THE PUNISHER (2004)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Though the marketing for the second PUNISHER film places considerable emphasis on the Marvel hero wearing the skull-costume denied him in the 1989 movie, Thomas Jane doesn't really spend a helluva lot of time in said costume. Without that "outre outfit" and the one "diabolical device" in the story (a ballistic knife), I might still categorize the movie as "uncanny" thanks to the protagonist's mission to take down all criminals.

I've not read any of the comics-stories on which the film is ostensibly based. However, I tend to doubt that Marvel did a version of Punisher that deviated so sharply from his established origin. In the original tale-- which may have been "borrowed" partly from the first Don Pendleton EXECUTIONER paperback-- ex-Marine Frank Castle and his family witness a mob execution in Central Park. The mobsters shoot them all, but Castle survives to become the Punisher, warring on all criminals.

This time out, Castle is an undercover FBI agent. His imposture of a gangster eventuates in a raid on a smuggling operation headed by one Bobby Saint. Bobby dies, and his mafia-boss father Howard Saint (John Travolta) moves heaven and earth to learn the identity of the agent who caused his son's death. Saint's minions, led by enforcer Glass (Will Patton), assault a family reunion and kill a few dozen people, including Castle's wife. But despite the agent's formidable gun-skills Castle is shot and thrown into the sea.

He survives, and weeks later rather remarkably reveals that he's still alive to the police, apparently to shame them for not catching the killers. Even more remarkably, the cops don't try to take Castle in for questioning-- which shows that the scripters just wanted a dramatic scene no matter how improbable. Said scripters are director Jonathan Hensleigh, who had peaked in the nineties with the silly but amusing ARMAGEDDON, and Michael France, whose only good piece of writing was his partial contribution to GOLDENEYE.

After holing up in an abandoned apartment building, where he ends up forging unwanted bonds with the three quirky residents, Punisher lays his scheme of revenge. Rather than making a frontal assault, the hero decides to repay the loss of his family by alienating Saint from his various allies and family members. This operatic plot does give Travolta and Patton a lot of dramatic moments, but it takes some of the expected punch out of the hero's usual ultraviolent pattern. When Hensleigh does finally unleash some action set-pieces, they're watchable, but nothing to write home about.

Jane makes a decent hero, and he does pull off the affect-less persona of the Punisher fairly well. He's a little too Hollywood-handsome to fit the role, though I suppose he fits this overall project, which is just adequate action-movie fodder and nothing more.