Review of The Punisher (2004) by Alex D — 11 Jun 2011

I'm happy to see that Tom Jane's mother, John Travolta, and I aren't the only people who like this movie. The Punisher is far from perfect: not only as a film but as an adaptation. Let's face it, any movie based on a comic book character who's chief, defining characteristic is that he kills people can't possibly be a drama.

I expected action, carnage, geysers of blood, a verifiable cornucopia of mayhem. There's some of that in this movie, but for the most part, The Punisher tries too hard to be an origin story and forsakes the simplistic origins of its title character.

You don't need to examine the complexities of the man. His family gets killed; he punishes the people that ordered the killing. These are simple archetypes that don't benefit from complex constructions, because the second you examine the character closely, you'll realize that he's a few degrees shy of being totally insane.

Furthermore, if you are going to make this an effective drama-turned-action movie, hire better actors. These ones can't offer much more than a simple, mindless action movie. Much as I like this movie, I can't help but point everybody in the direction of Punisher: War Zone, the movie that does it right.