Took me quite a while to crack this one.

Punisher: Warzone (2008)
Directed by Lexi Alexander
Written by Nick Santora, Nick Marcum, Matt Holloway
Cinematography by Steve Gainer
Editing by William Yeh
CAST: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Julie Benz

It’s taken over 20 years and three different sets of actors/directors/approaches to introduce Marvel Comic’s vigilante anti-hero The Punisher to film audiences. How does this attempt measure up? Well let’s try a litmus test here to gauge your own potential reaction to the film. Are you looking for a serious take on the character combining an aesthetic of gritty realism and masterful acting OR would you rather watch a film whose look seems to be based on the neon colour scheme of Batman & Robin mixed with the over the top violence and slapstick lunacy of Riki Oh? Yeah, I know that Riki Oh might be a little obscure to some of you so here’s a small sample (not for the squeamish):

Based on the marriage of these two films, the resulting critical summation should read something along the lines of best film of the decade, or at the very least best film of the year warranting consideration of the Nobel Prize. Sadly, Ms. Alexander, a former kickboxing champion, never fully realizes this awesome camp potential. You see, she still believes that she is being respectful to the source material, to the complex psychology of the nature vigilantism and what it means to be a hero. This isn’t the Dark Knight and when it tries to be, when it tries to make a statement, it fails. It fails more so then all of the terrible comic book adaptations that there have been in the last 20 years put together. You missed that Nobel Prize ever so slightly.

I have a theory about writing in comic book films. If the film has three or more credited writers and is less than 2 hours long, there is a good chance that the script is terrible. There is no reason why there should be that many writers on a film that already has over 20 years of back story available in comic book form. Some might be saying that they all are credited due to various single draft re-writes of the script. Well in a way that’s even worse. That means the script is a patchwork of different ideas coming from different people who were hired to “fix” problems in previous drafts. One writer is hired to add more humor, one is hired to add more violence, and so on. So in that regard Punisher Warzone’s “failure” makes a lot of sense. It was doomed from the beginning: it never had a chance of being a great action film, character study, or B movie because it was never allowed to be one thing. After all, the goal of all comic book films is to start up a franchise and the only way to do that is to be financially viable. So let’s put in something for everyone and increase the demographic without regard to any semblance of narrative logic.

It’s virtually impossible to attain anything beyond mediocrity with a bad script, but Alexander must also share the fault. Let’s face it, a former kickboxing champion and stunt co-coordinator does not a good director make. Like all the non Chris Nolan comic book directors, Alexander equates emulating the comic book style with being truthful to the character. Let’s make it look like the scenes were taken from the panels themselves, without regard to continuity editing or composition. The end result is some of the most baffling image compositions I think I’ve ever seen in a big budget American film. The only time any attention to detail seems to be paid is in the action set pieces, however when it comes time to character dialogue you can almost sense the groan of the film crew saying “Fuck it”. Characters occupy far extremes of the frame with little or no detail on the opposite ends, while extreme camera angles are implemented for their own sake during dialogue sequences. The film is just wrought with compositional aberrations that just have to be seen in order to be understood, and I don’t want to go all film school on this. Alexander might be a newcomer to filmmaking but DOP Steve Gainer, a fairly seasoned cinematographer whose credits include Larry Clark’s Bully, should have known better. Just because it’s a comic book movie doesn’t mean that the conventional film rules go out the window.

The only participant in the film who seems to know just how terrible the film is, and simply doesn’t give a shit, is Dominic West who plays the scarred villain Jigsaw. For those of you who know West from his role as Detective Jimmy McNulty from HBO’s The Wire, be prepared to have your faith in the actor either profoundly shaken,  if you’re looking for a serious performance from a serious actor, or confirmed, if you dig  that Schumacher Batman/Riki-Oh hybrid concept. You’ve all seen people do a terrible gangster impersonation at some point in your life; this one borders on full-blown racism. His performance is equal parts Joe Pesci from any Pesci film you can think of, Al Pacino as Tony Montana and Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face. West is the most consistent in his over-the-top hamminess. He knows the film is crap and he willingly is the biggest turd in the bowl.

On the flip side, you have Ray Stevenson in the role of Frank Castle aka The Punisher, who tries his best to add emotional weight to a character that essentially possesses less than 3 pages of dialogue in the entire film (when he isn’t literally punching holes in people’s faces). Apparently that’s all that Punisher fans want to see, and rest assured the film at least delivers on that front. You have to feel sorry for him, he’s trying his best to have the character taken seriously but the entire film and much of the rest of the cast is just working against him. His take on the character is probably the best to date, although the character itself, whether inhabited by Dolph Lundgren in the ‘89 film or Thomas Jane in ‘04, has never been the problem.

So what exactly is the problem? Why, in 3 different attempts hasn’t anyone been able to spark a franchise? I wont attempt to explain the previous films’ failures but one need only look at the current slew of comic book films like Iron Man and the Dark Knight to see why these types of films fail not only in the box-office but as films themselves. The bar has simply been raised too high for the Punisher to compete with other more complex representations of comic heroes. The Punisher is a violent character, but the film never really confronts that issue. Supporting characters who are sympathetic to his cause just accept his actions. Even more embarrassing is that they posit the character as a kind of savior, as seen in the film’s final image as he stands illuminated on the steps of a church ready to blow someone’s head off. The Punisher is a killer of men and no one in the film, or in the production crew, seem to have a problem with that. A little bit of the “old ultra violence” in my comic book films is fine, but preaching the messianic qualities of a psychopathic vigilante just seems juvenile and frankly, irresponsible. He isn’t Batman, and although it would be cool to be Batman, being the Punisher shouldn’t be as appealing of a  notion as it comes across in the film.  Calling him an anti-hero, or flawed just doesnt encapsulate the psychology of someone who murders people  enmasse and continues to do so long after he has avenged his own familys death  (His family was wiped out by the mob, in case you didnt know).  But hey, it’s a comic book movie, we have neon lights and weird camera angles so everyone will accept it because it’s just so wacky. If only Alexander went all the way and incorporated an invisible friend that only the Punisher could see or maybe a Punisher Visa that he used to buy weapons with and avoided any attepts at character developement, no matter how small, then we would have had a full fledged B movie classic worthy of 80’s direct to VHS Canon films. The film is a failure, but an interesting one; see it as long as you don’t have to pay regular admission. However, if you want the real Punisher, don’t waste your time- just rent Death Wish and let Charlie Bronson show you how it’s done.