Another valiant attempt but still not quite there yet. Its sad how its always Garth Ennis' source material that gets adapted to film, yet still somehow gets butchered. There were several characters pulled from several different Punisher story lines: Detective Soap, Budiansky, Captain Miller, Patsy Patrease, and Microchip.
Some of the things in the film were pretty good, but some of them made me go wtf were they thinking. One of them was Punisher hanging himself upside down off a chandelier and spinning round and round shooting everyone. It just didn't work. Seeing a man that big swinging from a chandelier looked more hilarious than cool. Seeing MgGinty and his "acrobatic" gang was eerily reminiscent of the neon lava lamp gang from Batman and Robin. They're supposed to brutal killers, not rejects from the latest Dance Movie Hollywood has put out.
However, the two biggest problems in the movie was 1) the unusually thick Italian accents everyone had and the inclusion of Micro. I get that the main antagonists are Italian but it felt like Dominic West (Jigsaw) and Julie Benz went completely overboard with their accents; hamming them up so they sounded like caricatures of Italians gangsters - which is a shame because West and Benz are two actors who I think are great.
I didn't see the reason to include Microchip. He didn't bring anything to the table - he was really only there to get caught later on and place Castle in a precarious position of having to choose between friends and innocents - which they could have done with anyone.
The mood and tone was darker much more somber (mostly) than the first film. Bring Castle back to New York was definitely a step in the right direction. I was a bit hesitant at having Ray Stevenson as the lead but he convinced me he could play a brooding vigilante killer. They thankfully got rid of the approach of having the Punisher sneak around and steal cars and play mind games with his victims in favor of the direct approach of having him kill as many gangsters as possible. This in turn led to another big plus: a much higher body count which is all the Punisher is about.
Overall, this Punisher wasn't exactly a clear winner over the previous film, but they are taking it in the right direction.
Punisher: War Zone
Moderator: MGM