Punisher: War Zone was delayed to a Dec fifth release date, and the studios got to see their first draft earlier this month. Lexi Alexander spoke out about their reaction to it.
Lexi explains on her official blog that she screened the film on April 1st to the studio and said “it went well” and she’ll “probably have to compromise on a few minor notes”, but “it’s not nearly as bad as some of my filmmaker friends predicted it would be.”
So despite her positive reviews on the first cut at least they are fully aware that this film wouldn’t stand a chance in the summer blockbuster club. With other big name superhero films coming out this summer, this niche comic book action film pales in comparison.
Punisher: War Zone doesn’t exactly get on my radar as the character is likely my least favourite character in the Marvel Universe. Yeah he has a great little sob story about how organized crime took their crazy gun toting criminal and killed his wife and kid, and then uses it to become a crazy gun toting criminal… who shoots badguys.
Dumbest concept ever.
Combine this with the very vocal Kurt Sutter calling this script unoriginal after admitting that the script he wrote was rewritten out of existance (he had his name pulled from the credits) and almost in spite of my wonderment for Julie Benz, I don’t see a lot happening to make me want to see this.
Poor Rodney, having to defend his perfectly legitimate opinion. :P
The Punisher is a vigilante. He does what most people only think about but would never do. He’s our Id, our fantasy ego. He’s something that we all have fantasized about, being able to kill someone who made us mad or did society wrong and get away with it and with a sense of righteousness.
Who hasn’t wished death upon some scum out there? Haven’t you fantasized about kicking the shit out of him and maybe even kill the sombitch? That’s what the Punisher is for, to vent our frustration with society when it seems unfair.
The plot from this film sounds like it was lifted from about half a dozen westerns. Primarily “The Outlaw Josse Wales” starring Clint Eastwood.
Rodney old chap, he’s just following the classic piece of advice: “fight fire with fire”
He pays when he dies. He knows he’s breaking the law, but he sees it as a necessary action.
I think this controversy, not to mention the obvious dichotomy you’ve pointed out, makes him such a great character. Read up on it, hopefully you’ll come to understand, and perhaps, enjoy the character. Get any of the Marvel Max series by Garth Ennis, if you don’t like it, I’ll personally pay for the comic.
Rodney no one is saying you are wrong about him being a murder but what make him different is he does an evil thing so that the good people don’t suffer.
And he let his partner who sold him out shoot himself. If he was such a bad person he would have killed himself oh and killed people who were related to him yes he did kill Travoltas wife kids but they were all evil people there was not one person he killed that was a good person.
oh shit that was a fuck up.
Yea if your family was killed you take out too who wouldn’t oh some bitch that thinks the law is always right fuck that shit there lots of people who get away with countless murders so yea hell if i had nothing to live for i would drink whiskey all day and build a armor car and than go kick some ass why not for thousands of years man has loved to be a hero taking the law in there own hands why not now.
Klendathu? When does the Punisher have to pay?
He is worse than his victims.
Rodney….The Punisher ISN’T a superhero, get that thought out of your head. He’s an assassin, a vigilante, and yes, a murderer. Sure, it’s true he doesn’t have any qualms when it comes killing or torturing a bad guy. He’s definitely got a warped mind, but it’s not hard for one to justify his actions because, despite all of this, he does it for the right reasons.
Anyhow, to put it simply Frank Castle believes in moral absolutes, you sin, you pay.
I’m pretty sure he was always known as The Punisher…I’d have to check my little archive to be sure though. The 70’s version was certainly called by that name.
guys remember that the punisher IS kind of a bad guy hence he started out as a vilain in spiderman as “reaper” or demolisher i dont remember the name it was something like that
@steven
agree with you 100%. frank castle is the only character with no tights or cheesy vilains. his story is the most down to earth
@ rodney
if my whole family was killed the way that howard saint kkilled his family, i would do it too. and the only reason he does what he does and didnt kill himnself is because he wants to help inocent people that were murdered and law didnt do anything about it- to get the guys who never get caught.
when thye show the whole moral thing in comic books that in part is to make kids look up to those characters but in real life if i were daredevil or batman i would have killed whoever murdered the ones i loved
if something like that happens you completely forget about morals
On a side note, I have never been a big fan of the Punisher. I’ve always been a huge Spiderman fan and admired the character’s ability to stick to his strict moral code of conduct.
