Review of The Punisher (2004) by Alex R — 19 Jun 2012

The Punisher is an average action film with a decent plot, but is never anything great due to some of the performances. John Travolta is a good choice to play the villain, and he redeems himself with his crap performance in the ultimate crap fest, Battlefield Earth.

Jane is good in the role, but he doesn't seem at ease in the part. The biggest problem this version is that it goes from being a serious action film to a silly action film. Instead of keeping it consistent and delivering a dark tale of revenge, we get a few light hearted bits that cheapen the story.

I felt that it didn't fit well, and it made this film slightly less enjoyable. There are some redeeming qualities about this film, which made me like the film. The performance of Will Patton as Quentin Glass was simply demented and he made the film better.

This film leaves a lot for improvement; luckily they would remedy that with the second reboot, Punisher: Warzone. For what it is, this film is a good action flick with mindless thrills, but you see that it could have been much better than what it turned out to be.

I think that there could have been a better effort in the script, and some ideas just seemed out of place, especially the light hearted bits, which for me ruined it slightly. I liked the film, but I much preferred Punisher: Warzone as I felt that Ray Stevenson was the guy to really portray the character the way it was meant to be played.

If you're looking for a mindless action flick, then watch this, but if you want the darkest, meanest Punisher flick, watch Warzone instead. This version is good, but is never great by any means and it has a few too many flaws that die hard Punisher fans will surely hate.