I have stared into Satan's asshole, and it fucking winked at me.
[/size]
0
Options
AManFromEarthLet's get to twerk!The King in the SwampRegistered Userregular
I didn't mind the Tom Jane version. I understand a lot of the complaints, but at the time, for someone who had only heard of the punisher through the Spidey cartoon I thought it was all right, not great, but all right.
0
Options
AtomikaLive fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered Userregular
I didn't mind the Tom Jane version. I understand a lot of the complaints, but at the time, for someone who had only heard of the punisher through the Spidey cartoon I thought it was all right, not great, but all right.
It takes a lot of strange liberties that just don't make a lot of sense.
- It takes place in Florida and the tropics. I mean, why? I'll tell you why. Tampa was offering a lucrative tax deal for the studio.
- It's PG-13. It's also about a guy who violently murders about 100 people, after his own family is violently murdered. One of these things is not like the other.
- John Travolta makes for an especially unintimidating villain. Especially in a PG-13 movie.
I really enjoyed Punisher: War Zone after I understood what it was. It's a hard R, deliberately over-the-top action film that never takes its foot off the pedal. It's no comic book movie. It is the type of flick that would be on TBS after a Braves game, right after they've already shown Lethal Weapon 2 for the 12th time that week. Except War Zone has so much creatively graphic, explicit violence that if it were ever shown on cable, it would have to be cut down to just 5 minutes worth of Castle hanging out in his underground hideout.
The hyperviolence was a little off-putting at first, but by the end of the film we were laughing at it, because it's just so exaggerated and at times comical. And speaking of comical, that's exactly where that stuff came from: The comics.
According to director Lexi Alexander, the only thing she added was the
scene where Castle kills the parkour guy with a rocket launcher.
Everything else was lifted straight from various Punisher issues.
She did a worse job adapting Ennis concepts then the previous movie did. Maybe it's time for director's not to strictly go to Ennis for inspiration on the property. Unless it's done extremely well it'll fall flat.
I didn't mind the Tom Jane version. I understand a lot of the complaints, but at the time, for someone who had only heard of the punisher through the Spidey cartoon I thought it was all right, not great, but all right.
It takes a lot of strange liberties that just don't make a lot of sense.
- It takes place in Florida and the tropics. I mean, why? I'll tell you why. Tampa was offering a lucrative tax deal for the studio.
Yeah, Punisher needs to be in New York City or some place gritty looking to work. The next film should have Punisher traveling the world like Eastern Europe, he's already spent 3 movies in America. Time for new scenery.
- It's PG-13. It's also about a guy who violently murders about 100 people, after his own family is violently murdered. One of these things is not like the other.
They did well with what they had. I agree Punisher needs to be R-rated, though.
- John Travolta makes for an especially unintimidating villain. Especially in a PG-13 movie.
I disagree. I thought he was a good villain. Certainly better than Jigsaw.
I really enjoyed Punisher: War Zone after I understood what it was. It's a hard R, deliberately over-the-top action film that never takes its foot off the pedal. It's no comic book movie. It is the type of flick that would be on TBS after a Braves game, right after they've already shown Lethal Weapon 2 for the 12th time that week. Except War Zone has so much creatively graphic, explicit violence that if it were ever shown on cable, it would have to be cut down to just 5 minutes worth of Castle hanging out in his underground hideout.
The hyperviolence was a little off-putting at first, but by the end of the film we were laughing at it, because it's just so exaggerated and at times comical. And speaking of comical, that's exactly where that stuff came from: The comics.
According to director Lexi Alexander, the only thing she added was the
scene where Castle kills the parkour guy with a rocket launcher.
Everything else was lifted straight from various Punisher issues.
She did a worse job adapting Ennis concepts then the previous movie did. Maybe it's time for director's not to strictly go to Ennis for inspiration on the property. Unless it's done extremely well it'll fall flat.