But if every hero/character were to have the same set of morals, how would that be entertaining? It certainly wouldn’t be an accurate reflection of human characteristics.
Having a character with a twisted sense of morality is much more realistic. In real life, people are not 100 % good or bad, rather they fall everywhere in between with most being somewhere in the middle.
I’d much rather see a wide variety of characters with different values because I enjoy stories that challenge my view of what it means to be human.
Rodney,
You don’t like the character of the Punisher and that’s fine, I can understand your reasons.
It would be accurate to consider the Punisher a vigilante, criminal and murderer; in fact, most of the characters in the Marvel Universe do just that.
The fact that many fans of the comic/movies root for him is perhaps a reflection of our culture, in that privately, many of us would like to take justice into our own hands and murder a bad guy or two (or our bosses.)
The fact that we have comics and movies to indulge our violent tendencies might be a good thing; it satisfies our primal urges for violence. An argument could also be made that it promotes violence; the debate could never be settled here.
I don’t think there’s any harm in enjoying a Punisher story as long as the reader/viewer can tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
The Punisher is not really a superhero, he’s an assassin and a vigilante. He just happens (in the comics) to exist in a superhero universe where all the real superheros (Capt America especially) despise him. I doubt they will reference any other Marvel superheros in this movie, or have badguys with superpowers. So it’s just your basic vigilante movie. No fantasy powers, just guns.
Also, Frank Castle’s entire family was violently murdered in front of him. Something that traumatic would erase any moral qualms a character might have. He’s already living in hell and he just wants to share that hell with the people who really deserve it. He’s Rambo and Chuck Bronson all in one.
When Spidey’s Aunt May was almost killed recently, he came close to murdering the Kingpin. If she had died, he probably would have. What actually happened was a lot worse, storywise.
Ransom, my logic is that in a superhero fantasy setting, there is no logic to having a hero that portrays the same characteristics as the villians themselves. The only thing that sets them apart is this thinly veiled excuse of “punishing”. He has invented his own dogma to justify his crime.
In other settings and genres, I likely could deal with the hero having to go to those extreme measures. No one thinks poorly of a Jedi looping off the head of a Sith. In a war genre, we understand the shoot or be shot mentality. None of these apply to the Punisher and his morally bankrupt crusade.
However in a superhero setting there is a big difference between using lethal force as self defense as opposed to premeditating murder with an excuse.
I don’t like the character and I think he has no redeeming qualities. There are plenty of shootem up action movies that don’t have you hoping for the criminal to murder people.
What you are saying, Rodney, is that agreeing with or finding entertainment from a character that murders people is wrong.
That is just pure nonsense. There are countless movies/books/comics that involve murderers, and in many cases, stories that don’t even feature a hero to go against the anti-hero. Stories filled with bad guys that manage to entertain us anyway.
Your argument is flawed. Logic prevails.
My problem with the character was already clearly stated. Murder is wrong even if you kill a badguy.
Batman doesn’t “let” people die. He will stop it if he can. In all the movies the death of an opponent has been avoided if possible. And I have yet to read a Batman comic where he just lets someone die.
Punisher is a murderer. He manages to hide this fact by such pretty words like “I punished him” instead of “I am no better than that murderer”.
Understanding the character is not the issue. Agreeing or finding entertainment in his story is.
I always liked the Punisher stories when he teamed up with Spidey. Those were kinda cool. A nice contrast between the goody two shoes of Marvel and the anti-hero of Marvel.
Too bad they’ll never be able to make a movie of that. =/
Punisher is one of my favorite Marvel characters, and you are seriously misunderstanding him.
