So there’ve been a lot of rumors surrounding Punisher: War Zone. Everything from day one script problems to rumors of the director being fired and even talk of the finished movie being as horrendous as the heavy metal soundtrack.
This overwhelming flood of rumors has effectively drowned out the usual questions we hear about comic book movies: Is the lead actor/actress doing right by the character? Is the director being faithful to the source material? Is the film more Dark Knight (gritty, real) or more Iron Man (tongue-and-cheek fun)? And of course, in this post-Joker era we must ask how good is the villain going to be?
|
|
To answer that question Screen Rant got a hold of the latest pictures of War Zone’s main villain, the deformed gangster known as Jigsaw (The Wire’s Dominic West). And we’re delving into the 1,000 words about the character that the pictures are worth. Check it out.
Jigsaw admires his pretty face
Don’t eat dinner with Jigsaw if you like breathing
The first thing I notice about these (and all pics from Punisher: War Zone) is that the color scheme seems wrong. Like the characters are trapped inside a Marylin Manson video instead of the gritty (and realistic) urban terrain that the Punisher stalks.
The second thing I’m noticing is that, despite the fact that this is a Punisher movie, the filmmakers seem to have gone the Iron Man route of keeping things tongue-in-cheek – at least as far as the villain is concerned. Because if that Jigsaw “makeup” they’ve got on my boy McNulty (West) is supposed to be anything else besides wink, wink, funny… then someone in the makeup department needs to get their ass kicked. Jigsaw looks like a cross between James Cagney and the 1930’s creature-feature version of Quasimodo after a drunken brawl. Definitely not winning any awards for that makeup work.
But how is West going to play Jigsaw? After hearing the line in the trailer “Gather your army!” something tells me that West is going to take this role a teeny-weeny bit over the top, rather than play it straight-faced twisted like Heath Ledger did with the Joker in The Dark Knight. In other words: don’t expect Jigsaw to live on in your memory more than five minutes after you’re out of the theater. Hate to be Debbie-Downer, but I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em.
What about you, though? Do you think that Dominic West is going to bring the necessary acting chops to make Jigsaw a villain for the ages? Are you still holding on to the hope that Punisher: War Zone is going to the movie that finally does right by the one comic book character whose story should be the easiest to translate to film? Or is the Punisher forever doomed to be damaged goods? Let us know what you think.
Source: Latino Review
Loading ...
34 Comments
I really hope your wrong for the simple reason that I have really been looking forward to this film. I do agree with the makeup though. Something is just a little off but the staples in the forehead is a little intresting.
Punisher like everything else this studio tackles goes through the slicer and what comes out is guaranteed to be a loser. Why does Marvel bother with this studio? Didn’t they learn from Daredevil and Electra?
Lionsgate = epic fail lol
Still hoping for the lead actor to pull through all of it.
I am a little surprised that your litmus test for Jigsaw is whether or not he will be just like the Joker. Jigsaw has been around for about 30 years, way before Dark Knight (and let’s face it, that movie is the only reason people are comparing him to the famous Batman villain.) He wasn’t designed to be the Joker.
His origin? “I was just a two-bit punk when ya wiped out the gang I was workin’ with — an’ knocked me head-first thru a plate glass window!” He wants revenge on Frank Castle, not the destruction of authority and anarchy in the streets (unless it serves his purpose of revenge but typically things don’t go that far.) Jigsaw is the ultimate example of a criminal with a chip on his shoulder and his anger is very narrowly focused against the Punisher. He knows who wronged him, he doesn’t need to take down the entire planet.
He has always had very rough and thuggish dialogue. All of his dialogue so far IS true to the comic. And since when is Dominic West’s acting ability coming in to question?
There’s a big world out there, let’s not squeeze every comic book bad guy in to the Joker’s mold… that sounds pretty boring.
I don’t know, I haven’t read the comics, but I’ll take your word on it since you have. But you have to expect this, everyone is all ga-ga over TDK, everything TDK did is untouchable, and if you dare, The Dark Knight Civil Defense Force will knock on your door and arrest and torture you. So of course people are comparing him to Joker. Look at Iron Man, you can’t even mention the words Iron and Man in the same sentence without a bunch of TDK fanboys jumping in comparing the two and ultimately concluding that IM is simple and stupid while TDK is all deep and ultra-fantastic and deserves every Oscar. So get used to it.