That's a very suspect opinion, since the 2004 Punisher film is widely considered awful, just irredeemably bad. And unlike the 2008 film, it cannot be enjoyed with a narrower focus on things that the film is rather than things it is not. Did you want to expand on that statement, and explain what "Ennis' concepts" for the Punisher were, and how they're not realized in this film? Because otherwise it just sounds like you're disappointed that a hard R, over-the-top action film featuring a violent anti-hero is not a comic book movie. It sounds like you're mad. Mad that this dog is not a cat. Please do explain.
I really enjoyed Punisher: War Zone after I understood what it was. It's a hard R, deliberately over-the-top action film that never takes its foot off the pedal. It's no comic book movie. It is the type of flick that would be on TBS after a Braves game, right after they've already shown Lethal Weapon 2 for the 12th time that week. Except War Zone has so much creatively graphic, explicit violence that if it were ever shown on cable, it would have to be cut down to just 5 minutes worth of Castle hanging out in his underground hideout.
The hyperviolence was a little off-putting at first, but by the end of the film we were laughing at it, because it's just so exaggerated and at times comical. And speaking of comical, that's exactly where that stuff came from: The comics.
According to director Lexi Alexander, the only thing she added was the
scene where Castle kills the parkour guy with a rocket launcher.
Everything else was lifted straight from various Punisher issues.
She did a worse job adapting Ennis concepts then the previous movie did. Maybe it's time for director's not to strictly go to Ennis for inspiration on the property. Unless it's done extremely well it'll fall flat.
That's a very suspect opinion, since the 2004 Punisher film is widely considered awful, just irredeemably bad. And unlike the 2008 film, it cannot be enjoyed with a narrower focus on things that the film is rather than things it is not. Did you want to expand on that statement, and explain what "Ennis' concepts" for the Punisher were, and how they're not realized in this film? Because otherwise it just sounds like you're disappointed that a hard R, over-the-top action film featuring a violent anti-hero is not a comic book movie. It sounds like you're mad. Mad that this dog is not a cat. Please do explain.
Fair enough. Alexander fumbled on the humorous aspects in Ennis' Punisher. The gallows humor just didn't work for me. The movie's tone was super serious only for occasional funny scenes which aren't dark enough to properly gallows and come across like Looney Tunes jokes.
For example, when Punisher blew up a thug jumping over a rooftop. That was terrible.
This may work in comics, not in movies. In War Zone's case, anyway.
Any Punisher movie is a comic book movie by default. That said, I don't expect it to be like Avengers, I'd prefer it to extremely deadpan serious and any humor in it has to be very dark, like The Dark Knight had. The Thomas Jane movie did very well adapting
The Russian and the room-mates from Ennis run IMO.
The characters in War Zone never felt like there was much to them, excluding the officer, Angela Donatelli and maybe Microchip.
Punisher was stoic, jaded and violent but I never thought he had the humanity the previous Punisher's had to them. Maybe it would have worked with another director, but Alexander failed to give him any "weight". Helping the Donatelli's and Microchip were good, just not enough was doing with them to effect Castle in any significant way, especially compared to the previous film's supporting cast.
Harry Dresden on
0
Options
MalReynoldsThe Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicinesRegistered Userregular
I didn't mind the Tom Jane version. I understand a lot of the complaints, but at the time, for someone who had only heard of the punisher through the Spidey cartoon I thought it was all right, not great, but all right.
... It's PG-13.
Especially in a PG-13 movie.
It was R.
"A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
I really enjoyed Punisher: War Zone after I understood what it was. It's a hard R, deliberately over-the-top action film that never takes its foot off the pedal. It's no comic book movie. It is the type of flick that would be on TBS after a Braves game, right after they've already shown Lethal Weapon 2 for the 12th time that week. Except War Zone has so much creatively graphic, explicit violence that if it were ever shown on cable, it would have to be cut down to just 5 minutes worth of Castle hanging out in his underground hideout.
