According to the new Punisher: War Zone teaser/showeverythinger (see below), Frank Castle likes to pulverize face bones, jam sticks into brains via eye sockets, and shoot the heads of his enemies into a chunky mist. Like his famous t-shirt attests, the man seems fairly fixated on the skull area. Almost every person in this teaser could have saved themselves by ducking. Anyway, Frank’s not all bloody business in this new look at the movie provided by the stalwart folks at IGN – he also puts down his murder weapons and takes a moment to shed a tear or two in rememberence of his slaughtered family. And then it’s right back to creating knee-deep blood pools wherever he sets boot.
Be prepared to age verify, by the way:
This trailer seems to be a direct, “please forgive us” response to the other War Zone tease that was released online last month. That quick, bloodless look left expectant fans confused and cold. Its director, Lexi Alexander, was annoyed by the underwhelming footage as well. She issued an apology on her blog even! The Punisher, you see, is not a subtle character, and this new teaser bends villains over backwards to underscore that very point. Reminiscent of the spoiler, kill-frenzied trailer that was released for the truly terrible AvP-R, this shoot-happy glimpse is stacked with all manner of dispatch. Is this a good thing? Shrugs. Ray Stevenson looks well-suited for the role of the blood-hungry protagonist. But “show it all” trailers always seem a tad desperate. I just really hope there’s an OK story threaded through all of the exposed viscera.
Honestly, I’m rooting against the movie a little. It would be great that if after all of the attempts at adapting the comic for the screen, the Dolph Lundgren version could remain king of the hill. There are some brief glimpses of The Wire’s Dominic West as Jigsaw, the disfigured villain of the piece. And he looks pretty yucky – like Oldman in Hannibal yucky. Jigsaw certainly looks like a more interesting villain than Travolta played in the Tom Jane version.
Bold words, I know.