I saw the trailer during Smallville tonight and I think the Jigsaw character looked ridiculous. I hope that I am wrong because I want this to be a good movie, but I won’t be holding my breath.
K Love said it all, for me.
We’ve seen the “gritty, urban terrrain” in the Red Band trailer and the clip director Lexi Alexander introduced.
I’m really looking forward to PWZ!
People really need to take second look at his suit, it’s half and half like an all black version Two-Face in Batman Forever, like these guys don’t care about making a decent film! He’s Tommy Lee Jones but more dumbed down in make-up. Then again, I don’t know the actor but he seems to work for the character since he really is only after The Punisher, so I hope it works since I love Frank and he rarely has a worthy villian in the comics that’s managed to last 30 years like Jigsaw has, so I hope it works…and Heath Ledger may have rocked The Joker into brutal reality, but no one is gonna be “that” real again with being mocked for trying too hard, Heath blew us away because he did it unexpected, it won’t happen again any time soon…in any genre, comic book or otherwise because you get one of those roles every 10 or 20 years and Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs was the last time there was a truely beliveable monster that everyone will remeber in film history, now its this new Joker…give it 10 years and maybe we’ll get another geniune freak like that. If you can wait that long without trying to compare every villian to The Joker then you won’t be so disappointed by Jigsaw or who ever is the next bid bad guy! REMEMBER: Darth Vader, Dr. Lecter, Joker. Can you wait? I CAN…
OKAY! So I didn’t see that his suit was all tigered out and that there is a guy sitting all hidden by the other side of Jigsaw, but I still say that the make up should hve been better….and I’m right about the other stuff I said, how we only get a GREAT proformance like Heath’s every 10 years or so, not that there aren’t great ones, like in No Country For Old Men and in There Will Be Blood, but in comic book terms, I’d say he’ll wind up being one of the only Villians remembered in 30 years, give or take all the chances they’ll have with all the adaptations coming our way…
Oh…and I’m looking forward to his film, as I have the 1985 five issue series in which Frank got his own actaul COMIC up and running (at least I think that’s when it happened?)…so…GO JIGSAW! DON’T SCREW IT UP DOMINC WEST!
I’M DONE! LOL
Haha… you countered your own argument for me. I too thought for a moment that he had a half and half outfit but it is just the angle, the dude sitting behind him is positioned in a way that makes their suits almost look like one.
The makeup is great. Not only is it appropriately gory, but they obviously took classic Jigsaw and fixed him up. It’s like they started with Russo from “Year One” and carved him up without giving him that stupid giant eye he so often is drawn with, but I hear Dark Knight fans like stupid giant CG eyes, so I can understand the disappoint… just kidding.
Imagine classic Jigsaw dropped in the MAX universe… that’s what we’re seeing here. Scarred very badly but not cartoony.
I can’t believe you’d say they didn’t care about making a decent film… maybe that was based on the suit misconception but… Lexi (and she is the one to talk about since she drove the making of this film practically on her own) obviously cares deeply about the source material and delivering it in high quality to the big screen. Track down either of the “Truth about Punisher War Zone” videos on youtube, and I guarantee you’ll understand the sweat and tears that went in to this film.
Well, as a matter of fact, I did mean they don’t care about making a decent film…and it was when I saw that suit that looked like it came from Two-Face’s closet that I based that opinion, but I’ve basiclly going nut waiting for this film, have been since the final scene in the Thomas Jane take, And I only said the make up sucked because it seems like a mask, but after I loooked at some picture of horrid second rate plastic surgey that I realized its perfect, since a want mobster isn’t going to see the guy from Nip/Tuck, unless he pulled a Face Off like kidnapping then he’d looked at pretty and that just can’t happen…and the tone and lighting for this film screams MAX….so in reality, I still feel my thoughts on people saying “He’s no Joker” still hold water, but I pulled the comics I have and redid my homework, and it all looks PUNSHER PROOF and I’m ready to see s*it hit the fan, or brains hit the screen, lol, you know?
No, I don’t know, in fact your post has me a little confused.
You currently think they care, or don’t you? Using actual shots from the comics, keeping Jigsaw true to his thuggish mobster roots, and most of all, making Frank Castle a merciless killer of evildoers who doesn’t mess around says to me that this may be the first time somebody DID give a damn about the Punisher from the comics.
