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Anyone interested in letting off a little steam this holiday season need look no further than this Friday’s third attempt at a film franchise kickoff for Frank Castle AKA The Punisher. Subtitled “War Zone”, this latest in re-boots for comic book movies looks to take the character in a far more violent direction than the last time we saw the guy just back in 2004.
 First appearing as much closer to a villain in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #129, the Punisher’s origin story of losing his family in a mob hit and committing himself to a lifetime of revenge would eventually establish him as more of a vigilante and earn not only a cult following but also several ongoing series. His film career, however, dates way back to 1989. Hot off the heels of the success of Tim Burton’s original Batman and starring Dolph Lundgren, that initial movie would prove to be so awesome that it was sent straight to video. It would be 15 years and take the resurgence of comic books movies as well as the creative talent of Preacher’s Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon before the man in black would get another go around with the silver screen.
Loosely based on Ennis’ fun, if not completely shallow 12-issue “Welcome Back, Frank” mini-series, 2004’s “The Punisher” sounded great on paper. With Thomas Jane seemingly perfectly cast as the hero and the star power of John Travolta as the villain, the film never quite managed to quite find the appropriate tone. Struggling between a hard action film and an accessible comic flick for all ages, it would meet with the low box office and poor critical reception that its lack of focus made completely inevitable.
So here we are again. This time featuring Ray Stevenson (HBO’s "Rome") as the title character and Dominic West (300, "The Wire") in the long awaited film debut of one of Castle’s most iconic adversaries Jigsaw, “War Zone” hopes to follow in the successful footsteps of Marvel Studio’s previous two releases this year: The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man. If early reviews are any indication it’s by far the best of the three and while that isn’t saying much, fans can still keep their fingers crossed that the third time will be the charm.
In any case, “Welcome back, Frank.”
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