Beyond that, The Punisher has a number of easily-overlooked strengths. The Tampa setting, while a bit under-utilized, is still a refreshing break from the general over-reliance on New York City, and despite Rebecca Romijn’s Joan being positioned as a potential love interest for Castle, the film rejects the trope by having Castle neither get nor want “the girl” by the end.
Furthermore, it’s also incredibly quotable, from Harry Heck’s “knife to a gunfight” line to Castle’s musings on the meaning of the word “upset.” The score by Carlo Siliotto is great as well, particularly the film’s main theme, which has continued to stick out – for me personally, at least – after all these years as an underrated gem.
Lastly, even with all that going for it, The Punisher simply wouldn’t work without a solid performance at its center. Thomas Jane has always been one of those actors who seemed destined to have a bigger career than he’s had but never quite broke through, and his performance here is emblematic of that notion. Though his clear passion for the character led to a turn in 2005’s loose sequel video game and the awesome short film Dirty Laundry in 2012, it’s almost a crime we never got to see him carry on with the role in actual sequels, as the film left off with so much potential for where he could’ve taken the Punisher next. While Bernthal has given us the best all-around performance as the character, he also had the benefit of having more to work with than Jane, who managed to do a solid job with so little.
With no direct sequel ever coming out of it, The Punisher essentially died on arrival, fated to live in the shadows of its more important contemporaries, like Spider-Man 2 and X2, relegated by default to exist forever alongside cookie cutter dross like Daredevil, Elektra, and the Fantastic Four films. Unlike those projects, though, The Punisher dared to try something different at a time when studios were throwing everything they could at the wall with the Marvel name on it to see what stuck, and even if it’s not perfect, it has enough redeeming qualities to make it worth appreciating for all of its merits instead of – ahem – punishing it for its few faults.
