When I posted the teaser trailer for Punisher: War Zone last Thursday, the 70+ comments from you guys were impressively heated and divisive. Until then, the R-rated Lionsgate/Marvel actioner from director Lexi Alexander (Green Street Hooligans, karate) had flown under the radar, with many pegging the movie as a star-less runt in Marvel’s newly consolidated, unpredecented game plan. And many fans still do, even after the teaser, but Alexander appreciates the early attention and welcomes the hate. She was surprised, albeit pleasantly, by the teaser’s release, and once again, she’s emphasizing her flick’s generous helpings of violence and mayhem. Not to be sexist, but it’s pretty strange and cool to hear the rare female director who’s more excited about a comic book film filled with carnage than most geeks. From her blog…
“I’m not sure what kind of impression I would get from this trailer if I didn’t actually know the film. I am utterly impressed, though, they managed to find that much PG rated action footage at all. It had to be a challenge to cut a trailer from our action stuff without showing any gore and blood.
I’ve been told that you can’t even show heads blowing up in red-band trailers. I hope that’s not true because that would suck. It’s weird to see Castle shoot all those bullets and not see the thugs who are catching them. That’s the best fucking part about it!!!”
Of course, many fanboys would respond, “Big whup. AVP: Requiem had a lot of gore, an R-rating, a lot of hype and it still sucked ass. Takes more than that to make a good genre movie.” Thankfully, Alexander has clarified a few of the questions/criticisms brought up in our comments section. Many fans have taken issue with the film’s heavily stylized scorched neon color palette, comparing it to Joel Schumacher’s Batman Nipples and Robin Nipples. Personally, I dig the retro ’80s look so far. It looks like the poster for Cobra meets laser tag. And yes, that is cool. But Alexander is all, “Wait a second, I’m lifting the look directly from the comics. You guys read Punisher comics, right?” She includes various stills from Punisher: MAX (part of Marvel’s adult imprint) like the one seen here for reference.
“I’m very happy that the hardcore Punisher fans recognized the lines taken directly from the comic books (all credit goes to Ray Stevenson for that), and that MAX fans appreciated the color theme that was also directly copied from the books.”
Another gripe, which probably started with outspoken screenwriter, Kurt Sutter, is that the criminal element in Punisher: War Zone is not stapled to reality a la Scorsese’s Goodfellas or Taxi Driver or David Chase’s The Sopranos.
“Every director has to make a call on the vision and style of a film and putting The Punisher in a realistic and gritty setting would be like having Det. Vic Mackey of THE SHIELD run around with a big ass skull on his chest, or Ray Liotta’s character in NARC suddenly go: “Hey, I think I just saw a guy whose face looks like a Jigsaw puzzle.” Ha, ha.”
What surprised me most about the reaction to the teaser was the number of readers that expressed fond memories for 2004’s The Punisher with Tom Jane (who fit the part, yes) and John Travolta (I’m still not sure what the hell was up with that). The movie plays on insomniac cable quite a bit, and maybe when bunched in with guilty pleasures like Executive Decision and other Die Hard knockoffs, it grows on some. I dunno. Alexander says she doesn’t aspire to ”become a member of the Dolph Lundgren or Thomas Jane fan club. This film is about the mythology of FRANK CASTLE, it is ultra violent…”
She compares her movie’s trajectory to The Incredible Hulk, which she thought rocked. But unlike that late-blooming film, her’s has months ahead of it (opens in December), and I’m already optimistic (though I don’t think Peter is).
Discuss: What do you make of Lexi Alexander’s comments? Will she walk the talk? Do you think she’d talk up her Punisher with this amount of enthusiasm if it was a cheesefest? Does she seem like that type of director? Does the R-rating actually turn off, not just a lot of parents and politicians, but genre fans, have we reached that point?
June 16th, 2008 at 10:13 am
“putting The Punisher in a realistic and gritty setting would be like having Det. Vic Mackey of THE SHIELD run around with a big ass skull on his chest, or Ray Liotta’s character in NARC suddenly go: “Hey, I think I just saw a guy whose face looks like a Jigsaw puzzle.”"
