When THE PUNISHER 2 WAR ZONE (slated for a December 5, 2008 release)shoot came to my home town of Montreal,
Canada the
negative joo-joo surfaced very quickly as to the production. From the initial
draft of the script having Frank Castle catching a bullet with his hand (no
wonder the GREAT Thomas Jane passed after reading it – that scene was removed from the
shooting draft BTW) to stuntmen friends of mine who worked on the picture
telling me that first unit and second unit were both shooting a
different movie – it wasn’t sounding good.
The evolution of the “on film” PUNISHER!
But being a HUGE Punisher fan (the Ennis era) I still kept my hopes up that
after two uneven tries, they would get this adaptation right. Alas now that I’ve seen
the trailer (below), I can’t say I’m too impressed. Granted the brutality
and action quotas seem
to be in the house (notice they didn’t show Microchip in the trailer – that
scares me for some reason – tacky comic relief anyone?)) but why oh why is the color palette straight out of a
Joel Schumacher Batman movie? Why does Ray Stevenson (who feels all wrong to me
as Castle so far) look like Steven Seagal
circa his fat days with a neck brace ? And why is Castle pulling a Boondocks
Saints on that chandelier? Smells like STD to me, and I don’t just mean straight
to DVD!
I’m sure opinions will vary harshly as to this trailer. Punisher fans are
punishingly passionate about their hero (me included) and for every peep that
loathed the fire hydrant shenanigans and the fire skull in the Jane version
(count me in that camp), there were others who didn’t mind them at all. I see
the same thing happening with this entry. Personally, I will reserve final judgment on WAR
ZONE for when I see it but my expectations for it to rock my crotch grenades off are now
officially VERY LOW!
Let the PUNISHER FANS war begin!
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