4. The Punisher
One quick look at this movie on Rotten Tomatoes and you can see that it has a rating of %29. That's an extremely low number for just about any film. The Punisher came out in 2004 which was an awkward stage in the evolution of comic book movies. X-Men and Spiderman had proved to the Hollywood big wigs that comic book movies were an untapped goldmine. With the box office returns of the previously mentioned films Hollywood executives attempted to make a comic book movie out of anything they could get their hands on...we even got a Daredevil film. When looking back at this film you can easily see that it is slightly confused. The film itself seems as if it doesn't quite know how far it can push the envelope or what it really wants to be. Is it a comic book movie? Is it an action movie? Well in all fairness when it comes to a character like The Punisher it may be difficult to make a comic book movie based on this character not seem like an action movie. Where this film shines is how unique it was to comic book films during the era that it was created in. When this film came out every comic book film under the sun was based on a character with ridiculous super-powers and this film was built around....some dude...who had a lot of guns. We didn't know it at the time but it was actually quite refreshing to see a mortal man attempt to take down a crime kingpin without any sort of special ability. The Punisher managed to set itself apart by being overly violent and earning itself an R rating. If you go back and watch this movie you might be surprised at how gory it is especially by today's comic book movie standards. As far as the actors go Thomas Jane wasn't exactly praised for his interpretation of Frank Castle. Sure you might not expect someone like Thomas Jane to pull off a role like this but when you actually give him a chance you can see that he pulls it off. Thomas Jane is actually pretty convincing when it comes to the major selling points of the character. He has nothing left, he has no regard for himself, and he is hell bent on revenge. Most people complain that he just doesn't fit the role but if you give this film another run you can see that his portrayal of Frank Castle actually does come off as a ruthless killer. When watching John Travolta's performance you aren't sure whether you enjoy it or you just want to punch him in the face. Travolta walks a fine line here between crazy and just plain annoying but most of the time he does a decent job when it comes to being the bad guy (I mean come on anyone that can deliver the line "Make him dead!" with a serious face deserves some sort of praise). This film features multiple villains even though some of them only appear briefly. The scene where Harry Heck serenades Frank Castle in a diner is actually pretty cool and the battle that follows shows just how resourceful The Punisher has to be due to his lack of powers. Kevin Nash even makes an appearance here as The Russian in a battle scene that ends up being both hilarious and entertaining. This film is just another one of those comic book movies that failed because people didn't know what to make of it. When you let go of your preconceived notion of what a Punisher movie is supposed to be and just take this movie for what it is it's actually a halfway decent comic book movie.