Fzoulcmbyl
April 16th, 2004, 02:35 am
From IGN:
Overly cartoonish and totally pointless, The Punisher takes the dark comic book premise as a jump-off point and slowly destroys it.
John Travolta is cartoonishly awful as Howard Saint. Travolta is such a one-dimensional bad guy that it really doesn't make sense why the decision was made to cast such a high-profile actor as the villain anyway. Anyone could have played this part and probably made for a more menacing threat. Travolta constantly spouts the kind of cheeseball lines reminiscent of Eighties action films. While the filmmakers may explain this away as intentional, a wink at the camera, if you will, it doesn't work in any sense. I'm getting sick and tired of this self-referential crap anyway. It's silly, but we wanted it to be silly. Sounds like a simple excuse to explain away garbage.
The Punisher is a shame, an example of a good story turned to crap. I'll admit that a few of the action sequences are exciting and work on their own. I'll also admit that I liked the first third of the movie. But as Castle gets more touchy feely and Travolta gets cheesier and cheesier, the story and any interest in Castle's plight is lost. Dolph Lundgren's 1988 version of The Punisher has been relentlessly mocked over the years, a mark on Marvel's recently stellar record with comic book screen adaptations. I barely remember that film, but I really can't imagine it was any better or less loyal to The Punisher and his classic tale of revenge.
* Hmmm,... I guess we'll have to get some other reviews to see if it's really that bad.
Fzoul
Overly cartoonish and totally pointless, The Punisher takes the dark comic book premise as a jump-off point and slowly destroys it.
John Travolta is cartoonishly awful as Howard Saint. Travolta is such a one-dimensional bad guy that it really doesn't make sense why the decision was made to cast such a high-profile actor as the villain anyway. Anyone could have played this part and probably made for a more menacing threat. Travolta constantly spouts the kind of cheeseball lines reminiscent of Eighties action films. While the filmmakers may explain this away as intentional, a wink at the camera, if you will, it doesn't work in any sense. I'm getting sick and tired of this self-referential crap anyway. It's silly, but we wanted it to be silly. Sounds like a simple excuse to explain away garbage.
The Punisher is a shame, an example of a good story turned to crap. I'll admit that a few of the action sequences are exciting and work on their own. I'll also admit that I liked the first third of the movie. But as Castle gets more touchy feely and Travolta gets cheesier and cheesier, the story and any interest in Castle's plight is lost. Dolph Lundgren's 1988 version of The Punisher has been relentlessly mocked over the years, a mark on Marvel's recently stellar record with comic book screen adaptations. I barely remember that film, but I really can't imagine it was any better or less loyal to The Punisher and his classic tale of revenge.
* Hmmm,... I guess we'll have to get some other reviews to see if it's really that bad.
Fzoul