Punisher Warzone Teaser: Thoughts

Okay, there is the teaser I’ve been waiting for. I have now had some time to develop and collect my thoughts, they appear below with “+” and “-” characters indicating positive and negative reactions, respectively:

+.) Ray Stevenson looks pretty fucking badass. He’s big, and he’s got the voice to be Frank Castle. That’s the biggest plus in comparison to 2004 Punisher, IMO.

-.) Frank hanging from the chandelier with guns blazing is pure fucking bullshit. The Punisher is tactically intelligent, not showy. If there’s lots of bad guys that need to be eliminated at once, he would use C4, white phosphorous grenades, incapacitate them with flashbangs and proceed to pick them off, or something like that. I’m thinking of stuff like that scene in the beginning of the first Punisher Max storyline where he draws a bunch of “wiseguys” out of a party and wipes them out with an M249. Stuff like this hanging bullshit totally detracts from the Punisher’s image.

+.) The neo-noir-ish lighting and contrast, reminiscent of The Crow and Dark City, is exactly what I wanted for the atmosphere, in addition to it obviously being a colder environment. You need that kind of dark milieu to replicate the feel on Punisher MAX, which is apparently what they are going for.

-.) Save the flashing near the beginning, you can barely see the fucking skull on Frank’s vest. ‘Nuff said.

+.) The scene of Jigsaw standing outside of “Brad Street Hotel”. Once again, ’nuff said.

-.) “Sometimes I’d like to get my hands on God.” It’s in the right spirit, but poorly executed. Maybe it’s just me, but hey, these are just my reactions.

All in all, my reaction to the trailer is a positive one, primarily because it’s such an improvement over the last effort to create a Punisher flick. It’s a bit rough around the edges, but it’s probably unfair to expect perfection. Let’s hope that it turns out good when it hits theaters.