I saw this with Kill Bill volume 2 today, but I\'ll leave those opinions in that thread.
The Punisher was alright as far as movies go. I\'m not up to date on the lore of the Punisher with the exception of knowing his very broad origin of his family\'s death, Frank Castle\'s skills with various weapons due to his militaristic background, and that he has a big skull on his chest that most criminals fear all the way to Hell, but after that, he\'s just an oridinary guy making people suffer for their criminal tendencies. He\'s a vigilante to the max.
The biggest problem I had with this movie was the detachment from the character. I just didn\'t feel the hatred that he must have had for the villains, but even worse was the dead-pan acting done by this new guy who played Frank Castle who was ultimately responsible for this problem. His best scenes are when we, the audience, rely on his facial expressions to convey his emotions, but the feeling is totaly lost when he speaks. An example of this is at the end of the movie when he finally gets his revenge on everyone, which should be a very satisfying moment when he reveals to Travolta the sadistic things he made him do, but when he reveals these facts, it falls totaly flat almost like a Vulcan delivering dialogue that requires high emotional content.
The movie also had plenty of moments that were a bit corny, but it never comes to the level of cheese as displayed in Hell Boy so that can be good or bad depending on your take of the situation. However, the movie does contain its genuinely comedic elements, though short lived, but they\'re mostly marred by terribly written dialogue. Honestly, the best scenes of the film are when people say nothing and instead let their expressions and actions do the talking.
It\'s not a terrible film, definitely better then Hell Boy in my opinion and to many others who were very annoyed by the cheese in that film, but it definitely could have been better if, on the editing floor, they upped the music score (Which was really limited in this film save for maybe 1 or 2 scenes), and really let the audience feel what the character\'s felt without having been told how to feel.
