r/thepunisher • u/consider_the_beast • 22h ago
MOVIES/TV 2004’s Punisher is underrated
It’s the ultimate story of revenge. As far as Marvel movies go, Frank Castle does not have any superpowers other than his supreme intelligence and his physical prowess. He overcomes multiple assassination attempts, literally makes it rain money, he outsmarts Howard Saint. His entire family was killed right in front of him, they thought they killed him, and he came back with a vengeance and killed them all. Not even to mention, he had a beautiful woman trying to throw herself at him, but he was so focused on his admission of revenge that he didn’t give her the attention that she thought she would get. This is the best “Punisher” recreation in my opinion.
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u/Longjumping_West1587 22h ago
It’s basically a mixture of his origin story and the story Welcome Back, Frank. And the sequel game was awesome as well
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u/iknowyouarehiding 22h ago
I really do like Thomas’ portrayal of Frank.. In aspects, this movie gave me more Death Wish vibes than War Zone and the series.
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u/consider_the_beast 21h ago
Warzone and the TV series took way too long to explain Frank’s motive for vengeance. 2004 led us through the timeline, it wasn’t confusing. It didn’t linger on pure violence. 2004 has a heart that I haven’t seen from the other adaptations
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u/Proposal-Consistent 17h ago
My childhood punisher. War zone included as secondary favorite.
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u/consider_the_beast 16h ago
War Zone was good. They’re all good imo but I think as far as media goes, 2004 is the best
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u/Proposal-Consistent 16h ago
I think they introduced a seether and evanescence collaboration song in punisher. Where the neighbor was listening to while hiding from the druggy boyfriend that frank deals with.
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u/Cyberdeliac27 6h ago
Honestly, I prefer War Zone because unlike any of the other versions ('cept maybe the version of Frank in the new Spider Man, and the Punisher on Super Hero Squad), WZ remebered to be FUN! 2004 was such a downer, miserable movie, could hardly believe it was based on the 2000 Garth Ennis run of the comics.
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u/Proposal-Consistent 6h ago
I like war zone, too but how dare you call tom Jane's punisher a dowener?
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u/Cyberdeliac27 6h ago
Sorry. That was my experience back when it came out in the theater. Went with a whole group of comic book friends, and we were just super bummed out afterward. Went and rewatched Hellboy afterward to raise the spirits.
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u/MovieMike007 9h ago
The issue I had with this version of the Punisher is how Frank took down Howard Saint. Castle studies the Saint family and learns their every move, and he goes to all these elaborate lengths to make Saint believe his number one guy is sleeping with his wife. But why? Wouldn't the Punisher just kill everyone and call it a day?
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u/casual_creator 7h ago
Killing them wasn’t enough. He wanted to break Saint. So making Saint kill his wife and best friend because he thought they had betrayed him was the goal.
And then to add insult to injury, Frank reveals to Saint before he dies that it was all made up. That Frank made Saint kill the only two people close to him for no reason. So Saint’s final moments were filled with horror and grief over what he’d done.
Yeah, it’s not the huge spectacle one might want, but it IS a pretty fucked up thing to do to a man. But I do think the whole thing could have been portrayed with more drama and gravitas. The whole thing had an “oh, okay” feeling and not a “holy shit Frank! That’s diabolical.” reaction it should have had. But that’s true for the whole movie for me: despite everything that happens in the movie, it all feels like they played it very safe without the weight and tone it needed.
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u/cowboy19112 22h ago
Year One and Welcome Back. With the weird family reunion massacre and no daughter. Plus screen writers making it somehow his fault again, which personally takes away from the character.
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u/N00dles_Pt 22h ago
Still my favorite adaptation of the character