The Punisher (2004) Review

Rarely does a film with awful ratings amaze me. That only seems to be the case with the really bad ones. Just decent ratings I have plenty of likeness towards. Transformers: Age of Extinction and Battleship were the only two terribly rated films I loved. Now I can add The Punisher to that list. It was as poorly reviewed as the other two, but it gained mostly negative acclaim. However, I would disagree with every one who disliked it. The punisher is mislabeled as a marvel superhero movie, it is, but it shouldn't be. The Punisher is nothing alike any of Marvel's greats and that's what makes it so special. It's not your average, clichéd, fun, PG-13 movie. The Punisher gets virtually everything right, and improves upon many R-rated vigilante thrillers. The Punisher, our main character goes on a revenge-fueled attack against the killers of his family. The Punisher is a little smarter than the other violent R films, because he kills for revenge, while in the other vigilante movies they kill for not much reason at all, which creates less mindless stupid action in The Punisher. The action instead, is great. The awesome shootouts, fights, and battles are epic and exciting. The Punisher is a great anti-hero and he makes some awesome kills. On the other end, John Travolta doesn't play his role right. That is, if was supposed to be playing an intimidating, scary, ruthless, evil killer villain. He more comes off as a coward who can only kill when it gets personal and has others do his work for him. I was fine with that though, I found his character likeable. The Punisher also distinguishes itself from other R-action films in other ways. It's not all action. Sometimes, we like all action. The Punisher gets the perfect balance. There's plenty of badass moments where The Punisher is tricking his villain instead of killing them. There's also plenty of comedy between the neighbors, and drama for the family deaths. There is one flaw though, it is a little ridiculous. It's the classic action cliché, The hero survives an impossible amount of damage to his body. He is shot many times, in life-threatening areas, he is burnt, he is beaten, but he is not dead. After a while, I didn't care. The awesome action sequences were enough for me.
Movie Rating: A-