Punisher: War Zone Movie Trailer

Posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 by Hunter Stephenson

Opening with a scene/yelp recalling The Bride’s headshot in Kill Bill, the teaser trailer for director Lexi Alexander’s Punisher: War Zone plays it hard and fast underneath cyber-noirish lighting (Swordfish, much?) that is sure to turn some people off. However, besides an emasculated bit of firearm ballet atop a chandelier (re: marketing dept., ditch it!), there are hints that War Zone could be a solid R-rated action entry free of the sarcasm seen in Crank and Shoot ‘Em Up and much rougher than the barcoded dork-out that was Hitman. One film that seems to have inspired the editing here, per Frank Castle’s light flickering intro, is The Crow…if set inside a laser tag arena.

Actor Tom Jane was a dead-on looker for Castle in the absolutely dreadful, Florida-set 2004 Punisher, but Ray Stevenson (Rome) has a grittier, crazed appearance that nicely compliments the vigilante’s signature, mob-ridden cityscape. Earlier in the year, some readers were fond of saying that Stevenson looked too much like Steven Seagal, but I don’t think the snark/comparisons hold up after this. What about you?

The teaser barely shows us Dominic West (The Wire) playing Jigsaw (a split second outside a hotel) or much of the graphic violence that Alexander has boasted about on her blog (a red band trailer surely awaits), but War Zone definitely looks like an improvement. Bonus points for not having an aloof John Travolta with a villainous hair-don’t. As an early supporter, I’ve found it surprising how many people have dismissed this flick and Alexander (Green Street Hooligans) from day one, and I think the trailer will put some on pause until the next one.

After Iron Man, isn’t it odd/cool to see the Marvel logo on a trailer for an R-rated flick? If this flops it’s probably the last time to boot. Good thing or no?

Punisher: War Zone opens on December 5th.

Discuss: Thoughts on the first teaser trailer? How does this compare to when you saw the trailer for 2004’s The Punisher (if you can remember that, ha)? Do any of you guys/gals like the chandelier scene (I mean, really)?

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  • Steelo
    It's closer than the one with Dolf Lundgren or Thomas Jane in the trailer anyway
  • Nantook
    I'm pretty sure I am one of the few humans alive who actually enjoyed the 2004 Punished =(
  • charles
    its looks like whatever. whatever.
  • Ben C.
    I dont know if the movie will be any good but I agree with Hunter that it's nice to see an R rated Actioner that isnt sarcastic like Crank or Shoot 'Em up (2 good movies btw).
  • Logic
    Too bad they gave Stevenson the stupid fucking hairdoo. Otherwise it looks like a decent R action movie.
  • Ghost
    Who's the scarred up guy in the white suit outside the Brad Street Hotel (nods to Tim Bradstreet no doubt) if not Jigsaw?
  • edog
    What you guys said. And it gets points for not having John Travolta in it.
  • korin
    I liked the 2004 Punisher, I guess me and Nantook are in the same boat. This teaser looks ok, I will wait for the full trailer to judge.
  • albert brodsky
    I've been very voiceful on this and other sites when people have said this movie sounds like an awful idea. I constantly reminded everyone how good Ray Stevenson was in Rome, and that his involvement could lead to a good movie.

    Sometimes you just have admit when you were wrong. Ray looks good. I don't hate the hair cut, and I like the suit, but they lost me when I saw the chandelier. All I could think about was Ice T in that crapfest "3000 Miles to Graceland". Lame.

    I realize they want to stay truthful to the comic, but they can't make it cheesy and unbelievable. I want real gangsters, not stylized characterizations with flashy clothes. I want to see Frank Castle take on the Sopranos with uber blood and guts. This is looking like something McG would slap together. I hope it improves in editing. I don't want flashy, I want gritty.

    I think this might be a bust.
  • nutty
    13th!!!!!! 13th!!!!!!!!!!!! 13th!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Ray Stevenson is a God in my little book.
  • Jack Donaghy's Headsuit
    Joel Schumacher thinks the color scheme is not bombastic enough.
  • Captain Awesome
    This looks terrible.
  • gocitizen
    no comment on the movie, but I like how they went in and jacked up the colors. It's a nice stylized look that is probably better suited to other material, but nonetheless,..

    [I like me some Shoot 'Em Up. I don't care what anyone says, if Michael Davis can imagine someone shooting bad guys while they are making sweet love to Monica Bellucci, and then actually get it in a movie, he has my lifelong admiration and respect].
  • Garko
    This was a BAD teaser...It seems like a trailer for a direct to DVD film.

