The Punisher (2004)

A brief history lesson: In 1989 Marvel licensed the film rights for the Punisher to New World Pictures. However Marvel would only let them use the names “The Punisher,” “Frank Castle,” and the basic origin story. They weren’t allowed to use the famous skull symbol at all or use any existing stories as a basis for the movie. Staring Dolph Lundgren, the film never saw an American theatrical release due to New World Pictures going bankrupt. However the movie actually has a lot of really good dialogue very befitting of the Punisher and a very high body count.

So the first Marvel movie of 2004 was The Punisher, and man did it rock. And it rocked despite the inclusion of John Travolta as a crime boss villain. I don’t think there are two scenes in the entire movie where he’s acting as the same character in each. He goes from over the top to dead pan to weaselly and never in a manner that feels like that’s what the script/story was calling for. So to sum up, he was terrible.

Thomas Jane on the other hand made this movie! He looked and he acted the part perfectly, of course it helps that he’s a legitimate comic fan who is very familiar with the character. He started out as a man who was letting go of a hard job and ready to be happy with his wife and child who he loved more than anything, and he very quickly becomes a man with a very hard, but to him necessary mission all the while seeming lost. Like I said, perfect.

Like the comic (these days more so), the movie is more of a crime story, as everyone is lacking super powers. It’s just one complete badass taking down an entire criminal empire one bullet at a time.

Now a lot of people complained about the supporting cast of the neighbors in the apartment, but what they don’t realize is these characters are very well translated from the comic story “Welcome Back, Frank,” which was a key story in the return of the Punisher character to his roots after someone had thought it’d be a good idea to kill him and have him come back as an agent of Heaven who can pull high tech weapons out of his coat at will. Yes I do wish I was making that up. But I digress, these characters helped to flesh out the change of Frank to the Punisher, showing him that he still has people to fight for, the innocent who can only fight so hard before they need help.

While at first I really disliked the scene where Frank is fighting for his life against the Russian, because of it being offset by the neighbors listening to opera music and trying to have a good time, it’s grown on me. The fight itself takes on a couple somewhat comedic moments, but in the middle of such a serious movie it lets you breath for a moment.

Director’s Cut Note: While I thought it was interesting and well done how they expanded just how the Saint’s discovered who Frank was, it ended with a very uncharacteristic move on the Punisher’s part of forcing a friend to commit suicide while Frank watched.

Marvel Movie Score: 9.5

Why That?: Thomas Jane had a lot of points to make up for Travolta’s horrible performance, but he did it with ease. And they never once tried to make the Punisher into a real hero. He was flat out killing bad people for the bad things they did and not making any apologies for it. It’s too bad Jane is off of the sequel as he thought the script was too comic book-y. This lowers my expectations drastically.