10 Terrible Superhero Movies With One Redeeming Feature
3. The Punisher Was The First R-Rated Superhero Movie
There's a simple reason why all three of The Punisher's big screen outings have failed. When you place a gun-toating vengeance machine, who shoots first and asks questions later, in a world filled with spandex-clad do-gooders, he really stands out. That's what makes Frank Castle unique within the confines of the Marvel Universe.
When you take the anti-hero out of the Marvel Universe and place him in a grounded movie, he's basically every R-rated action hero ever. What every Punisher film from the 1989 Dolph Lundgren-fronted version onwards has lacked is other, more clean-cut superheroes to offset the protagonist and his bloody methods against.
In the case of the Lundgren movie, it didn't help that it consists of one brainless action scene after another, but director Mark Goldblatt and New World Pictures deserve credit for getting The Punisher half right. To do that, you need a hard R rating, and that certificate was unheard of within the superhero space back then.
An R-rated superhero movie was a bold risk and a move that was ahead of its time. If the movie itself had been slightly better, the gamble would surely have paid off.