The hyperviolence was a little off-putting at first, but by the end of the film we were laughing at it, because it's just so exaggerated and at times comical. And speaking of comical, that's exactly where that stuff came from: The comics.
According to director Lexi Alexander, the only thing she added was the
scene where Castle kills the parkour guy with a rocket launcher.
Everything else was lifted straight from various Punisher issues.
She did a worse job adapting Ennis concepts then the previous movie did. Maybe it's time for director's not to strictly go to Ennis for inspiration on the property. Unless it's done extremely well it'll fall flat.
That's a very suspect opinion, since the 2004 Punisher film is widely considered awful, just irredeemably bad. And unlike the 2008 film, it cannot be enjoyed with a narrower focus on things that the film is rather than things it is not. Did you want to expand on that statement, and explain what "Ennis' concepts" for the Punisher were, and how they're not realized in this film? Because otherwise it just sounds like you're disappointed that a hard R, over-the-top action film featuring a violent anti-hero is not a comic book movie. It sounds like you're mad. Mad that this dog is not a cat. Please do explain.
Fair enough. Alexander fumbled on the humorous aspects in Ennis' Punisher. The gallows humor just didn't work for me. The movie's tone was super serious only for occasional funny scenes which are dark enough to properly gallows and come across like Looney Tunes jokes.
For example, when Punisher blew up a thug jumping over a rooftop. That was terrible.
Any Punisher movie is a comic book movie by default. That said, I don't expect it to be like Avengers, I'd prefer it to extremely deadpan serious and any humor in it has to be very dark, like The Dark Knight had. The Thomas Jane movie did very well adapting
The Russian and the room-mates from Ennis run IMO.
The characters in War Zone never felt like there was much to them, excluding the officer.
Punisher was stoic, jaded and violent but I never thought he had the humanity the previous Punisher's had to them. Maybe it would have worked with another director, but that director failed to give him any "weight". Helping the Donatelli's and Microchip were good, just not enough was doing with them to effect Castle in any significant way, especially compared to the previous film's supporting cast.
I think your criticisms are valid were War Zone a plodding, moody, contemplative film about one man's struggle to find meaning after his family is murdered.
And it is not that. It is clearly not that. It doesn't even try to be. So your complaints really are in this category of things the film is not, rather than what you claimed, which is that it tries to realize something but then fails to.
Indeed, the most we get as far as backstory are these
VERY brief flashbacks that show Frank Castle surrounded by his family at a picnic before they're killed.
And that's pretty much it! Why is that it? Because anything more would have taken away from the frantic BOOM, BANG, SLICE, DECAPITATE, SEVER, STAB, POW. There is a tenet of action filmmaking that says that you should never go more than 5 minutes without action. Anything more is probably bad filmmaking.
Even in The Avengers (which we can probably agree is a great film no matter a viewer's expectations), you'll notice that in a film that is inhabited by superpowered beings, little time is spent bogging things down with characters talking rather than doing. It's what good writing and good direction looks like.
Punisher: War Zone was released during a weird, inappropriate time of the year, right before the holidays when other studios were releasing their Oscar fodder. It was critically panned for being too dark and violent even for a film that is supposed to be dark and violent, and for not being "The Dark Knight." (What is?) Silly criticisms, to be sure, but they still manage to illuminate that this is definitely not a movie that will appeal to a lot of people. Probably not even a fractional percentage that represents most people.
Patton Oswalt speculated that Punisher: War Zone may continue to grow into a film with a cult following. And indeed it has. It continues to be a repeat viewing hit among drunk college freshmen, soldiers coming back from Iraq, teenagers in Middle America, you name it. It's just such an earnest Guy Flick. That it is not instead a comic book nerd's dream is no fault of director Lexi Alexander's. We are what we are.
I think your criticisms are valid were War Zone a plodding, moody, contemplative film about one man's struggle to find meaning after his family is murdered.
And it is not that. It is clearly not that. It doesn't even try to be. So your complaints really are in this category of things the film is not, rather than what you claimed, which is that it tries to realize something but then fails to.