    You cant take a B Marvel character (not knocking Castle, but he isnt as publicly known as Spider-man or Hulk) and make a movie with B movie stars and expect it to be successful. Thats why they take these "side" characters and throw some big name actors in to cover the investor's money.
    I would like this to be good, but i enjoyed the last one and became invested in Thomas Jane as Punisher.
  • brian
    it doesn't look like the worst movie ever, but definitely not that good. the hanging upside down and shooting is way too similar to boondock saints.
  • Zachary Swiderski
    I'll see it just for Ray Stevenson, he was awesome in Rome. It could be semi-decent, but I'm not expecting a masterpiece. It looks a hell of a lot better than the Thomas Jane Punisher though.

    I was never really a Punisher comic book fan, so I can't really judge it from that perspective , but I did love the old Punisher arcade game (if that means anything)...the 2d scroller. Remember that one? It was kick ass. I still play it today on an emulator.
  • Joe B.
    I was a big fan of Green Street Hooligans and when I heard Lexi was making this, I was pretty stoked being a Punisher comic fan myself (the Garth Ennis run). The look isn't what I imagine a Punisher movie should look like. I always pictured Punisher moving around in a gritty, low light, drab-coloring noirish city. But because I have alot of respect for the director and the subject matter, I'll wait to judge it after I hand them my ten bucks.
  • gah
    This doesn't look good. At all.
  • I was actually kind of into the Tom Jane effort.

    This one didn't strike me as particularly destined for greatness, as I was not very familiar or enamored with Lexi or Stevenson, but this teaser has sufficiently teased me.

    The lines/delivery seems very cheesy action movie (which could totally work) so that wasn't awesome but I like the color pallete and overall look of the film. That reveal in the dark was cool in a surreal comic booky way. I liked the chandelier bit, it was hauntingly cool.

    I hope this continues to unfold in looking good. It strikes me as Shoot 'Em up with less tongue-in-cheekiness... and more hateful killing. I'm in.
  • Gosh, too much colors!
  • jfive
    For some reason this trailer reminded me of the Hitman trailer and we all know how great that movie was lol
  • The Punisher with Tom Jane was great, it was to rough for my father, but my mother and grandmother, who like sometimes a bit more action than usual for their age and gender, loved the movie and were really satisfied, wether they didn't know it was a comic movie ;-)

    I haven't seen the trailer yet, but that Tom Jane is not a second time the Punishing Punisher is a bit sad. I'll totally watch that movie.
  • orange cinema
    the punisher is one of the comics i've always collected, so naturally i was bummed with the last movie. i actually enjoyed some of the apartment scenes, and i place none of the blame on Jane, as i would've killed to have him in this sequel. i'll still see it htough, as yes: marvel logo + 'R' is very cool.

    btw: anyone else think Jane & aaron eckhart should play brothers in a movie down the road? hollywood if yer listening i've got tons of ideas and am ready to get down to the nitty gritty... ;)
  • Hunter Stephenson
    Okay, just to counter all of these fans of the sunny Tom Jane version...

    2004's Punisher has an IMDB rating of 6.3
    1989's Punisher has an IMDB rating of 5.0

    Personally, I'd switch the ratings for those two, but either way, neither film was an above-par or definitive take on Frank Castle.
  • GregoryV
    ray stevensom sounds pretty gangsta but he doesnt seem like the punisher type. maybe not enough trailer. all im happy its NOT set in florida.

    i like to see more trailers because this alone doesn't give much just like the first batch of wanted trailers. hopefully theres enough john woo shoot'em up gun fights in this one.
  • Alister
    Ughh this looks like a direct to dvd effort at best.
  • YoungZe
    Don't know if want. =_=
  • Super A.J.
    Yikes...It really doesn't look good...Hopefully this teaser is a poor representation of the final product. Really though...It looks terrible. Props for going R with it. I would have been turned off completely if they pushed for pg-13.
  • Good God that looks BAD!!

    R rated for Rubbish!! (C'mon that was as good as the "Sometimes I'd like to get my hands on God" line!)
  • badass!!!
    damn it looks great. like the lighting - very 80ss
  • color pallette actually looks very close to the Watchmen comics
    chandelier scene was ok - i know it's stupid but it's a boy thing you know
  • Christopher Marc
    Blade's success was the reason X-Men and Spider-Man got made...or at least helped...Even today the film still looks good even Del Toro's second one...I think the last Punisher was missing the violent tone the first film had...it felt more like a cartoon than a revenge flick...I hope they start including their darker more adult characters to R movies....Venom and Carnage I could see being in a R rated Marvel movie.. since Marvel plans on making a full length Venom movie to make up for the horrible presence in Spidey3...
  • Looks like they might finally have gotten it right.
  • All I want is an action packed Punisher flick. I am just glad that there is no Travolta to be found. Good riddance!
  • jomama
    i just wanted to join some of the others in saying that i enjoyed the first punisher... and rebecca romaine non-stamos is hot
  • Kaba
    WIth the slicked back hair and the timed shooting it kinda reminded me of "Equilibrium". The bad parts of it.
  • Frank Castle was never a B comic character. Frank was based more in reality, and hence his less than stellar popularity. Frank appealed to those of us that longed for something grittier, more real, not spandex wearing freaks shooting silk out of their wrists or knives from between their knuckles. Frank was one of the few characters that could really exist, not someone requiring a disillusion of belief.

