The Punisher...Underrated?

[PyroChamber]

Out of all the Marvel movies, do you think that Punisher is the most underrated of them all?

 

[Shuley]

No the Hulk is actually.

 

[Kable24]

I think the Punisher is. Everyone I know who has seen it loves it, but the Internet fanboys rip it apart for the most part. Then again nothing ever pleases people on the internet.

 

[juggster-rules]

I think the Punisher is. Everyone I know who has seen it loves it, but the Internet fanboys rip it apart for the most part. Then again nothing ever pleases people on the internet.

i dont consider punisher being a good comic movie. its more like a terminator movie in a way.

 

[Hush]

Everyone I have talked to thought it was bad ass. I also really enjoyed it.

 

[Kabuki_Jo]

I liked it quite a lot.

Hush, hasn't JLU been officially canceled?
Is there still any chance to save it?

 

[co2]

Maybe not THE most under-rated, but definitely one of the most under-appreciated.

 

[CConn]

Y'know, I'd say it is. I've always enjoyed it quite a bit. Is it a rather simplistic B-movie? Sure. But it's an enjoyable one, and a pretty good representation of the character.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

I hate The Punisher so much, i don´t have words to express it.

But, on it´s behalf, it´s better than Blade: Trinity

 

[Peyton Westlake]

I will say this, it did portray Frank Castle in a very dark light. Becoming an alcoholic & not resting until he got his revenge. That right there is the most dark film MArvel has ever done.

 

[Sun_Down]

I liked it, but I recognize it's many flaws. I'm by no means a Punisher expert, but I liked the way he was portrayed. By the end of the movie, I really found myself caring about his fate, which is, to me, the sign of atleast a decent movie.

 

[Joker]

It was the best way to do a punisher movie without it being set in the 70's, which wouldnt have gotten over at all with modern audiences. Little story here, I talked a bunch of people I knew from school into seeing it on opening night, about 50% of them were females, and other than me and one other guy there, I know for a fact none of them have ever read a single comic. They all loved it. And I'm a huge Punisher fanboy, and I loved it. I don't see how it cant be loved

 

[Tissues]

I've always liked it. My sister thought the flaming skull at the end was a little much, though. Besides the friend I brought to see it, I don't think anyone else I know has seen it.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I won't say it's the MOST underrated, b/c it's not as widely lambasted (or as good, IMO) as Hulk or X3.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

The problem with The Punisher, the reason why he is just a big pile of crap (IMO, bare that in mind), it´s that it just goes against what The Punisher is about.
I´m not pointing fingers to anyone, but i just can´t imagine how can fans of the character like the movie.
To like it because you think it´s a good action movie, or that you are not a big fan of Frank Castle, that i can understand...but fans....
It´s not enough to have shirt with a skull, tons of guns and be called Frank Castle to be The Punisher.
To give the extremely simplistic and resumed version:

- The Punisher is about the effects of war on the human psyche. Many times, in moments of great stress (war, in this case), people tend to create "new personalities" so they can survive it all, they became stronger, both physical and psychological.
Frank Castle created that warrior during the war, and the only thing that clung him to sanity was the love for his wife and kids, the subconscience notion that he had a normal life out there, a real life.
When he lost his family by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Frank Castle returned to to that warrior, to the place where he felt safe, because it was the personality that "saved his life" and made him capable of enduring the war.
So, he opened war once again, this time against crime....that´s why he uses machine guns, bazookas and all that war stuff, and not a gun alone (ever thought of that?)
Frank Castle is a sick man!

- The movie´s Punisher is a man in search of revenge....and that´s it, case close.
And when all is said and done, he gets a twisted idea of justice.
Basically, Thomas Jane´s Frank Castle is crazy!

That crazy/sick makes all the diference in the world...

 

[Movies205]

The problem with The Punisher, the reason why he is just a big pile of crap (IMO, bare that in mind), it´s that it just goes against what The Punisher is about.
I´m not pointing fingers to anyone, but i just can´t imagine how can fans of the character like the movie.
To like it because you think it´s a good action movie, or that you are not a big fan of Frank Castle, that i can understand...but fans....
It´s not enough to have shirt with a skull, tons of guns and be called Frank Castle to be The Punisher.
To give the extremely simplistic and resumed version:

- The Punisher is about the effects of war on the human psyche. Many times, in moments of great stress (war, in this case), people tend to create "new personalities" so they can survive it all, they became stronger, both physical and psychological.
Frank Castle created that warrior during the war, and the only thing that clung him to sanity was the love for his wife and kids, the subconscience notion that he had a normal life out there, a real life.
When he lost his family by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Frank Castle returned to to that warrior, to the place where he felt safe, because it was the personality that "saved his life" and made him capable of enduring the war.
So, he opened war once again, this time against crime....that´s why he uses machine guns, bazookas and all that war stuff, and not a gun alone (ever thought of that?)
Frank Castle is a sick man!