Indeed, the most we get as far as backstory are these
VERY brief flashbacks that show Frank Castle surrounded by his family at a picnic before they're killed.
And that's pretty much it! Why is that it? Because anything more would have taken away from the frantic BOOM, BANG, SLICE, DECAPITATE, SEVER, STAB, POW. There is a tenet of action filmmaking that says that you should never go more than 5 minutes without action. Anything more is probably bad filmmaking.
Punisher's backstory didn't need to be covered much to explore the character evolving. The Punisher does not to spend 24/7 thinking about his dead family to be interesting. In fact, Alexander did do some good work showing
how Punisher lives. I liked how he relied on rations and operated like a soldier in enemy territory.
That's the kind of interesting to stuff Punisher needed to still remain human without being turned into an unfeeling murdering machine. All the movie Punisher's did this in certain ways, I'm just saying Alexander's was not as good as the predecessors. It had potential, though.
Jane's Punisher did it by connecting with his room-mates all though the movie. Lundgren's was the most anti-social which benefited from other characters reacting to him and then him to them, which was entertaining to watch.
Even in The Avengers (which we can probably agree is a great film no matter a viewer's expectations), you'll notice that in a film that is inhabited by superpowered beings, little time is spent bogging things down with characters talking rather than doing. It's what good writing and good direction looks like.
Avengers spent a decent amount with characters talking or doing things relevant to their character to make them interesting.
Fury visiting Cap at the gym, Hawkeye & Widow's conversations, any time the heroes were arguing or talking in a group, Thor confronting Loki on the Helicarrier, Black Widow interrogating Loki, Black Widow meeting Banner in India, Coulson visiting Pepper & Tony etc.
The movie is full of good moments like that including during fight scenes, it's why many (including myself) consider it a great movie. It's not just a pointless action movie where the good guys have shallow personalities.
Punisher: War Zone was released during a weird, inappropriate time of the year, right before the holidays when other studios were releasing their Oscar fodder. It was critically panned for being too dark and violent even for a film that is supposed to be dark and violent, and for not being "The Dark Knight." (What is?) Silly criticisms, to be sure, but they still manage to illuminate that this is definitely not a movie that will appeal to a lot of people. Probably not even a fractional percentage that represents most people.
Patton Oswalt speculated that Punisher: War Zone may continue to grow into a film with a cult following. And indeed it has. It continues to be a repeat viewing hit among drunk college freshmen, soldiers coming back from Iraq, teenagers in Middle America, you name it. It's just such an earnest Guy Flick. That it is not instead a comic book nerd's dream is no fault of director Lexi Alexander's. We are what we are.
Never said it should be TDK, only that it would have improved with humor like TDK's. [/spoiler] The Joker's pencil trick is well done gallow's humor. Frank blowing up a thug leaping off a roof is not IMO. [/spoiler] So what if it's a Guy Flick? That shouldn't make War Zone immune from being criticized. Nor am I really being that vicious with my criticisms, I just consider it far from a perfect Punisher movie.
Harry Dresden on
0
Options
FactorySquirrelMarceline's HenchmanLand of OooRegistered Userregular
I really hope this movie has a commentary iirc most Marvel films don't (Maybe Thor does. I know Iron man and Incredible hulk don't.) but I would love to hear Joss just expand on some scenes
Thor,Captain America & Iron Man 2 have commentaries by their directors on dvd. Avengers might since Whedon has done that before with his projects. I'm interested in hearing what he has to say, I'd also like to have him do it with the cast as well.
The Incredible Hulk had a commentary too.
Also, wow, I had no idea War Zone was directed by a woman. That is very, very cool.
What I came here to say is that as of the most recent episode ("Who Do You Trust") Carol Danvers has officially supplanted Wasp as my favorite character on Earth's Mightiest Heroes. She's such a badass, and just seems really cool. Like, I wanna be friends with her. (She's really hot, too, but that's irrelevant.)
