Movies: The Punisher (2004) vs Punisher War Zone

Unknown

Greetings everyone,

In honor of the One Man Army event featuring everyone's favorite skull wearing anti-hero, I've decided to talk about the two Punisher movies we were treated to. I just recently watched them both this week. Here's what I have to say on the matter. Neither of these movies are as bad as the internet or reviewers make them sound.

The Punisher remake from 2004, staring John Travolta, is a good straight up revenge movie. It doesn't do anything great but it doesn't really do anything horrible either. Casual viewers who know nothing of Marvel's The Punisher can sit down, watch this movie, enjoy it, and never realize they just watched a comic book movie. However that last bit is kind of a point against it in my eyes. I will grant that of the two, this version is the superior film. It has the better story and can appeal to a wider audience. This can be why it performed better than its predecessor. It was made to be a "safe and by the numbers" movie. But it fails at being a comic book movie. It forgot where it came from and as a result, ultimately fails.

Punisher War Zone on the other hand knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be. It stays truer to the source material in both content and tone. It's a fast paced kill-fest. It looks like a Punisher movie with all its gore and violence. It feels like a Punisher movie with it's over the top kills and huge body count. It was the Punisher movie we deserved, but perhaps not the one we needed. It does suffer from being all about Punisher going and killing bad guys and the story is a little "meh". Honestly though, who cares? What is The Punisher known for in the comics? He kills people, often times in very violent manners. Does this happen in the movie? Check. Should Punisher fans love this movie? Absolutely. It may be a "bad" to mediocre movie overall, but file it under a guilty pleasure and enjoy the ride.

In both cases the movies got criticized for it's violent content. I have to wonder though, by who? Did these naysayers not understand the basic idea of The Punisher? I find most moviegoers who bash movies are doing it to be movie bullies. They spend too much time trying to be the next "Angry Video Game Nerd", "Nostalgia Critic", etc.

Marvel now owns the rights to The Punisher film franchise again. Will this mean that we can look forward to another Punisher reboot? Probably not. But with the joint venture with Netflix and The Defenders, maybe we'll see a Netflix Exclusive Punisher series/mini-series. Here's hoping, because I for one can't get enough of our lovable gun toting vigilante.

Unknown

lol nice necromancy

Disclaimer:
I'm a total Punisher fanboy.

Punisher, together with Spider-Man, were the first superhero comics published in Poland - I was 8yo and it was 1989, a moment after Poland finally got rid of Russia' "influence" and started to be a democratic country.

I got totally hooked-up. Spidey was nice, but it was Punisher whom I read with so much excitement.

As for the movies:

I like all of them. They all have different feeling and it's really hard to say which is better. I guess it depends what You're looking for.

Thomas Jane version from 2004 - it's a Holywood movie. That's why it can't be as brutal as the comics. There is some decent acting (Thomas Jane) but what I don't like is what most of the movies about superheroes have - the origin is half the movie. I want action, I want supervillains (ok, maybe not necessarrily in the case of Frank). Still a good action movie without some stupid plot holes.

Punisher: War Zone (2008) - ooooooh how I love Ray Stevenson! He was the only reason the latest G.I.JOE movies were worth watching! And His performance in one of he Dexter's seasons - pure brilliancy. Now this movie is a total counterpart to the 2004 version - a straight to DVD version, brutal, with some bad acting (Jigsaw). But it's so close to the original Punisher comics! Especially those from Chuck Dixon era! If You love Punisher, You will love this movie.
Actually I think I'll rewatch it now.

There was also 1989 version of the Punisher - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Punish ... 89_film%29 - starring Dolph Lundgren. It's a very good classic '80 action movie. Worth watching if You're into Death Wish or old Steven Seagal movies. The main drawback - the skull logo is nowhere to be seen.

And lately Marvel made and animated movie with Punisher and Black Widow (anime style of animation), but, beside the fact that there's a lot of Marvel chars featured, the plot is so boring I dunno if I'd recommend it to anyone.


Oh, and did You know? some time ago Thomas Jane with friends created a short movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWpK0wsnitc in which he clearly puts himself in the role of the Punisher, but due to the copyrights, the name Punisher is nowhere to be seen in the movie. It was created in order to force the producers to make another Punisher movie. Worth watching - it's a combination of the best stuff we got in 2004 and 2008 versions.

Unknown

I enjoy the lot of them. Each has its own unique style and feel.
And I really appreciate the dedication put into Dirty Laundry. Adi Shankar also made a rather artsy Venom short film (called "Truth in Journalism").