- The movie´s Punisher is a man in search of revenge....and that´s it, case close.
And when all is said and done, he gets a twisted idea of justice.
Basically, Thomas Jane´s Frank Castle is crazy!

That crazy/sick makes all the diference in the world...

Brilliant post Let's also add that the movie simply as an action movie is mediocre and cliche

 

[Chris Wallace]

The problem with The Punisher, the reason why he is just a big pile of crap (IMO, bare that in mind), it´s that it just goes against what The Punisher is about.
I´m not pointing fingers to anyone, but i just can´t imagine how can fans of the character like the movie.
To like it because you think it´s a good action movie, or that you are not a big fan of Frank Castle, that i can understand...but fans....
It´s not enough to have shirt with a skull, tons of guns and be called Frank Castle to be The Punisher.
To give the extremely simplistic and resumed version:

- The Punisher is about the effects of war on the human psyche. Many times, in moments of great stress (war, in this case), people tend to create "new personalities" so they can survive it all, they became stronger, both physical and psychological.
Frank Castle created that warrior during the war, and the only thing that clung him to sanity was the love for his wife and kids, the subconscience notion that he had a normal life out there, a real life.
When he lost his family by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Frank Castle returned to to that warrior, to the place where he felt safe, because it was the personality that "saved his life" and made him capable of enduring the war.
So, he opened war once again, this time against crime....that´s why he uses machine guns, bazookas and all that war stuff, and not a gun alone (ever thought of that?)
Frank Castle is a sick man!

- The movie´s Punisher is a man in search of revenge....and that´s it, case close.
And when all is said and done, he gets a twisted idea of justice.
Basically, Thomas Jane´s Frank Castle is crazy!

That crazy/sick makes all the diference in the world...

I can buy all that, I get what you're saying, but I still enjoyed the movie & still do. I didn't care about any of that other stuff. Maybe because I'm not a big Punisher Fan to begin with.

 

[Sun_Down]

I can buy all that, I get what you're saying, but I still enjoyed the movie & still do. I didn't care about any of that other stuff. Maybe because I'm not a big Punisher Fan to begin with.

That's exactly what I was getting at. I've admittedly never read a Punisher comic (atleast since I was like 6), and I enjoyed the movie. But if I were a fan of the comics, I might think of it differently.

 

[co2]

I´m not pointing fingers to anyone, but i just can´t imagine how can fans of the character like the movie.

To like it because you think it´s a good action movie, or that you are not a big fan of Frank Castle, that i can understand...but fans....

Well, I think it was a decent action movie, but since I am a fan of the comic you mean I shouldn't like it.?? I would like it as a movie regardless of it being about the Punisher

To give the extremely simplistic and resumed version:

- The Punisher is about the effects of war on the human psyche.

It is?

Many times, in moments of great stress (war, in this case), people tend to create "new personalities" so they can survive it all, they became stronger, both physical and psychological.
Frank Castle created that warrior during the war, and the only thing that clung him to sanity was the love for his wife and kids, the subconscience notion that he had a normal life out there, a real life.
Well, he was like that before he ever went to war.
When he lost his family by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Frank Castle returned to to that warrior, to the place where he felt safe, because it was the personality that "saved his life" and made him capable of enduring the war.
So, he opened war once again, this time against crime....that´s why he uses machine guns, bazookas and all that war stuff, and not a gun alone (ever thought of that?)
Frank Castle is a sick man!

I don't really think that is what Punisher is...about. In fact, you replace "war" with "damaged childhood" and sounds like you are closer to what Hulk is about than anything else. (I hate that "about" word, though, because there are usually so many more themes to these).

Frank always had that stone cold killer. He simply supressed it. When he was in war, it had an outlet, and he discovered that he had a real talent and skill for it. Don't people tend to persue and enjoy what they naturally have a talent for? Ask any professional athlete....Frank is the Micheal Jordon of warfare. But he also had a strong sense of what he felt was justice that fed it. The only thing that held him in place during and immediately after the war, was his family. With them yanked out from under him, his sense of justice kicked in and he fell back on the only thing he had left....the one thing he excelled at....Killing.

- The movie´s Punisher is a man in search of revenge....and that´s it, case close.
QUOTE]

Now THAT I agree with. The movie was more of a revenge flick...but it is a 90min movie and has to fit that format. Does it have flaws?..of course. (I could have done without the flaming skull)
But you know what else the Punisher is about believe it or not....just seeing a dude who is fully capable of kicking the badguys' asses and taking no prisoners. There is something appealing about that sometimes. As far as the movie goes...it got that part 100% right.