"That man is playing Galaga! He thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."
I'm not calling you out here, but War Zone is absolutely loaded with dark (what you call "gallows") humor moments--it is literally what the film is known for--and yet the only one you have mentioned or criticized is the one I myself mentioned in a spoiler tag at the top of this page. So that's a strange criticism. I'm not accusing you of not having seen this film at all, but it sounds like you haven't seen it recently, or else you would have had more in your reserves than "scene I already mentioned" + "generic two word criticism of villains whose names might as well have been lifted off of wikipedia or imdb + "oh yeah but the officer was good." I mean these things happen. Few of us can recall every scene, beat by beat, of a movie that was released 4 years ago.
So here's what I suggest, as a polite conversationalist in this. Either before or after you watch War Zone again, please please please listen to the How Did this Get Made podcast about the film. It's not a typical interview piece. Those can be boring and a big waste of time. No, this is hosted and guested by funny people who make the whole podcast genuinely enjoyable and interesting (Patton Oswalt!). You can even hear director Lexi Alexander talk about the film in her own words, where she doesn't really defend it so much as offer context. And after you listen to it, I don't think you'll love this movie so much as understand it a lot better:
I liked Punisher: War Zone. The look, tone and casting of the Punisher were spot on. The biggest thing that hurt it was that they miscast Jigsaw. Dominic West is a good actor, but he did not understand the film he was working on, and the director wasn't able to get him to tone his performance down.
The commentary is interesting. The director spends a lot of time talking about how she worked on the look of the film, but you get the sense that she was inexperienced with dealing with a difficult actor like West.
I honestly really enjoyed War Zone for the ridiculous string of awful things that it was. It seemed almost nihilistically violent, like it just rolled around and wallowed in what kind of silly shit it could do, ignoring whatever other options were on the table.
Dominic West is in fact a good actor, and the guy who played Loony Bin Jim is as well, but somebody really needed to tone West right the fuck down, and not try to portray that tiny little man (Jim) as some sort of martial arts killing machine. The worst part of the film for me was looking at and listening to the parkour dudes... but that pays off.
I honestly really enjoyed War Zone for the ridiculous string of awful things that it was. It seemed almost nihilistically violent, like it just rolled around and wallowed in what kind of silly shit it could do, ignoring whatever other options were on the table.
Dominic West is in fact a good actor, and the guy who played Loony Bin Jim is as well, but somebody really needed to tone West right the fuck down, and not try to portray that tiny little man (Jim) as some sort of martial arts killing machine. The worst part of the film for me was looking at and listening to the parkour dudes... but that pays off.
But no, it is not a good movie.
I give it respect for trying a different approach - going full grindhouse - which almost worked.
I really hope this movie has a commentary iirc most Marvel films don't (Maybe Thor does. I know Iron man and Incredible hulk don't.) but I would love to hear Joss just expand on some scenes
My copy of inc hulk has a commentary. I have the green Blu-ray version.
I didn't mind the Tom Jane version. I understand a lot of the complaints, but at the time, for someone who had only heard of the punisher through the Spidey cartoon I thought it was all right, not great, but all right.
It takes a lot of strange liberties that just don't make a lot of sense.
- It takes place in Florida and the tropics. I mean, why? I'll tell you why. Tampa was offering a lucrative tax deal for the studio.
- It's PG-13. It's also about a guy who violently murders about 100 people, after his own family is violently murdered. One of these things is not like the other.
- John Travolta makes for an especially unintimidating villain. Especially in a PG-13 movie.
All this is true and complaints I have about the film, but I also enjoy it nontheless.
(The Florida part is especially puzzling. It's really WTF-level). I think that Jane did a good job with the Punisher character.
I can't think of a single Black Widow nemesis. Maybe a low-level SHIELD movie in general, though....Widow, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Fury/Hill...
The only one that I can think of is the other Black Widow, Yelena Belova.
