Movie Review: The Punisher (2004)

The Punisher (2004)

So, yeah, this is a movie that I've never watched. A good chunk of what I know of the Punisher comes from the Netflix show, comic-book crossovers, video-games and the Punisher: MAX subline of Marvel comics, all of which tended to revolve around a similar concept. And as I sort of combed through older movies, I ended up coming across this. 2004's The Punisher is a movie I've never watched before, and it's the second attempt to bring the Punisher into a live-action setting after the 1989 Dolph Lundgren movie (which I also have to track down). 

And... it's an all right movie? This movie is apparently a mixed bag, combining, as Wikipedia tells me, the "The Punisher: Year One" and "Welcome Back, Frank" storylines. And this movie is a bit of a mixed bag. It runs over 2 hours, but the story is essentially a proof-of-concept of the Punisher. And it's not terrible -- it's a pretty solid showcase of the Punisher character concept. And yet it flip-flops from between being a vigilante superhero and an old-school gangster movie, and I feel that sort of imbalance does make it kind of a wobbly movie depending on what you signed up the movie to watch. It is accessible enough for anyone going in expecting just a good ol' shoot-out gangster movie, though, so I feel like it's all right. And we do get a bunch of neat comic-book nods with a lot of mileage out of the skull-face chest armour and 'the Russian', a colourful thug lifted straight out of comic books, so that's pretty fun.

The cast is... all right. The biggest pleasure for me is, of course, John Travolta as main villain Howard Saint, although Thomas Jane as Frank Castle and Rebecca Romjin (Mystique!) as Joan are pretty great, too. It's just that for the most part, Frank Castle is just a brooding angry man on a mission. And that sure is true for the character of Frank Castle, but without a particularly interesting storyline to carry the 2-hour-plus movie, it's not super-duper interesting to watch. Frank does admittedly get a couple of moments of great vulnerability in this movie -- his near-suicide at the end is amazing, and there's a neat little plotline where Frank opens up to his quirky neighbours, but ultimately, there's just something off. We've got some fun violent scenes of Frank stabbing some dude with a dagger from under the chin, or him creating an over-the-top display of his skull insignia out of exploding cars (how long did he set that up?) but then a good chunk of the movie is a lot more down-to-earth. That bit of disconnect is kind of bizarre. 

Unfortunately, I feel like the movie ends up being a bit too long and the story being way too linear. We spend some time at the beginning establishing Frank Castle as the best undercover cop ever, gone off to retire with his big family. Unfortunately, his last mission ends up causing the death of the son of mafia boss Howard Saint, who in turn wiped out Frank's entire family (not just his wife and kids) in the process. This one... went a bit too long, I feel, and as much as it's necessary for us to emphatize with Frank's Punisher routine, I feel like the Netflix show's way of implying it and revealing it bit-by-bit as we follow the Punisher is the superior choice. 

And the main meat of the story? Frank's investigation into the workings of Howard Saint's organization, from his wife to his gay second-in-command (which is a subplot that's kinda yeeesh viewed now) to a bunch of other generic minions feels like it belongs in a video game instead of a movie, and none of the characters are developed particularly well. John Travolta's Howard Saint and Will Patton's Quentin Glass are pretty fun as mafia character caricatures, but ultimately they're very one-dimensional. The way that Frank takes them down, when we do get to seeing the action scenes, are still thrilling as an action movie... but I feel like the buildup to Frank's creation of the situation to have Howard Saint self-destruct and kill his wife and right-hand man feels like it's perhaps dragged a bit too long. The neighbours... they're all right in principle. A bunch of quirky guys and a hot girl that Frank befriends and gets him to come in touch with his humanity, but ultimately they're just there. 

Still, I did enjoy watching this movie. It feels like it honestly just needs a push either in gritty realism or comic-book over-the-top violence to really make it a great movie... but it's still a pretty solid watch, I feel.