| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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What every punisher fan would want.
by sado (movies profile)
Dec 22, 2008
3
of
3 people found this review helpful
Now there is 2 things that I want to say to all the critics who have been complaining about this movie:
1. please read the Punisher comics so you know what he is and what he does.
2. if you don't like voilence, the rated "R" part was a hint.
Frank Castle is the Punisher, a hard-edged, psychotic, ruthless killing machine that makes Veitnam look like Sesame Street. Period. Expect no sympathy, remorse or doubt from Castle. In fact, if he just blows your brains out then you can call yourself lucky. Ask Jigsaw, Barracuda, Bullseye the trio of Wolverine, DareDevil and Spiderman. They'd tell you what he can do on a bad day.
So now we have an idea of who Frank is. So what does he do? Well he kills, ploughs through one syndicate after another, splatters human trafficers's body parts over the pavement and the only time "smiles" ("i don't smile often. Dont ever smile. But if i did, this would be it) is when bad guys fall into his trap without realizing it etc. etc. etc.
Now why this movie is a true adaptation of Punisher is because it retains everything about the original comic that made it popular. It's action packed, violent and gritty. THAT is what the Punisher has always been about. THAT is why Garth Ennis was brought in and finally did justice to him. THAT is what made him popular all over again. So if you're looking for girly love-taps or wire-fu garbage, go watch Twilight and if you can stand blood don't watch the movie. This isn't rocket science. But giving a movie only 2 stars because it is "disgusting" is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
If you've come this far then you know that Punisher has ALWAYS been about disgusting. In comics, he shot Wolverine in the crotch and steam rolled him. He broke DareDevil's arms and tossed him out of a balcony. He fed a mafia leader to polar bears. He shot Wolverine with stinger missiles and splattered him all over the pavement. He hacked Barracuda to pieces, bit off his cheek, clawed at his face and blew his face off with a shotgun. He even put a man through a mincemeat machine and barely twitched. If this isn't "disgusting" I don't know what is. And these are the things that made Punisher popular. This is what he's about: remorselessly killing "scum". Of course that's not all what he is (those who think so should read "Never Fall in NewYork" chapter of Punisher by Garth Ennis)
The movie does justice to it all but also gives us a good dosage (totally in-character) of Frank's obession as well as the side of him that died with his family: his humanity. We get a good look at his guilt at killing an innocent man, his decision to correct his mistake, his desire to protect his family and his fatherly affection towards the little daughter who brought out his own forgotten fatherly instincts. They also bring us a new dimension to Castle's character by having a box full of his children's belongings still in his hideout, something never seen or mentioned in the comics. As he often says in the comics, "Frank Castle is dead". Frank Castle is, however, still around somewhere in the movie Punisher. And that was great.
Ray Stevenson was brilliant as Punisher. Make no mistake people, Frank Castle is in his late 50's in the comics. While Thomas Jane was good as Punisher in my opinion, he looked a bit too soft and boyish as Punisher. Stevenson, however, even has the look of Punisher and gives him a mature, battle hardened, warrior-look. Dominic West was perfect as Jigsaw, an over-the-top psycho hell bend on revenge and his cannibal brother was great too.
The direction and picturisation was great, giving the movie a neo-noir setting and look which was very similar in terms of setting to Garth Ennis' Punisher MAX titles. Punisher MAX, being one of the best stories Punisher title has ever seen.
Over all, the story was somewhat lackluster and predictable but the fact that the movie was a ("critics" pay attention, please) comickbook adaptation, one has to be a moron to expect the plot to be something out of Shakespeare. And great dialogue has never been part of Castle's life. In fact, the movie Frank speaks considerably more than the taciturn Castle of the comics whose more content cracking a blackcomedy oneliner before blowing your head off. Again, that was a good thing. Jigsaw pretty much speaks in that twitching, gibberish as his movie counter part, which again is great.
Basically, if you don't read Punisher never read any of the stuff by Garth Ennis and were expecting some pretty boy in tights giving love taps to pretty boy baddies who never bleed....you're in for a shocker. Please stick to disney movies adaptations. To those who know and love the one man war machine known as Frank Castle, this movie is a great, true-to-its-source adaptation of one of the coolest characters Comic books have ever made. I went to see Frank Castle the Punisher and got Frank Castle the Punisher. And that's hard to do for someone like me whose been following the character for almost his entire life.
A must see for all Punisher fans. |
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