I also wouldn't mind seeing her go to Russia and tackle either Crimson Dynamo or Titanium Man. If she not only took down an Iron Man pastiche but also did so using information that she stole from Stark himself, possibly to use against him if necessary, then it would really legitimize her as a threat in her own right while also emphasizing her particular role as a spy.
And it would also make her role in Iron Man 2 seem more important, since she was otherwise just there to write a psych profile and beat up some security guards.
I really hope this movie has a commentary iirc most Marvel films don't (Maybe Thor does. I know Iron man and Incredible hulk don't.) but I would love to hear Joss just expand on some scenes
Thor,Captain America & Iron Man 2 have commentaries by their directors on dvd. Avengers might since Whedon has done that before with his projects. I'm interested in hearing what he has to say, I'd also like to have him do it with the cast as well.
Hmm I haven't got Cap or Thor yet. May have to remedy that. I didn't like Iron man two so I skipped it on DVD. I sorta want to hear that commentary though.
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
There's a comic series going on right now that takes place in movie continuity and follows black widow tracking down Starktech that Hammer Industries sold right before shit went down in Iron Man 2. It take place in-between Iron Man 2 and The Avenger. The main crux of the plot involves
A former "fan" of the Black Widow, a spy known as "Sophia," is disappointed her "hero" went soft by working for SHIELD and no longer wantonly killing people. So shr becomes her rival wants to replace Natascha as the Black Widow.
Undead Scottsman on
0
Options
AManFromEarthLet's get to twerk!The King in the SwampRegistered Userregular
I finally got around to seeing Thor. It was a bit of a let down, if I'm honest. Still a fun flick, but not as good as Captain America or the first Iron Man. Probably about even with Iron Man 2.
0
Options
NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
So apparently Angie Harmon REALLY wants to play She-Hulk.
(Former Baywatch guard, former L&O lawyer, former voice of Barbra Gordon (Batman Beyond:Return of the Joker))
The body type is close enough to normal that you might hit the uncanny valley.
0
Options
NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
She can act well enough. I'm a little creeped out by her sudden obsessiveness over wanting to play the character though. Not going to argue with her reasons though (chief among them: "I would kill [She-Hulk's] outfit. I'd put these 36Cs on display.")
I finally got around to seeing Thor. It was a bit of a let down, if I'm honest. Still a fun flick, but not as good as Captain America or the first Iron Man. Probably about even with Iron Man 2.
I think I'm the only one who thought Captain America was the worst movie. Like, I liked the Incredible Hulk more.
Matrias on
3DS/Pokemon Friend Code - 2122-5878-9273 - Kyle
0
Options
Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
I saw Avengers 2 this weekend. I hate action films but I really enjoyed this one.
"Reindeer Games" had me cracking up the rest of the film.
Would have been better if I hadn't had to see the trailer for Expendables 2 before it; that thing was literally everything wrong with everything right there up on screen.
Avengers is zooming right along. It sank Battleship over the weekend and grabbed another $55 million.
It's the fastest to $450 million (domestically), beating 2nd place (Dark Knight) to that amount by 10 days. Its all-time take is #4 worldwide and #6 domestic.
It is up against MIB III next weekend, though, so it's time at #1 is about out. It will probably settle in comfortably at #3 on both lists behind Avatar and Titanic.
Posts
It takes a lot of strange liberties that just don't make a lot of sense.
- It takes place in Florida and the tropics. I mean, why? I'll tell you why. Tampa was offering a lucrative tax deal for the studio.
- It's PG-13. It's also about a guy who violently murders about 100 people, after his own family is violently murdered. One of these things is not like the other.
- John Travolta makes for an especially unintimidating villain. Especially in a PG-13 movie.
She did a worse job adapting Ennis concepts then the previous movie did. Maybe it's time for director's not to strictly go to Ennis for inspiration on the property. Unless it's done extremely well it'll fall flat.
Yeah, Punisher needs to be in New York City or some place gritty looking to work. The next film should have Punisher traveling the world like Eastern Europe, he's already spent 3 movies in America. Time for new scenery.
