TheCC Staff
06-13-2008, 06:45 PM
Trailer Blasts It's Way Onto The Internet! But Is It Locked And Loaded or a Complete Misfire?
by Bruce Edwards
June 13th, 2008 - Ok, ok, I’ll TRY and refrain from TOO many gun puns in this review. No promises, though. I just might shoot some…blanks…(rim shot). But first, check it out here so you know what I’m talking about.
The first shot of the trailer is promising enough, and, to me, reveals a clear creative vision for the movie (if not just for the trailer). It’s a shot of the hammer of a handgun pulling back…and firing, with the requisite flash and some off-screen feminine, desperate “NO”!. This summarizes the whole thing in a nutshell: it’s about action, it’s about guns being fired, sure, but it’s also about pain, and the consequences of firing that gun. This is emphasized by the next few shots: an explosion in an upper floor of an apartment building, a quick shot of a man sitting alone on the grass with his dead children in his lap, and a close-up of the man’s eyes, looking dead and lost and…changed…
I ask you—what could be a better introduction to the Punisher story than that? It goes by quick, but it sums it all up succinctly and easily for people who don’t know a Punisher from a publisher, and it even makes it clear for fans who can tell you Frank Castle’s platoon number from Vietnam. This is a new take on the Punisher, and, if we can judge the resemblance of these images--specifically the shot of Frank Castle sitting on a picnic blanket with his family dying in his lap—and compare them to the comics origins, then this preview seems to be proudly declaring that this is THE definitive version of the Punisher story up on the big screen for the first time ever.
I don’t have to remind you of the awkward Miami-based massacre of Frank Castle’s family in the most-recent Thomas Jane-starring Punisher movie. And I actually think PART of that touch was the only step in the right direction that movie took. They killed his WHOLE damn family, not just his wife and kids, and that can very easily break a man. But if they’re reversing that and bringing back the Central Park, wrong-place-wrong-time, original version of the origin, then I say welcome back. Because this all just seems so much…purer, somehow.
Click Here To Read The Rest Of The PreREview (http://thecomiccollective.com/Movies-TV/Columns/2008/Bruce_Edwards/PreREview_Punisher_War_Zone/)
by Bruce Edwards
June 13th, 2008 - Ok, ok, I’ll TRY and refrain from TOO many gun puns in this review. No promises, though. I just might shoot some…blanks…(rim shot). But first, check it out here so you know what I’m talking about.
The first shot of the trailer is promising enough, and, to me, reveals a clear creative vision for the movie (if not just for the trailer). It’s a shot of the hammer of a handgun pulling back…and firing, with the requisite flash and some off-screen feminine, desperate “NO”!. This summarizes the whole thing in a nutshell: it’s about action, it’s about guns being fired, sure, but it’s also about pain, and the consequences of firing that gun. This is emphasized by the next few shots: an explosion in an upper floor of an apartment building, a quick shot of a man sitting alone on the grass with his dead children in his lap, and a close-up of the man’s eyes, looking dead and lost and…changed…
I ask you—what could be a better introduction to the Punisher story than that? It goes by quick, but it sums it all up succinctly and easily for people who don’t know a Punisher from a publisher, and it even makes it clear for fans who can tell you Frank Castle’s platoon number from Vietnam. This is a new take on the Punisher, and, if we can judge the resemblance of these images--specifically the shot of Frank Castle sitting on a picnic blanket with his family dying in his lap—and compare them to the comics origins, then this preview seems to be proudly declaring that this is THE definitive version of the Punisher story up on the big screen for the first time ever.
I don’t have to remind you of the awkward Miami-based massacre of Frank Castle’s family in the most-recent Thomas Jane-starring Punisher movie. And I actually think PART of that touch was the only step in the right direction that movie took. They killed his WHOLE damn family, not just his wife and kids, and that can very easily break a man. But if they’re reversing that and bringing back the Central Park, wrong-place-wrong-time, original version of the origin, then I say welcome back. Because this all just seems so much…purer, somehow.
Click Here To Read The Rest Of The PreREview (http://thecomiccollective.com/Movies-TV/Columns/2008/Bruce_Edwards/PreREview_Punisher_War_Zone/)