Review of The Punisher (2004) by Kevin R — 04 Jan 2019

I am starting to have second thoughts on this movie. The Punsiher (2004) isn't as underrated as many of the audience make it out to be. It has a ton of problems. John Travolta is miscast as the antagonist.

Bruno Costa should've been the main villain of the film instead of Howard Saint who never ever even appeared in any of the Punisher comic books, he was just an original villain made up for the movie.

The cinematography isn't so good. The pacing is horrible. There is barely action. Not enough body kill counts from Frank Castle. He stalks Howard's gay best friend and takes photos of him making out with his boyfriend in the alley (so that he can conveniently show it to Saint when he's wounded to prove that he made him murder his own wife and his own best friend all for nothing), keeps planting a fake fire hydrant next to Livia's (Howard's wife) car which caused her to have a bunch of unpaid parking tickets from the police, and had Mickey Duka plant Howard's wife's ring on Quentin's bed to make it look like she cheated on him and had an affair with his best friend.

The Russian fight scene's tone was ridiculously inconsistent. The whole movie (after his family died) is really about revenge instead of punishment. I mean all of the bad people he killed were working for Howard Saint and his family members, and Saint himself.

It would've been a lot better if we actually saw him punishing other outlaws too instead of just the ones that were related to the mob hit. He really doesn't truly become the Punisher until the last few seconds of the movie when he's standing on the bridge and declaring himself as the Punisher.

Despite the film's many flaws, Thomas Jane is still the best and definitive live-action Punisher/Frank Castle. He made such an amazing Punisher in such a lackluster film.