Marvel in the 60s, the guy at the local drug store actually set aside the issues for me as they came in. So it would be pretty hard to develop a full-length Marvel animation feature that really ticked me off. But, amazingly, the producers of this bizarre production succeeded. Second thing you need to know, Marvel has essentially been taken over by a bunch of suits who think more like Bill Gates than Stan Lee. While the 'sweet money' is chasing the major breakout franchises -- and doing goofy things like remaking "Spiderman origins" FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN TO KEEP THEIR PRE-EXISTING DEVELOPMENT OPTIONS ALIVE -- the real effort is being put into "monetizing" the lost and forgotten properties deep inside the archive that have been collecting dust. Not making this up, Google it!, you will find lots of corporate-speak explaining what they are really up to. Some of this makes sense. For example, digging Captain America out of the ice was a good thing. He is a fun guy. We missed him. But some of the other salvage operations -- Shazam comes to mind -- are stretching the envelope, and not in a good way. Which brings us full circle to this product. (Because that is what it is, a product, not a film, not entertainment). The point here is clearly to rehabilitate Punisher and, to a lesser degree, Black Widow. As the mainstream reviewers have already noted, the other Avengers don't show up here until the very end of the tale and, even then, have very limited screen time. Do I have anything against Punisher? Not really. He is highly derivative of the Mack Bolan Executioner character which popped up some 5 years earlier than his own 'origins', and his live action film attempt was hardly memorable. Otherwise, I was ready to be impressed. And as for Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson has done such a great job with this character in live action that I was simply anticipating getting to know her better. Disappointed on both counts. First the anime. Japanese studios can do bright and sunny (at which they excel) or they can do dark and gloomy, but they seldom blend the two. This production is so gray that you will think something is wrong with your DVD drive or your screen has gone bad. Seriously. As for the action -- what action?? Taking a page from the Avengers live action film -- or at least TRYING TO -- the writers spent most of the first hour in (what they thought was) dramatic banter, and saved the "action" for the last 15 minutes. Which kinda defeats the purpose of animation in the first place, since animation makes it possible to have continuous bangups and beatdowns without blowing the SFX budget -- over at DC animation, for example, they have already figured this out. Marvel however is still struggling with the concept. The end result? -- well, if you factor in the soporific dialog that seems more written BY children than FOR them; the gray sheen and washed out backgrounds; the failed attempt to "breakout" these characters from the Marvel sub-sub-basement -- and a really sloppy "unrequited love" story arc which, in the real world, wouldn't make it to an afternoon TV soap opera -- you end up with one of the most disappointing animation features of all time. Alternate recommendations? Watch instead (literally) ANY episode of the old X-Men TV series, more fun than a barrel of hammers; or Ultimate Spidey, same deal; or, check out DC's full length The Flashpoint Paradox. Unlike this film, that one actually works.

Not content on dominating the big screen with a connected Marvel cinematic universe, Marvel now aims to create a connected anime universe. Avengers Confidential is a loose sequel to to Iron Man: Rise of Technovore. This time, Iron Man takes a back seat to previous supporting characters of Punisher and Black Widow. Following their debacle in Karachi, Frank Castle aka The Punisher, has returned to taking out organised crime lords. But when one of his hits crosses path with S.H.I.E.L.D, Frank is taken into custody. He has stumbled onto a vast international conspiracy involving an old Russian supersoldier programme and mind control. Unwillingly teamed up with s.H.I.E.L.D agent Black Widow, Frank has to deal with superpowered foes way out of his league while Widow must confront a shadowy figure from her past.

It is an intriguing story. Well written and feeling like it came straight out of the comic books. No surprise there that it was written by comic book writer Majorie Liu. This is a cool way to tie The Punisher into the greater world of Marvel anime characters, themselves already sharing a lot in common with the live action movie universe. In live action, The Punisher's gritty mafia/street crime stories just do not mix with the Avengers' high flying superheroics. If they cannot do it in live action, anime would have to suffice.

Credit goes to this movie for coming up with an interesting reason why the superpowered Avengers remain out of the picture. Since you have a villain who perfected mind control, the last thing you can risk is your most powerful heroes turning against you. So they get plain ol human Frank Castle, The Punisher, and plain ol human Black Widow. Except, the "plain ol human" bit is conveniently forgotten about 10 minutes in where both Punisher and Black Widow are able to go hand to hand with super soldiers, dodge bullets, punch people through walls and take injuries that would kill any normal human.

Now, this being Japanese anime, Marvel has allowed Madhouse Studios (creators of classics like Ninja Scroll, Trigun and the rest of Marvel's anime output) to sprinkle their own eastern touch into this tale. The result......a mixed bag. First is the screenplay, written by Mitsutaka Hirota of Ramen fighter Miki and YuGiOh Zexal fame/infamy. It is a stiffled screenplay, clichéd and lacking any of the wit or character interplay that marvel's live action universe excels in.

This is not helped by the mediocre voice acting from both Japanese and English actors. Punisher growls and grumbles his way through the movie lacking chemistry with Black Widow; herself portrayed more as a straightforward hero with a tragic past romance than a sultry manipulative secret agent whom no one can guess what she is planning to do next. This same screenplay turns our main antagonist into some love scorned brat with a serious inferiority complex who subjected himself to experiments to become a superpowered stalker after his old flame.

Once again, Marvel anime serves as a showcase of what anime always gets wrong. Hyper detailed artwork is ruined by animation shortcuts. First time Director Kenichi Shimizu who watched one too many Michael bay movies peppers this show with shaky cameras, extreme close ups and long lingering shots focused on Black Widow's shiny leather clad chest and bum areas. Nonetheless, the character designs look straight out of Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust with long curvy sharp featured women, square jawed bulky men and a shadow for every nook cranny and crease on a character. They look beautiful.

So in keeping with the usual Marvel Anime standards, we have another visually stunning little movie with a decent story but little else in terms of the script, characters and animation. Better than Iron Man: Rise of Technovore of course, and much better than that CGI atrocity Iron Man/Hulk: Heroes United. Yet no where near DC and Warner Premiere's most mediocre efforts.