While working as an undercover cop during a gun trade transaction, Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) becomes indirectly responsible for the death of a crime bosses son, who is gunned down by the FBI. Howard Saint (John Travolta) swears revenge for his son's death, and orders a hit on Castle's entire family. After barely surviving the attack, Castle makes preparations for his own revenge against the Saints. -summary
When it comes down to vengeance, it's a good idea to take notes off of movies like this. After watching Punisher the one lesson I learned was this, if you're going to hit someone, then make sure you hit them hard enough to where they can't recover, or else they're going to make you pay. Released in 2004 and directed by Jonathon Hensleigh, The Punisher is a reboot of the 1989 film, and is based on the Marvel comics character of the same name. It uses elements from both Punisher Year One and Welcome Back Frank.
Punisher is another one of my favorite characters due to his similarities to Batman. They both lost their families, and they both chose to avenge them on a never ending crusade against crime. But where they differ is how they approach the criminals. Batman would do everything he can to not take a life, while the Punisher won't think twice about wasting any low life scum, and this is what drew my attention to him many years ago.
This version of the Punisher is not as gung-ho as some may think. He actually takes the time to plan a strategy to hurt his enemies in the worst way. The plot mainly focuses on Punisher dealing with his grief and staging the ultimate act of vengeance. After the first action scene, it does slow down quite a bit, and there are several boring moments that take place with a group of almost completely disposable side characters. I know this was meant for character development, but I found myself dozing off to it. Some of these moments could have been edited.
Punisher is no doubt one of those balls to the wall action characters, but I always did take a liking to the more strategic side of the character, and I guess this is what makes up for some of the movies shortcomings for me. However, I still would have preferred a little bit more of the angry, action packed side of the character, which would have helped out the movie's pacing.
Hensleigh's direction although not great, isn't too bad either since he did give this some thought. It was a wise move to skip Castle's original Vietnam origin in favor of a more modern one. This gave the setting a more up to date feel, and the world could have easily felt outdated for these times had he went for the former. I also enjoyed the characterization in regards to Castle. His gritty and stoic persona was the perfect choice when looking at how he was wronged. His entire character could have went straight down the drain had he been cursed with silly one-liners and punchlines. Travolta on the other hand suffered from this, and as the film went on the more bland he became.
There are some good shootouts with the final act being the best, and one memorable one on one brawl, that was fun to watch no matter how absurd it became. The acting was nothing to go in a frenzy about, and outside of Castle, no one really stood out to me anyway.
In the end, Punisher is something that could have been a lot worse. A little more action, some serious torture scenes, and a lot less character bonding would've done the movie a great deal of good. This is something I could only recommend to fans of the character for the most part.
Pros:
-Ending, some decent action
Cons:
-Sluggish pacing, weak side characters
