| In a rare 1974 issue of
Marvel Comic's "The Amazing Spider-Man", Spider-man's life is
at risk. The issue, titled 'The Punisher Strikes Twice" is the first
encounter any human being would ever experience with the man Marvel Comics
is boasting as "The Most Lethal Hired Assassin EVER!". Spider-man
is accused of murdering Norman Osbourne, and since he is too strong for
the police the Punisher takes it upon himself to set things right, under
the misguided information of the Jackal. In this issue, we learn that the
Punisher is on a one man war against crime, and lucky for Spider-Man, he
realizes that the Jackal was manipulating him so that Spider-man would take
the fall for Jackal's crimes! You can learn more about this via the replica
copy of Spiderman 129, which is given out to fans who go to see The Punisher
in theaters! Why is this important? well,
it launched the Marvel Comic's character known as Frank Castle, former military
man who lost his family who accidentally got mixed up in a mafia turf war.
Frank Castle decided to be the judge, jury and executioner of anybody who
is guilty of committing evil acts on the innocent. The comic book proclaims
that Frank Castle, died with his family, and in his place the cold blooded,
very distraught killer took his place. Using his military training, a shit
load of guns and his divine hatred for the criminals of the world, the Punisher
goes through hell to do the job he knows he must do, rid the world of evil.
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30 years after
his first appearance in Marvel Comic's "the Amazing Spider-Man",
Marvel Comics makes the Punisher into a live-action, big screen hero. In
a day when Marvel super heros are either born with genetic mutations, mutations
that grant the "mutant" with some unbelievable ability, be it
the ability to control fire, ice, the weather or telekinesis, Marvel had
a legion of heroes and villains with supernatural abilities. They also had
a legion of science experiments gone wrong. Small, weak, scientists would
explode in rage turning into incredible beasts, while others would be combined
genetically with animals. It was clear that Marvel was taking a very sci-fi
approach to comic books. After releasing several movies, including Spider-man(a
man who is given the abilities of the spider after being bitten by a radio
active spider), the X-Men(a group of mutants out to defend the world for
humans and mutants alike), Blade(half man, half vampire, out to save the
world from vampires), and The Incredible Hulk(Scientist who is infected
with radiation and becomes a huge monster of rage), the Punisher took a
very different approach. |
| Since Frank
Castle, is a normal every day guy with a ton of military training, you wont
see any blue skinned creatures roaming the set. Since Frank Castle, is a
man with out powers, you will see an ass load of fire arms, explosions and
custom artillery. |
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In this rendition of "The Punisher",
we meet federal agent, Frank Castle(Tom Jane) as he is on his last operation
with the FBI. During this operation something goes horribly wrong and
a young man is killed. As it turns out, the young man was the son of millionaire
and crime lord, Howard Saint(John Travolta). The death of his son leaves
Howard and his loving wife grief stricken, and seeking revenge. The Saints,
hire lethal assassins to take out the entire Castle family at a family
reunion in Puerto Rico. We are introduced to Frank's family, but one of
the major downfalls of the movie is that we didn't become attached to
them, so we didn't really feel the pain of losing their lives. The violence
is outrageous, which is to say, enjoyable for any fan of action movies.
Through a train of several events Frank manages to survive with out the
Saint's squad knowing, he gets an apartment in Florida and starts to stalk
Howard Saint's lackeys and becomes somewhat emotionally involved with
his neighbors, with out really bonding with them much, he becomes their
friend and you actually get sort of attached to these characters, more
so then you did his family.
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| By the time Frank encounters
his first adversary as the Punisher, you come to understand that he is an
alcoholic who seems beyond depressed, and rightfully so. Unfortunately you
don't really feel the depression or anxiety in him, and because of that
several scenes don't really work. Bad guys come and go, from Harry Heck(Mark
Collie), a guitar wielding assassin from Memphis who appears to be modeled
after Johnny Cash, to "The Russian"(Kevin Nash) who shows up at
Franks door, and pounds the man left and right. |
| Neither assassin seems
emotionally involved and the scenes of tension don't really seem as tense
as they should, and when the Punisher kills them you don't really feel it
as a victory. I loved the fact that this movie was the polar opposite of
the current state of comic book movies, it looked exactly how The Punisher
should have looked. Only real major problem I had with the movie was the
way the characters were worked. As stated before i felt no enjoyment when
Frank killed the villains, and I felt no sadness when his family died. The
action sequences were enjoyable, but it could have used a few more. Over
all though, I think its worth seeing. Several parts of the movie had me
laughing, with that grim comic book sense of humor. Fans of The Punisher
comics will definitely appreciate the movie, this will go down as a cult
classic. |