They did well with what they had. I agree Punisher needs to be R-rated, though.
I disagree. I thought he was a good villain. Certainly better than Jigsaw.
That's a very suspect opinion, since the 2004 Punisher film is widely considered awful, just irredeemably bad. And unlike the 2008 film, it cannot be enjoyed with a narrower focus on things that the film is rather than things it is not. Did you want to expand on that statement, and explain what "Ennis' concepts" for the Punisher were, and how they're not realized in this film? Because otherwise it just sounds like you're disappointed that a hard R, over-the-top action film featuring a violent anti-hero is not a comic book movie. It sounds like you're mad. Mad that this dog is not a cat. Please do explain.
Fair enough. Alexander fumbled on the humorous aspects in Ennis' Punisher. The gallows humor just didn't work for me. The movie's tone was super serious only for occasional funny scenes which aren't dark enough to properly gallows and come across like Looney Tunes jokes.
Any Punisher movie is a comic book movie by default. That said, I don't expect it to be like Avengers, I'd prefer it to extremely deadpan serious and any humor in it has to be very dark, like The Dark Knight had. The Thomas Jane movie did very well adapting
It was R.
"Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
I think your criticisms are valid were War Zone a plodding, moody, contemplative film about one man's struggle to find meaning after his family is murdered.
And it is not that. It is clearly not that. It doesn't even try to be. So your complaints really are in this category of things the film is not, rather than what you claimed, which is that it tries to realize something but then fails to.
Indeed, the most we get as far as backstory are these
And that's pretty much it! Why is that it? Because anything more would have taken away from the frantic BOOM, BANG, SLICE, DECAPITATE, SEVER, STAB, POW. There is a tenet of action filmmaking that says that you should never go more than 5 minutes without action. Anything more is probably bad filmmaking.
Even in The Avengers (which we can probably agree is a great film no matter a viewer's expectations), you'll notice that in a film that is inhabited by superpowered beings, little time is spent bogging things down with characters talking rather than doing. It's what good writing and good direction looks like.
Punisher: War Zone was released during a weird, inappropriate time of the year, right before the holidays when other studios were releasing their Oscar fodder. It was critically panned for being too dark and violent even for a film that is supposed to be dark and violent, and for not being "The Dark Knight." (What is?) Silly criticisms, to be sure, but they still manage to illuminate that this is definitely not a movie that will appeal to a lot of people. Probably not even a fractional percentage that represents most people.
Patton Oswalt speculated that Punisher: War Zone may continue to grow into a film with a cult following. And indeed it has. It continues to be a repeat viewing hit among drunk college freshmen, soldiers coming back from Iraq, teenagers in Middle America, you name it. It's just such an earnest Guy Flick. That it is not instead a comic book nerd's dream is no fault of director Lexi Alexander's. We are what we are.
Punisher's backstory didn't need to be covered much to explore the character evolving. The Punisher does not to spend 24/7 thinking about his dead family to be interesting. In fact, Alexander did do some good work showing
Avengers spent a decent amount with characters talking or doing things relevant to their character to make them interesting.
Never said it should be TDK, only that it would have improved with humor like TDK's. [/spoiler] The Joker's pencil trick is well done gallow's humor. Frank blowing up a thug leaping off a roof is not IMO. [/spoiler] So what if it's a Guy Flick? That shouldn't make War Zone immune from being criticized. Nor am I really being that vicious with my criticisms, I just consider it far from a perfect Punisher movie.
The Incredible Hulk had a commentary too.
Also, wow, I had no idea War Zone was directed by a woman. That is very, very cool.
What I came here to say is that as of the most recent episode ("Who Do You Trust") Carol Danvers has officially supplanted Wasp as my favorite character on Earth's Mightiest Heroes. She's such a badass, and just seems really cool. Like, I wanna be friends with her. (She's really hot, too, but that's irrelevant.)