I just realized recently that Jigsaw kinda resembles Chucky from the last two Child’s Play movies. Or is it the other way around?
Jigsaw was created years before brigre of chucky, in fact the first time Chucky was seen, Jigaw had about around a decade to grow in terms of story, character layout….so Jigsaw doesn’t remind you of Chucky from the last two films, Chucky reminds you of Jigsaw man….lol
K Love, sorry I confused you, I realize I write some long as hell posts, but this will be short….IT’S A FILM ABOUT THE PUNISHER! HE KILLS THE MOB, WITHOUT GIVING IT A SECOND THOUGT ABOUT IT, THIS FILM LOOKS LIKE ITS GONNA ROCK! JIGSAW LOOKS LIKE HE JUMPED OUT OF THE COMIC PAGES! OKAY?
I was willing to run with the idea up until a point, and just forget how good the other Punisher was, for the sake of the reboot- but I miss Tom Jane. I don’t see why they’d reboot it off a movie like that, and produce a movie that looks this crappy. All we can do now is wait, and hope the movie somehow blows us away.
Well, not sure if this film will do the character justice, but the Thomas Jane Punisher was pretty crappy in my opinion…
Personally I’m still hoping that despite the abysmal marketing of this film that the movie itself will turn out to be good. At least on a visceral “watch the bad guys get what they deserve” level.
Vic
Well from the trailers i’ve seen, Castle looks Bada** and Jigsaw looks pretty twisted like he is suppose to be so im not too worried about this movie bombing it. this post worried me a bit but im sure it will do fine.
I agree with with Vic, that’s basically what I’m hoping for. There’s nothing more satisfying than to see a bunch of bad guys get their brains blown out. And I still have hopes for this because they didn’t get some young hipster guy playing Castle, their choice of the actor gives me hope. Ray Stevenson is excellent at playing that kill everyone character. Watch Rome and you’ll see. By the middle of the first season you’ll be used to seeing Stevenson covered in other people’s blood.
Hey guys. First off I should say that I had seen the other two punisher films but never really read the comics so you may take my comment with a grain of salt. My father was lucky enough to land the role of Pitsy in this film, one of the 4 main villains and I had the absolute privilidge reading the script and while I will not tell you anything I will tell you that from someone who hasn’t ever really followed the punisher it sounded amazing. My dad’s name is Mark Camacho and he is the one sitting behind Dominic West. Don’t worry guys from everything I’ve heard and read this film is gonna be awesome. Tons of blood and guts and even a decent story too. This is not a sequel it is a reinvention. Ray Stevenson is gonna rock the house. Enjoy
Well I hope you’re not lying Jesse, or Nomad/Lexi in disguise, lol. I never doubted for a moment that Ray Stevenson is going to rock, it was the rest of the cast, the story, and script I worry about.
Don’t worry, if you look at the new pics on IMDB my father is in two of them, or you can look at my profile and it says that he’s my dad. He’s not on the cast list but he’s in the pictures. Anyway my name is jesse camacho. Anyway unless from script to screen something went wrong it will rock!!
When does the punisher property return to marvel entertainment ????? Fox could mess-up a cup of water. Daredevil, electra, punisher the list goes on and on.
Fox????? Is Loin’s Gate a part of Fox? If So, that does explain a few things n their (LG) list of films, like Cabin Fever, but….FOX?! Fox is the reason I went on an independent film binge in 2003 and still haven’t really given it up, with some exceptions (Comic book films, horror films, some other stuff too) so Fox can suck on my jock strap if you know what I’m saying!
Why are critics and others hating on this movie? This is the most accurate Punisher movie ever made. Ray Stevenson looks like he just came from the cover of a Punisher MAX cover and Jigsaw looks FANTASTIC! Everything looks good to me. I’m tired of all the criticizing on Jigsaw’s makeup and others things like comparing him to the Joker. I know in my bones this will be a movie so STOP THE COMPLAINING!!!!
BTW, I’ve been a fan of the Punisher since childhood.
Watched the movie tonight and I believe it was nothing short of awesome.
I criticized harshly when there were moments of almost feelings but they were short lived and forgotten in the flood of blood.
Movie rocked face, so happy they did it right this time!
I’m going to watch it in a few hours. Hope you’re right rockstar. I want to see Ray Stevenson mow people down!
What's your opinion? Leave a Reply!
Go to Gravatar.com and upload your own (we'll wait)!