The Punisher
The Plot:
Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is a man who has seen too much death in his life, first as a Delta Force Op and later as an FBI special agent. He has managed to beat considerable odds, and is finally moving out of the field and into a normal life with his wife and son. On his final assignment, Castle plays his undercover role perfectly, but the operation spins out of control. This places the FBI on the wrong side of Tampa businessman Howard Saint (John Travolta) and his glamorous wife Livia (Laura Harring). Notwithstanding their glossy social profile, the Saints are no genteel Florida couple; behind their copious wealth are violent beginnings, underworld ties – and a chilling capacity for brutality. Castle’s worst nightmare is about to come true, as Howard Saint and his lieutenants unleash hell at the Castle family reunion. But Castle, to his everlasting torment, survives. Drawing upon all he has learned in 20 years, Castle sets in motion a brilliant plan to punish the murderers. He takes up residence among in a dilapidated tenement building on Tampa’s industrial waterfront, where his fellow tenants include Joan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), a waitress at a nearby diner who is trying to put her life back on track. Castle’s neighbors become his last link to the idea of human community and warmth. It is this makeshift family – forgotten men and women with no one to protect them - who enable Castle to find the one thing he least expects. (From Yahoo Movies)
My Thoughts: (Reviewed by K-Billy)
The interesting thing about this film to me is that it is one of the rare movies in which I know the character so well before even going to see the film. In this respect I couldn’t really say whether that hurt or heightened my enjoyment of this film. I’m a large fan of the comic and have formed my own opinion and view of who Frank Castle aka the Punisher is. I’ll get back to that. The Punisher, the movie, takes place in Florida, after completing his last operation as an FBI agent, Frank Castle decides to retire from the force. Unluckily for him, one of the people that was killed in the last op was the son of Howard Saint, a very wealthy, powerful business man. In an act of brutality, Saint has Castle and his entire family murdered, however Castle somehow doesn’t die and thus swears revenge on Saint, and becomes….The Punisher.
A couple of gripes I have about this film. The Punisher lives in New York, he is a New York comic book character. That’s the deal, his family was gunned down after stumbling upon a mob execution, or at least that’s how the real story goes. I really, and I stress really, didn’t like the fact that they moved the Punisher to Florida and changed his backstory for this film. The tone and look of Florida is such an opposite to that of the movie, this hurts the film. Leave Frank in New York, that’s where he belongs. Not to mention the fact that the only people who seem to live in Florida are Frank, his neighbors, and the bad guys. There’s basically no one else. So this film feels somewhat detached.
Secondly the massacre of Frank’s family didn’t really evoke that much emotion. Once again, his whole family getting gunned down under the clear blue skies on a sandy beach doesn’t really work for me. Where’s the Central Park killing? On top of that it’s too unrealistic to evoke emotion. It’s pathetic how coincidentally all of the main characters go somewhere right before the shooting starts, they don’t even try to mask the fact that they’re just leaving so the rest can be killed first. This way all of the family members who don’t mean shit can die in regular fashion, or do they, these people try to escape death in the dumbest ways, one even tries to sail off into the ocean on a small sailboat. Bullets travel faster then wind, imagine that. This all leading to his wife and son dying. A sad scene, but still doesn’t evoke the type of feelings I’d like to have.
Second Gripe. There are some things in this movie that you cannot appreciate or even understand unless you read the comics. The neighbors are all straight out of one of the comics and therefore you have more backstory on them then if you just sat down and watched the movie. Which really doesn’t do most of them justice. The biggest however is the Russian. Talk about underdeveloped characters, him and the guitar weilding assasin were in and out of the movie in about 5 minutes each. The Russian is a major character for a time in the Punisher comics, and you understand who he is. In this there is no indication about his character at all. He comes out of the blue, fights, and then dies in a ludicrous fashion. Same with the guitar weilding assasin. I blame the writers for this. Who the hell is Jonathan Hensleigh? I wish Garth Ennis would’ve written this movie.
Third gripe. Frank Castle fights the mob, the mafia. He goes up against impossible odds and makes life difficult for the dons of New York, in the comic. Howard Saint seems like the smallest big time crook in the world. He seemingly has about 20 people working for him, where are the impossible odds we see in the comic book. Why do I have to watch John Travolta kill his gay assistant and then throw his wife on the train tracks. All of this is too small time for Frank. Once again this character suffers immensely from being put in Florida. But the biggest test of all is the perfomance of Frank Castle. I have to say that Thomas Jane did quite a good job. I could never even begin to think of someone who could play Frank Castle. I really enjoyed Jane, he captured the tortured soul that Castle is. The only thing that I don’t think comes across in this movie, and I blame the writing, is that Castle is a machine, not just some man who lost his family. Castle kills, and he enjoys it, he enjoys Punishing the wicked. In this movie he’s just a man with nothing to lose. They don’t really do the Punisher side of the character justice. On top of that, some of the things, such as telling Joan’s ex boyfriend that he shouldn’t play with knives after he charges Frank is unrrealistic if you’ve read the comics. Frank would’ve killed him, plain and simple. He completely lacks remorse, but in the film he’s a tad more human. Which I didn’t really like.
All in all this movie starts out very promising but then is kind of uneven throughout it’s 2 hour run. It definitly has it’s moments, but for someone like myself who really loves this character, I was expecting more, maybe unrealistically so, but I think this film could’ve been much more then it was, I can definitly see the potential but it’s not utilized. My advice, forget this Johnatan Hensleigh, he’s a mediocre director and a poor writer. I’m expecting bigger things from the next Punisher installment, which is likely to come if this movie makes any money.