Or it might be like having a guy in a batsuit taking on the mob with some crazy clown-like anarchist as the main protagonist. I know how ridiculous that sounds so it would never work in a gritty, realistic setting.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:14 am
THE LIGHTING ON THAT POSTER IS TERRIBLE. THEY SHOULD HAVE IT ON HIS SHIRT. GONNA BE MESSY.. VILLAIN AT LEAST IS HOPE.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Christ Stephenson…
what is with you and this movie?
June 16th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Boring. Another typical male testeorone-filled movie. Yawn.
NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Hunter,
BTW, thanks for the Punisher insight. As a kid from the 80’s and 90’s I loves me some Punisher, and I’m hoping they get this movie right in my lifetime.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:28 am
I like Lexi’s attitude about her projects…I think being female and directing a large action flick like this means she’s going to get negativity automatically…..She’s just as qualified as Favreau and Leterrier and the fact she has marital arts/stunt background means this going to have awesome action scenes….We won’t know if this will be great or horrible until we give it a chance and actually watch it….
June 16th, 2008 at 10:34 am
@ jonny
1. Thanks for the new nickname.
2. I’ve heard some promising things about this flick from somebody I trust. (No, this source had nothing to do with Fubar. ;)
3. There is an underdog appeal here that is funny to me. The R-rating has such a bad stigma these days in the industry, and while I am not 100% on this movie, I do find Alexander’s stance to be refreshing. Rambo (and its response via air horn) was back in January and if I watch Die Hard one more time, I might need somebody to go ahead and loosen my wrist watch and enjoy the surprise on my face.
4. I like this character. I think Ray Stevenson may have clicked.
5. I’m tired of watching movies with people with braces or in a theater with 15 people, 8 of which teach classes somewhere.
6. It irritates you. This is stipulated in my contract.
7. The last Punisher was set in Floriduh. War Zone is already better by default.
8. We need more female directors in Hollywood. Srsly.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I think the R rating may turn off some movie goers. But, it has to be that way in order to make War Zone a great movie. I’ve wanted a more violent Punisher film. War Zone was my favorite comic for The Punisher. It’s going to be good, but most likely not a blockbuster. I think it’s difficult to bring The Punisher to life on film. This is the best way to do it.
On a side note, people who use all caps are douche bags!
June 16th, 2008 at 10:41 am
@ Albert Brodsky - YES! THANKYOU!
Ok, I don’t like the teaser, it looks God awful, but hey at least Ms Alexander’s been stating her case and vision for the film… (paraphrased/quoted from several articles)
“It’s ultra violent!” “It had to be a challenge to cut a trailer from our action stuff without showing any gore and blood.” etc etc.
So nothing that resembles story or character development then? Looks like the teaser trailer’s spot on!
June 16th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I think that the issue I have with the trailer and the comments that the director is making are these:
The skull is barely visible, and again its painted on like an afterthought. If she’s going for the comic feel, how about a little Micro-Chip, and the battle van. The skull should be way more dominant in the costume, I prefer when the teeth of the skull are removable batons. I think Stevenson is a fine choice, he was cool in Outpost, but he looks like a regular swat team guy in this.
I don’t really dig all the “this is soo violent hype” AVP was junk. I liked the Tom Jane one a lot, yes Travolta over acted, but I don’t know anyone who thought it was nearly as bad as it was said to be online.
The colour pallet in the trailer is horrid, and it does look Schumacher-esque. You don’t throw neon colours into a Punisher flick, I don’t care what panels you pulled out of the MAX series. The MAX series fyi is not the definitive Punisher, this characters been around for a lot longer than the last eight years.
Also why would the director not be involved in cutting the trailer? The promise of exploding heads is maybe a big deal if you’re 14, I expect a lot more than just violence. The more I hear from the director the less faith I have that she actually understands the character.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:12 am
eh i guess ill wait for video on this one.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Ray Stevenson looks great as Castle even if I’m underwhelmed by the trailer. It’s too bright(whole film needs to be desaturated by 20-30 %) The neck thing is weird even if it makes sense and the upside down spinning shoot’em up part is straight out of Boondock Saints. Looks DTV so far but there is still a while before this comes out so who knows. Jigsaw is a good choice for a villain but this movie should have been Supermax.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Why does Lexi Alexander talk like a 12 year old boy? I’m sorry but this looks pretty awful. I didn’t like the Thomas Jane version very much… like at all… but I think that that looks better than this. Yeah, The Punisher should be violent but it should also have a story. It doesn’t look like this one is going to have much of one.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Look! It’s Dante Hicks from Clerks wielding two guns and a death face!
