I figured since I also watched all the live action Punisher movies. I should include all of them in one huge blog review. I am a huge fan of The Punisher for many reasons. Yes at one point I did compare him to Batman but how can you blame me? They both got a lot of things in common. The Punisher is more let's kill the bad guys to protect the innocence.
1. The Punisher (1989)
The Punisher 1989 movie was the very last movie to be released by it's move company before going out of business. The fact this move got released is impressive. Usually when that happens, most movie releases gets canceled on the spot. I guess this movie is to die for lol. The Punisher doesn't take much time going into his past.
Dolph was a model starring in a lot of movies with some notably bad ones. I felt this is one of his better movies. Although I would say this was the one movie to get The Punisher wrong. I had to look up where the famous skull symbol wasn't present on him. It turns out to be they didn't have enough money in the budget.
If it was something else I would've been fine but come on that's his symbol. How can he be The Punisher without? Honestly this is a surprisingly great movie under the condition of it's release. It is a great action movie with a huge body count. I don't want to say Dolph was a miscast because some of the stuff he does is fine enough to get the job done.
This movie does an amazing job keeping it intense especially when he goes in killing people. This version also rides a motorcycle. Parts of this movie could easily be confused for The Terminator I'm not kidding. The way people die in some ways is just like the famous police shoot out scene in The Terminator.
Now that's interesting because The Terminator a few years before. Even some of the gun sounds are similar. Overall this is more of a forgotten gem. I would say if you are a fan of The Punisher like me. You need to check this movie out when you get. The Punisher delivers on action at it's absolute best rivaling some of the Steven Seagal movies.
2. The Punisher (2004)
To me this is my favorite Punisher movie. Thomas Jane is the perfect actor to portray the character. More recently he reprises the role in a video. I absolutely love everything about this movie. It does a great job recreating the tragedy leaving to him becoming The Punisher. Some well written scenes that still stayed fresh in my mind.
This movie does a even better job displaying what I love this character so much. Some scenes he does some of his humanity. Surprisingly the wrestler Kevin Nash portrays The Russian from the comics. The first enemy of his to come from the comics to be in a movie. The same guy who also plays Super Shredder in the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
I really love the appearance of the character in this movie. For me it was really accurately done in my opinion. Not only he looks like the character, he pulls him off even better too. In this movie, a criminal named Howard Saint had a hand in what happened to him. He decides to go after him not for revenge but his sense of justice.
A few scenes caught me off guard like the one where one of Saint's sons got trapped. Frank puts a bag of sand in his hand while connected to a bomb. This guy has to keep his hand up high or the bomb goes off. How Frank takes out Saint to me was beautifully done as well as fitting. This movie is exactly what I wanted for the character.
There isn't as much killing as in 1989 movie but more of them have a more important reason. Basically they weren't simply there to get gunned down is my point. The fact he gets Saint to kill two people close to him in order to break him down is exactly a move the character would do. The Punisher is very true to his name here.
3. Punisher: War Zone (2008)
Originally this was going to be a follow up to the 2004 movie. However there were major changes leading to a new movie take on the character. Oh okay I can understand why not a lot of people know about the 1989 movie. But how many movies do we need before he gets a series? At least he got more movies than Man-Thing lol.
Ray Stevenson took over since Thomas Jane led over creativity differences. This version is wearing body armor more visibly. Just going by the three Punisher movies. We went from no armor at all to a little armor to full on body armor wow. In terms in how he does things, The Punisher is using more strategies.
The big surprise is we finally get to see his nemesis appear in the movie. Yes The Punisher actually has an arch enemy that really hates him to no end. Although this character's last name got altered a little bit. Billy does go the full circle in this movie. Just like in the comics, The Punisher virtually destroys his face.
This led to him becoming the character called Jigsaw for that reason. He is a criminal that becomes obsessed with getting even with Castle. I felt they might've taken notes from Joel Schumacher's Batman movies I'm not kidding. Yes this movie is way more violent than those. At the same time, some of the stuff Jigsaw does is very similar to The Riddler & Two Face in Batman Forever.
I would even say that's laughable. A character with a tragedy of his own treated like comic relief. Why does that sound like Superman 3 movie? Punisher: War Zone is a good movie but I can't say it was more entertaining than the previous two Punisher movies. I will say I do like how they done the skull symbol.
4. The Punisher (Netflix) (2017-2019)
It took us a long time but finally The Punisher gets a series in the form of a Netflix show. By now you will notice a different theme. Each live action take of the character is portrayed by different men almost like James Bond. In this case, Jon Bernthal whose in such things as The Walking Dead & The Accountant plays the character.
I do love how they went about Billy in this version. Yes in season 2, he does become Jigsaw. Despite not looking as faithfully, his performance was way better. They actually found a way to make it more personal than it actually was in the comics. Yes we do get to relive the tragedy once again. I will say this was told very well.
I also have to say this is one of the best among their Netflix Marvel shows too. This character originally appears during season 2 of Daredevil. I would say this guy's performance overall does rival Jane's performance. He does come a lot closer than the other two guys in my opinion. The Punisher goes through many changes.
In season 1, it was more of him getting to the bottom of what happened to him. In season 2, it was on the lines of finishing what he started while dealing with another problem through out. Basically season 2 had a few major antagonists while there was mostly Billy in season 1. The fight scenes are hands down the best.
I absolutely love when he wears the skull symbol. Which isn't as often but when he does you know things are about to get very crazy. I got to be honest they did an amazing job keeping him true to his character. I felt this one not only stays on point with the story but possibly tells it even better than Daredevil.
No comments:
Post a Comment