In his mind, it isn’t about revenge. It’s about punishment. He sees himself as the angel of death, the deliverer of justice on earth to those who seem to escape the penalty of law. Yes, he kills people with guns, but it is all in the motivation. Murder is the killing of innocent people. In the Punisher’s mind, these people are most certainly not innocent, and must be punished for their crimes.
It’s interesting to see the character and his motivations. People often say it’s a revenge story, and it shares common elements with a revenge story, but The Punisher never feels accomplishment or resolve from what he does. He does it out of obligation. He feels obliged to prevent what happened to his family from happening to others.
“… wouldn’t stand a chance in the summer blockbuster club. With other big name superhero films coming out this summer, this niche comic book action film pales in comparison.”
Um….what are talking about? The film was slated for fall, not summer.
About Kurt Sutter…wasn’t he rewritten by Stuart Beattie? So Kurt’s name is off the credits. So what? That does not automatically mean the existing script is bad. Shit, Rod. Joss Whedon cried like an ass when his contribution to Singer’s first ‘X-Men’ film was hardly used. Did that mean the first X-film was horrible? No, it didn’t.
Writers get rewritten all the time. Besides what do think about Halo? I seem to recall this whole deal where a script was written for Halo and the script was then discardd. What was TMB’s response to this? A step in the right direction-knowing that a script isn’t as good as it could be and they want to make it better or worse, in Halo’s case.
Now…switchn’ sides…
I think Punisher is not a lame character- but as far as movies are concerned, of all the Marvel (and even DC) characters, Punisher is the most inexpensive and most adaptable to film. But there is…a problem. Revenge pictures are a dime a dozen. Just the past year we have had Death Sentence and Brave One. When the Tom Jane Punisher came out a few years ago in the same month there was the second Kill Bill and Man On Fire.
Switchin Sides again….
I want a Foolkiller film just to tick off Rodney!
Rodney, I don’t think you fully understand the character.
rodney
i don’t want to get into a moral argument over a comic book character of all things, but are you saying that because the punisher kills criminals he is a dumber concept than batman. i mean in batman begins he LETS a bad guy die. with having the power to save his life. is that not in some way murder?
i just wanted to know your opinion, cause for me, superman, or daredevil for instance is way dumber than a guy who kills criminals is mass numbers
Here’s the thing about The Punisher, he’s not a hero or an anti-hero, he is just a functioning psychopath, though one with a sense of right and wrong. And he that feels it’s his mission, his war to kill criminals, because he sees the inadequacy of the law.
And what are you talking about a “message,”what the hell is Batman’s message, dress up like a crazy weirdo and fight crime.
I Am a huge fan of the Batman Begins and can’t wait to see Dark Knight that and Quntum Solice or how ever you spell it. The Punisher may not come out and say if i am just a man i can be distroyed but as a symbol i can live on and that good shit. the Punisher said it but in a different way the people that sell drugs and murder people will come to know me he does have the Symbol on his chest two the Punisher and Batman are not all that different yes one kills the arrests or lets them die but we have not seen dark knight he may get a kill in this one. they both are angry bad asses that are vigalanties I AGREE with STEVEN he is just as good as most of the superheroes
he is better than the hulk, fantastic 4, and Iron man even though i am pritty excited about the film.
and the Punisher is more like something Miller would create he is not a kids superhero he is dark and evil that kills a greater evil.
I really didn’t like Lexi Alexander’s previous movie Green Street Hooligans. The script for the movie was good but the action and music was really distracting from the movie. I am really disappointed about her and this new punisher movie.
Reverse is the key word in your assumption there.
Batman stops crime while proving he is better than they are. Punisher BECOMES exactly what caused his death to get pure revenge. Then he doesn’t stop. He kills. With guns. Just like the badguys.
There is no message other than “its ok to plan premeditated murder, so long as the guys you kill in cold blood with your illegal weapons are criminals”
would you call batman a dumb concept? i mean it’s only the same story in reverse, but the guy dresses up like a giant bat and doesn’t kill people
i think of all the concepts in comic movies, punisher is one of the least stupidest