 

[ShadowBoxing]

The Punisher had a great casting choice. However what always offended me about the movie was how it f**ked up what has to be the simpliest origin in comics. The latter half of that movie is pretty cool. However that whole "death in the tropics" was really hokey and unnecessary. The park scene would have had so much more gravity and would have made it seem so much more random.

The fact that he happened to gather his whole family the minute the hit went out on him is just far to convenient. Furthermore the movie focused far to much on the villain who was not that strong to begin with.

I liked how Punisher "killed" him. It was creative how he "f***ed his life up". However the movie lacked some noticable things.

Too few moments in costume: Most of the scenes with Frank either had him getting to know the neighbors or holding himself up in his room getting piss drunk. While some of these scenes were important for character development they were incredibly redundant after a while and added little to the story. I would rather see his skull wearing self shoot somebody than constantly crawl inside a bottle.

The Guitar Hitman: The whole notion that Frank Castle idlely watches a man play his "death song" while he sits dumb founded eating breakfast (and then walks to his car and drives away like it was nothing) bugs me. He would have shot him before he could pull out his guitar.

Weak and Hokey Villain: Travolta sucked as usual. They should have kept him away and gone with a better actor. Not tried to make him such an over the top character.

Other than that, yeah it was a good B-film. But it could have been better.

Hulk is the most underrated IMO.

 

[Dread]

I actually liked the 21st century version of THE PUNISHER quite a bit. It was much, much, MUCH better than the "generic 80's actioner" that was the original Punisher film. Thomas Jane made for a better Frank Castle than I expected and while Travolta was hammy as usual, it's nice to see him get blown up. Yes, his character got a lot of screentime, but what do you expect? He was easily the only "big time" actor in the production that an average audience-member would know of. I could argue that Kevin Spacey's Luthor had the same occur to him in SUPERMAN RETURNS for almost the same reason.

What I liked about the film most of all, which is something I have never seen anyone else get, not even the almighty Roger Ebert, is that it was a modern day Western. The beginning had that sketchy animation and the trumphets, "revenge" was the theme throughout, and it even has two Western-style "quick draw" shoot-outs between Castle and the baddies. And as someone who usually likes a good Western, and someone who has gotten so very tired of every damned action movie having "wire-fu" or CGI-overload, I liked the old school effects of THE PUNISHER. You shoot someone and they fall over. They don't slowly collide with the bullet via the upteenth "wannabe Matrix Bullet-time" before CGI-ing through a wall or having Punisher take out 100 men in slow-motion with a leek or something. Readers of Ennis' comic version probably wanted something like that, but whatever.

There were some heavy liberties taken with the origin, but the essentials were there; Frank, an ex-military vet, has his family gunned down by mobsters and he snaps and goes out to kill them, and afterwards all criminals. In the comics, all of Castle's family members had to be involved in conveluted mob crap, so I didn't mind that a bunch got gathered for a gangland kill. Most movies try to make a "random" origin not so random; anyone remember Joker killing Batman's parents in 1989's BATMAN? Yes, there were cheesy bits and clunky bits (I roll my eyes every time when Castle's wife goes on about being "blessed" and every time his son shows up, it's as if the director pictured him with a big BULLSEYE on his chest), but a lot of movies have that. I could name a lot of "accepted" comic movies that all have that sort of stuff.

I do feel THE PUNISHER is underrated. I certainly liked it a lot more than X3, HULK or DAREDEVIL, and the latter two I didn't think were as bad as the 'net nerds claim either.

 

[TheVileOne]

A Few Dollars More this movie was not. I got the spaghetti western elements. They just didn't work nor were they effective at all.

 

[Dread]

A Few Dollars More this movie was not. I got the spaghetti western elements. They just didn't work nor were they effective at all.

Oh, well, of course A FEW DOLLARS MORE was better. But that's like saying since no mobster movie could ever match THE GODFATHER, not to bother making any.

 

[TheVileOne]

Oh, well, of course A FEW DOLLARS MORE was better. But that's like saying since no mobster movie could ever match THE GODFATHER, not to bother making any.

You know what, that makes sense to me.

I simply think this movie failed at what it was trying to do in emulating the classic spaghetti westerns and revisionist westerns of the 50's-70's.

And I hate the look of the movie, setting over half of it in broad daylight was absolutely ludicrous to me.

 

[JTStarkiller]

Definitely not the best comic movie, but yes, I think it's really underappreciated. I really liked it.

Wonder if the extended edition will add anything substantial. 17 minutes is quite a bit of footage.