The Punisher Is So Lacking In Creativity Even John Travolta Phones It In As A Mob Boss

Over the course of a 19 year period, we got three different Punisher movies, none of them direct continuations of each other. Instead, we got a trio of attempts to launch a series of movies based on this Marvel Comics character, none of which left all that much of an impact, especially compared to how well-received Jon Bernthal's take on the character on the Daredevil TV show was. The second of these three Punisher movies is the 2004 film by Johnathan Hensleigh, simply called The Punisher, which is one of only two movies (along with that 2005 Man-Thing film that ended up becoming a TV movie) to emerge from an extensive deal Marvel made with now-defunct movie studio Artisan Entertainment to turn various Marvel characters into various pop culture properties.

The Punisher opts to go for the origin story angle in taking on the story of Frank Castle (here played by Thomas Jane) an FBI agent who goes on undercover missions and is ready to move to London with his family to live a life more reliant on peace and quiet than gunfire. His desire for such a life is only heightened after a mission he's on ends up going sideways and resulting in the deaths of some criminals, one of which is the son of hugely powerful mobster Howard Saint (John Travolta), who decides to get revenge on Castle by executing his entire family. The plan is put into motion whilst Frank is in the middle of a wonderful vacation with his loved ones that, obviously, goes south pretty fast.

Like in the comics and most pop culture takes on The Punisher, we do get to see Frank Castle witness his wife and child being killed by mobsters, though here it's a personal act of vengeance against Frank Castle enacted by Howard Saint  whereas in the comics it was just random mob violence that took the lives of the ones Frank held most dear. Both origins send Frank on the path to being a gun-wielding vigilante, though here he first goes on an explicit person mission of revenge against Howard Saint and his crew, one that has him also crossing paths with a down-on-her-luck waitress named Joan (Rebecca Romijn).

I'm not really a fan of The Punisher in general (the character himself is just more so-so to me than anything else, though a good chunk of his fanbase that worships the character is all kinds of repellant) but I imagine people who are more ardent followers of the adventures of Frank Castle will be surprised by how tame the violence is for a large chunk of the movie. The Punisher's initial display of his new vigilante persona comes when he's seeking information from Mickey Duka (Eddie Jiminson), a guy who works for Howard Saint, though his way of getting info here comes in the form tricking this fella into thinking he's burning his flesh when he's really just burning some steak and popping a popsicle on Duka's back. 

It's a cute way of gathering information, to be sure, but it establishes a slapstick-ish tone to the way Frank dishes out violence that extends to the first few instances of him exacting violent justice that feel out of place. More gruesome bloodshed does enter the picture eventually but it's all pretty tepid stuff that lacks inventiveness and a notable amount of it is edited in an odd fashion. The Punisher, as a movie, could really use some at least memorable kill scenes since it seriously suffers from a lack of energy or creativity. Only Thomas Jane as Frank Castle (as well as supporting cast members like John Pinette and a young Ben Foster as tenants of the building Frank lives in) seem to be giving the movie any sort of life, the rest of it really is oh so paint-by-numbers.

Perhaps most surprisingly in terms of whose really phoning it in here is John Travolta as the man-animal known as Howard Saint. Travolta can usually be counted on to deliver performances that are, if not good at least enjoyable committed, with even stuff like Old Dogs having moments where he just shows off way more energy than the movie he's stuck in deserves. But here, Travolta is half-asleep and going through a checklist of typical movie mob boss ticks in one of his weakest genre film performances ever, there's nary a line in here that he delivers in a memorable way. At least The Punisher itself is better than that performance but only slightly, as it's really just a painless but thoroughly forgettable take on this heavily-weaponized Marvel Comics character.