4. The Punisher (1989) / The Punisher (2006) / Punisher: War Zone
I don't know if there's a comic character who has had more false starts in film than Marvel's gun-toting vigilante. There have been a total of three attempts to bring the Punisher to the big screen1989's The Punisher starring Dolph Lundgren (without the famous skull shirt), 2006's The Punisher starring Tom Jane, and 2008's Punisher: War Zone starring Ray Stevenson. The Punisher is probably the easiest to understand of all of Marvel's characters, and the easiest to adapt. And yet, all three versions have somehow managed to miss the mark. But there are still elements of an incredible Punisher film in all three, they just need to be mixed and matched. In fact, if you watch the 2006 version first, then War Zone, and end with the 1989 version, you've actually got a pretty consistent character arcFrank Castle goes from revenge-driven to professional vigilante to a burned out shell that doesn't know how to do anything else. Of the three versions, 2006's Punisher walks away with the acting honorsTom Jane as Frank Castle and John Travolta as Howard Saintbut the script is pretty weak. The movie takes far too long setting up the Punisher's origin. We don't need to see Frank's family life before his family is killed, and we certainly don't need to waste time with a family reunion scene. Losing one's family is a traumatic event, everyone understands that, so there's no need to explain why it's traumatic. The 1989 Punisher and War Zone both seemed to grasp this and they wisely opened on a Frank Castle who has been operating as the Punisher for some time and we're shown his origin in a quick flashback sequence. All three films, while falling short, are still entertaining enough. Now that Marvel has partnered with Netflix to bring some of their characters to life, one hopes that a future project they do will be The Punisher. And bring back Tom Janehe already proved in the Dirty Laundry short film that he was born to play the role, so he deserves another chance.