by Geoff on 28 Dec 2007, 12:31
Review of script from The Punisher:Warzone (spolier warning)!!!!
This 100 page draft, written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Kurt Sutter and Alexander herself, is an enjoyable boy’s only white knuckled action-fest. More of a reboot than a sequel – Frank is mourning the death of his wife, son and DAUGHTER – “Punisher: Warzone” should please fans of the comic and action enthusiasts alike.
We open on a muscular man (guess who) preparing every weapon imaginable for a battle. Cut to Don Cesare’s mansion. The wily old mob boss has just beat an indictment, thanks to the suspicious disappearance of a witness, and is celebrating. Before the event gets underway, the Don tends to business with one of his crew, Billy Russo.
Billy’s a renegade mobster. He has no time for rules and less time for tradition and respect. He wants power…and he wants it now. While he and the Don argue, someone cuts the power to the house, putting it into total darkness. Before you can say “gunfight”, someone begins mowing down the mobsters at the shindig, using guns, knives and even lobsters.
When the lights come back up, the mobsters are dead and the Don is too. Russo, knowing it’s the Punisher, retreats to his hide out – a glass factory – to regroup. But good old Frank doesn’t give up easily. He storms the factory and wipes out most of Russo’s men. The man himself ends up face down in a pit of glass, courtesy of Castle.
After the massacre, Frank discovers, to his surprise, that one of Russo’s men was in fact an undercover fed. Shattered, Frank returns to the darkness of his sewer hideout and ponders his future. Days later, he follows the dead man’s family to the funeral and discovers that the man he killed was not unlike him. Wracked with guilt, and against the advice of his trusty armorer, Microchip, Frank hangs up his guns and quits the justice business.
Russo, now out of intensive care and sporting a face only a mother, a blind mother, could love decides its open season on New York. He’s gonna take over the Don’s empire and his first piece of business is wiping out The Punisher. He’s not alone in his quest. He recruits every gangbanger who hasn’t been killed by Frank, and his seriously unhinged brother Looney Bin Jim to help him. That’s right, poor old Frank has TWO major nutjobs to kill in this pic.
That’s basically the plot, give or take a few small bits here or there. How did it shape up? Better than I expected. Gone is the hot, tropical setting of Tampa Bay. In this screenplay, Frank prowls the mean dark streets of New York…and the character and the film will be much better for it.
Frank is played as a tragic figure, not a shut- in like Jane’s, but more like Mad Max in the Road Warrior. He’s cold, mean and unapologetic…and he’s got NO time for people. His relationship with Microchip is interesting. Wayne Knight from Seinfeld could be a real surprise in this. He’s not just some dumb sidekick for Frank. He has some neat little moments that provide reason behind why people like them would become vigilantes.
The background characters are also worth a mention too. Russo, aka Jigsaw is a killer as ruthless and disturbed as Frank. Part of the problem with sequel that was planned a few years ago was that the Jigsaw character was under used. He was only in the last 30 pages. Jigsaw is present for at least 70 pages in this draft.
Loony Bin Jim is also a cool bad guy. Unlike Frank and Jigasw, he has no reason or no sanity. He’s a 24-hour-a-day killing machine that has no right being alive.
Scripts like this live or die by their action scenes…and this will have dozens of them. But are they any good??? Yes, they’re solid. Many people who have read the screenplay have complained about a rooftop chase involving Frank and some crims who are good at free-running – the sport that the bomber at the start of “Casino Royale” performs.
Sure, it doesn’t feel wholly original, but it works in the context of the film and the character – while these guys are doing all their fancy moves, Frank brings them down with a couple of grenades. A nice Punisher moment. And there’s no “God’s gonna sit this one out punchline.” Phew!!!!!
There’s also a TON of fights. And these things will be choreographed to the hilt. Alexander, who’s a former martial arts champ, has put her unique stamp on these confrontations. The fights, which show off style and technique, also have ruthlessly brutal moments that are straight out “do-what-it-takes-to-survive” moves.
There’s also several other core “Punisher moments” like gunbattles and explosions. In one particular nasty scene, a bad guy is blown up but remains intact…or so we think. When he talks to one of his fellow scumbags, we discover he’s got an armful of his own intestines. Nice!!!
If you were disappointed by the fact that the only real action scene in the 2004 version was the shootout at the end, prepare to be blown away. Every action sequence in this script is ten times better than that.
I won’t lie to you guys though; there are a couple of issues with this draft. Frank’s relationship with the family of the Fed he killed feels tacked on, and we know they only exist to become bait.
Other than that, this should be a successful action movie. It’s not gonna win any Oscars comes awards time, but it should hopefully give The Punisher the movie he deserves.
- Lets be honest. This is just a case to you, to me its more. Much more! and if you try and take this disk I'm going to hit you very, very hard!