I'm not calling you out here, but War Zone is absolutely loaded with dark (what you call "gallows") humor moments--it is literally what the film is known for--and yet the only one you have mentioned or criticized is the one I myself mentioned in a spoiler tag at the top of this page. So that's a strange criticism. I'm not accusing you of not having seen this film at all, but it sounds like you haven't seen it recently, or else you would have had more in your reserves than "scene I already mentioned" + "generic two word criticism of villains whose names might as well have been lifted off of wikipedia or imdb + "oh yeah but the officer was good." I mean these things happen. Few of us can recall every scene, beat by beat, of a movie that was released 4 years ago.
So here's what I suggest, as a polite conversationalist in this. Either before or after you watch War Zone again, please please please listen to the How Did this Get Made podcast about the film. It's not a typical interview piece. Those can be boring and a big waste of time. No, this is hosted and guested by funny people who make the whole podcast genuinely enjoyable and interesting (Patton Oswalt!). You can even hear director Lexi Alexander talk about the film in her own words, where she doesn't really defend it so much as offer context. And after you listen to it, I don't think you'll love this movie so much as understand it a lot better:
http://www.earwolf.com/episode/punisher-war-zone/
WELL worth an hour! (*) (*) (*) (*)
This is what we want, right here.
The commentary is interesting. The director spends a lot of time talking about how she worked on the look of the film, but you get the sense that she was inexperienced with dealing with a difficult actor like West.
Dominic West is in fact a good actor, and the guy who played Loony Bin Jim is as well, but somebody really needed to tone West right the fuck down, and not try to portray that tiny little man (Jim) as some sort of martial arts killing machine. The worst part of the film for me was looking at and listening to the parkour dudes... but that pays off.
But no, it is not a good movie.
I give it respect for trying a different approach - going full grindhouse - which almost worked.
My copy of inc hulk has a commentary. I have the green Blu-ray version.
All this is true and complaints I have about the film, but I also enjoy it nontheless.
(The Florida part is especially puzzling. It's really WTF-level). I think that Jane did a good job with the Punisher character.
Hydra, AIM, Secret Empire, the Hand, Maggia, etc.
Black Widow's bad guys are SHIELD's bad guys. And I'd really like to see a full-on SHIELD movie.
The only one that I can think of is the other Black Widow, Yelena Belova.
I also wouldn't mind seeing her go to Russia and tackle either Crimson Dynamo or Titanium Man. If she not only took down an Iron Man pastiche but also did so using information that she stole from Stark himself, possibly to use against him if necessary, then it would really legitimize her as a threat in her own right while also emphasizing her particular role as a spy.
And it would also make her role in Iron Man 2 seem more important, since she was otherwise just there to write a psych profile and beat up some security guards.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Hmm I haven't got Cap or Thor yet. May have to remedy that. I didn't like Iron man two so I skipped it on DVD. I sorta want to hear that commentary though.
(Former Baywatch guard, former L&O lawyer, former voice of Barbra Gordon (Batman Beyond:Return of the Joker))
The body type is close enough to normal that you might hit the uncanny valley.
If they could make Chis Evan look like skinny Steve Rogers.
Yeah, but they only had to do that for like 25 minutes in the first film, and it took a huge effort. She-Hulk switches back and forth a lot.
I guess it's changed a lot over the course of her character's lifespan.
But someone like Gina Carano has the right body type.
Yes to Crush, no to Harmon.
She's a crazy republican nutcase. And is skinny and wiry. Inappropriate on two levels!
Would have been better if I hadn't had to see the trailer for Expendables 2 before it; that thing was literally everything wrong with everything right there up on screen.
It's the fastest to $450 million (domestically), beating 2nd place (Dark Knight) to that amount by 10 days. Its all-time take is #4 worldwide and #6 domestic.
It is up against MIB III next weekend, though, so it's time at #1 is about out. It will probably settle in comfortably at #3 on both lists behind Avatar and Titanic.
Which is amazing.