He’s not even supposed to be here today!
June 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
They couldn’t have found anybody else to play the Punisher?
I don’t watch Rome so I’ve never heard of this guy. I looked
up his work to see if I’ve seen any of his movies and his
filmography is a long list of dog shit.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
FYI- QUENFLIS- OK, AN R RATING DOES NOT “TURN OFF ” FILM GOERS. IT ELIMINATES THEM. FIVE YEARS AGO WE HAD A MASSIVE EXODUS FROM R TO 13. WHY? WELL, BECASUE THE MONEYMAKING/PROFIT POTENTIAL WAS FAR GREATER WITH A WIDER AUDIENCE. THEY ARE STARTING TO TRICKLE BACK NOW, COUPLA R’s HERE. WE NEED R, WE NEED MICHALE MYERS, WE NEED COAH HARRIS FROM REVENGE OF THE NERDS. “YOU JUST GOT YOU ASSES WHIPPED! BY A BUNCH A GODDAMN NERDS… NERDS!!!!!”
June 16th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
A.J.,
I agree that by glancing at his filmography, Ray Stevenson looks like a bad choice, but he was one of the best characters in Rome, which says a lot since the cast of characters was great. He was a mean mo-fo, and could play a raging killer like no-one else. You should rent the series on DVD, well worth the time.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Okay, okay, i give it a shot.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
They already made a good Punsiher film. It was called, “Man On Fire” by Tony Scott.
Denzel was so badass in that movie that he didn’t need a Hot Topic shirt to let people know he was coming for them.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Some movies need to be R rated. The Punisher is a perfect example of that. This needs to be done to stay true to Frank Castle. If Parents and Politicians don’t like it, Fuck”em. I really mean that especially for the Politicians, the government needs to stay out of our personal lives.
June 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
@ Captain Awesome
You damn right!!!!
June 16th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
yaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
June 16th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
The more I hear about this, the less interested I become. Doubt I’ll even watch this.
I think I’ll cruise over to the New Beverly when they play the uncut Mark Goldblatt/Dolph Lundgren Punisher instead of watching this brainless, bottom-dwelling trash.
It sounds to me like she doesn’t even get the Frank Castle character. He’s not supposed to be some third-rate Seagal.
Ugh, fuck this movie.
Castle’s appearance on the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon will probably have more of a story. Here’s to Marvel’s only failure of 2008.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I’m a big fan of RS and am eagerly awaiting Punisher but something doesn’t ring true here. Given that Alexander has been so refreshingly upfront about this movie, why on earth wouldn’t she know that the trailer was coming?
June 16th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Titus Pullo
that alone will ensure i give this movie a shot.
hell Lucious Vorenus was enough to get me to watch five mins of Journeyman.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I don’t know. The trailer really had a Steven Segal/Jean Claude Van Damme Z-movie feel to it and I mean the Segal and Van Damme of today, not in their heights in the late 80s/early 90s.
As for Thomas Jane, I like him as an actor, but I didn’t think he was anything special as the Punisher. In fact, there wasn’t much redeeming about that whole movie. I don’t have the emotional tie to him as Christian Bale’s Batman or Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I enjoyed Lexi’s last outing (Green Street Hooligans) and really appreciated the fact that she trying for a Punisher MAX feel, which is the definitive Punisher series by far. Ray looks like he could pull it off, if going for the MAX feel. The only problem I see is the lack of a Garth Ennis script. I’ll be there when this hits.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Joel Schumacher’s Punisher!
“Get ready for nipples on the Kevlar.”
“Dante Hicks from Clerks is pissed and ready to blow your ass off!”
“I’m not even supposed to be here today!”
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:24 am
Anyone know the details on the continuation from the first movie to this one?
July 7th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
The new punisher movie looks awful! It has nothing to do with the colors, or the violence, it just looks like a Swat team member knocking off people. Instead of the Punisher it should be called Psycho Swat… And whats up with the Punisher skull on the shirt? Why is something so simple so overlooked and changed in all 3 movies! It’s like changing Spider-man’s suit to white. So far, I rather watch the Dolph Lundgren movie, even if the Skull wasn’t there.