    The thing that strikes me right off about this teaser is that it appears that they are trying to be truer to the comic than the last attempt. I liked the 2004 outing, but there was a lot of improvement to be had. Thomas Jane was good, but he wasn't hard enough. He was a little too clean. Frank Castle is a hard, mean SOB, and it looks like Ray Stevenson is going to pull off that aspect of Mr. Castle. At least in this one it looks like they're going to remain true as to home Frank's family died.

    Marvel needs R rated adult characters. Much like Nintendo holding itself back by only catering to the family market, there is a need for harder, grittier characters. We who grew up with these characters as such an important part of our young lives deserve to see our childhood comic book heroes as adults, not watered down clowns.
  • Reason
    I miss Thomas Jane. This looks like a Joel Schumacher revision. Methinks there will be nipples on the Punisher suit.

    I'll say the only "hot item" of that trailer was the wall in between several machine gun armed men and the Punisher on the other side. That was good.

    Other than that, this movie looks toxic, and not like radioactive toxic, I mean Britney Spears toxic. Yeah... that bad.
  • JEff
    This teaser has me thinking 50/50 about the movie, but with Ray Stevenson leading the film, I'll be there opening night to give him my coin. I fully believe Ray Stevenson could be the next Bruce Willis is he gets the right role to propel him into the lime light. I hope this Punisher movie will do that.
  • REAL6
    Dolph Lundgren!!!
  • Tendrillar
    I'll see it. Hanging from chandelier's is dumb but, whatever.
  • Agony
    I truly don't understand Hollywood. Why is it so difficult to make a Punisher movie? Actually, I have this gripe about all the superhero stuff being done (with the exception of Nolan's Batman and Fav's Iron Man).

    There are 30-60 years (depending on the character you're talking about) of source material for these stories. Why can't someone who actually loves the originals, be making these movies? Remember how fantastic the Lord of the Rings trilogy was? Because Peter Jackson and his team had a deep love and respect for the source material.

    Why do we have to get flat and half-assed takes on the Dark Phoenix and Venom? Why wouldn't the last Punisher movie, which raped Garth Ennis' story "Welcome Home Frank", just follow what Ennis wrote? It would have been brutal, action-packed and over-the-top, just like the Punisher character.

    Marvel is already screwing up their new universe. Iron Man was lightning in a bottle. By putting release dates on films before there are scripts and trying to make dumb decisions like casting Leo as Capt. America, they are virtually ensuring us more crap like X3 and SM3. Doesn't matter how big the stars are if the scripts and dialogue are dumb.

    Who wouldn't love to see the Mutant Massacre or Genosha or Dark Phoenix storylines be given proper film versions? How about Daredevil Yellow? Spider-Man completely losing his shit because he's being out-matched by Venom or Carnage, and the people he loves are truly in jeopardy? There's great stories here, and most of what's coming out is short-cut, lazy writing with the end goal of studios churning out lowest-common-denominator in order to get summer blockbuster dollars. Thank goodness Hellboy 2 and Dark Knight are coming soon.
  • Aqualeo
    The trailer reminds me of Starship Troopers 2... straight to DVD
  • Do not want!

    This trailer just dropped my expectations to an all time low. I was excited to hear they were doing the War Zone reality, I thought, finally - a dark gritty punisher movie that will do the character justice - but this does look exactly like a bad direct to DVD movie. Someone said it right - it should feel like a soprano's episode except from the other side. Maybe even more like casino/goodfellas esq, with Punisher beating someone to death in a pit then burying them alive.

    Not friggin swingin from a chandelier. Are you kidding me?
  • very disappointing
  • Chris
    I agree with Brian. That chandelier scene is ripped off straight from Boondock Saints when they fall through the celing and hang upside down killin' cats...
  • Reviewman
    Tom Jane was an amazing Punisher, the guy is one of my favorite action actors even with the weak movies he's been in.

    I agree that 2004 Punisher wasn't as good as it could have been, but I've watched it numerous times regardless.

    "I know what your thinking..."
  • israel
    esta muy chido el trailer espero con ansias la pelicula
  • Chad
    I am a big fan of the Punisher comics...and the last punisher movie was like a kid Punisher movie, Thomas Jane is a horrible actor, and the movie itself was horrible, they made the punisher wayyy to nice. Anyone who liked that version obviously did not like/read the comics.
    This looks like a much darker version, and Ray Stephenson and Dominic West are easily better actors than any they have had in any Punisher movie...
  • Alan Geiss
    "Sometimes I'd like to get my hands on God" wtf was that?!?!?!
    thats probobly one of the cheesiest lines ive ever heard, this movie doesnt look too good at all, and to hunter, I hated the chandalier scene.
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