Anyone seen it yet? I bought my tickets for it this afternoon and will be seeing it tommorow.
Everyone is panning it, saying that it's horrible. Any insight?
Goodsport
16 Apr 2004, 11:45 PM
I just came back watching it (after watching Kill Bill, Vol. 2), and it was pretty good. I've never seen the 1989 version starring Dolph Lundgren, so I don't know how it compares to that, but this one was pretty good (though it seemed strange watching a Marvel movie of a character with no actual super powers... but that's The Punisher for ya :D ).
The only negative, though it's not a big one, was that mob leader Howard Saiint, as played by John Travolta, didn't seem quite "evil" enough (unlike his henchmen). Sure, he did some evil things (especially near the end of the movie), but his mannerisms and such still didn't get me to totally hate him, and I didn't quite get that same sense of satisfaction at the resolution of the final battle the way I did when (for example) Jack Nicholson's Joker bit the dust at the hands of Michael Keaton's Batman.
The Punisher, a.k.a. Frank Castle (played by Thomas Jane) was very well cast, however, as was the supporting cast (particularly Castle's tennant neighbors).
Overall, I enjoyed this film.
Interestingly, the theater I saw the film at also handed out a promotional reprint of "Amazing Spider-Man" #129 from 1974 (which was he first appearance of The Punisher) to each person who bought a ticket. Unlike the original issue, though, the reprint is printed on thicker Baxter paper and has some promotional pages interspersed throughout for The Punisher movie (some with live shots, and some with really nice artwork by Tim Bradstreet), as well as some Punisher pin-up artwork by Bradstreet.
I hope that helped. :)
-G