The Punisher (Bluray Review)

Main Feature

The Punisher is one of my favorite comic-book characters for the simple fact that he is an anti-hero who doesn’t have any super powers. Frank Castle, with his martial arts expertise, incredible physical endurance, and all-round toughness is pretty much Batman minus the fancy dress costume and handy gadgets.

It always amazes me when anyone hates a movie because it doesn’t stick as close to their view of the source material as they would have liked. I have never understood why some people have such a difficult time judging an individual work on its own merits. Does the film deviate from the comic-books? Yes. Does this stop the character from having a no-nonsense attitude and kicking ass? No.

Thomas Jane is fantastic as Frank Castle and now it’s hard for me to picture anyone else in the role. I don’t even want to hear about Dolph Lundgren. Jane plays the role of the troubled anti-hero to perfection and is a talented actor who is blessed with a rare on-screen intensity, which will no doubt open many doors for him. John Travolta seems to relish any opportunity to play the bad guy. His subtle portrayal of Howard Saint was nice to see as he could easily have chosen to portray the character as some sort of exaggerated caricature. Another highlight of the film was Will Patton’s performance as the sadistic Quentin Glass which, like Travolta’s portrayal of Saint, had the right amount of subtlety and avoided being over the top.

Extras

The obligatory commentary is thankfully in place and I’m also happy that the music video for “Step Up” by Drowning Pool is also included in the Extras. The featurettes are well made and I enjoyed watching them. The behind the scenes footage is quite interesting and looks at how the team managed to make the film, especially some of the impressive special effects, on such an incredibly tight budget by action film standards.

We are also given an insight into how the decision to shoot in Tampa proved to be a bit of a double-edge sword, in that the locations were fantastic while the weather caused some problems, but in the end it proved to be a good choice. There is an interesting look at the role stuntmen played in the film and this was especially important as the choice was made early on, mainly due to budget constraints, that no CGI would be used in the production. There is also a short segment on cover-artist Timothy Bradstreet on how he had the honour of creating the posters for the film in his own style.

One thing I found disappointing was that an Extended Cut wasn’t included on this disc. This is harder to accept when the Director mentions in the commentary that an entire 40-minute side-story was cut from the film.

Summary

I found The Punisher to be a very enjoyable film and, regardless of how knowledgeable you are of the comic books, it will leave you with an urge to discover more about this mysterious character. This is the type of film I’ll shove on when I’m in the mood for straight up action and a few good performances add something extra to the genre. I highly recommend this to anyone who is after a down-to-earth comic book experience on film.

Rating ****