The Ray Stevenson Comic Book Movie Everyone Forgot About
As Disney+ and Hulu approach their merger, more and more movies are appearing on the Hulu streaming platform, and the latest among them is 2008’s action thriller film, Punisher: War Zone, starring Ray Stevenson.
Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone isn’t a sequel to the John Travolta movie but rather a reboot of the adaptation that follows the war waged by Frank Castle, a vigilante known as The Punisher.
Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone, released in 2008, was the third Punisher movie of the bunch produced by an outside studio before the rights reverted back to Marvel Studios, which subsequently introduced John Bernthal as the iconic anti-hero known as Frank Castle.
Unfortunately, just like the previous two films, the original Punisher from 1989 starring Dolph Lundgren, and the 2004 reboot of the anti-hero movie, Ray Stevenson’s version also suffers from poor critical reception and audience rating—though, to be honest, the 2004 movie fared best with the audiences.
Just like the previous film, Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone isn’t a sequel to the John Travolta movie but rather a reboot of the adaptation that follows the war waged by Frank Castle, a vigilante known as The Punisher, on crime and corruption—in particular on the disfigured mob boss known as Billy “Jigsaw” Russotti, portrayed by Dominic West.
In the movie, the narrative follows Castle after he had spent at least five years as a vigilante, who crashes a mob party, kills the main boss, and completes the game. Except the boss’s caporegime escapes.
If you can assume the right stance, it’s actually a good action movie with over-the-top shootout scenes and excessive violence and genuinely barking-mad villains.
The Punisher tracks him down to the old recycling plant and tosses him into a glass-crushing machine that leaves him hideously disfigured, and thus the movie’s villain, Jigsaw, is born into existence.
Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone then goes on to become a gruesome homage to the excessively violent, dialogue-challenged action movies of the 1980s, with the main hero, or anti-hero in this case, defeating the villain at great costs to his physical health, and “rides into the sunset” after killing nearly every criminal in town.
Though it didn’t fare well with the critics and the audiences, Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone isn’t necessarily a bad movie. Quite the contrary; though it resembles an 1980s action flick, it’s actually quite respectable as such since it coincidentally feels like a four-decades-old action flick. So, if you can assume the right stance, it’s actually a good action movie with over-the-top shootout scenes and excessive violence and genuinely barking-mad villains.
Some of the poor success of Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone could be attributed to the creative differences that took place during the film’s development and production. Prior to the release of the 2004 version of The Punisher, Lions Gate Entertainment announced the development of the sequel; however, the problems with the script prevented the movie from going into production.
Furthermore, some writers, such as Kurt Sutter, even removed their names from the credits, as not much of their work remained in the film’s script.
Punisher: War Zone went on to make some $4.2 million on its opening weekend, grossing only $8 million domestically, making it the lowest-grossing movie based on a Marvel Comics property ever.
Not only that, but Lexi Alexander, the director of the previous Punisher film, was also removed as the film’s director, and while initially stating that she was satisfied with the final cut of Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone, she later stated that the film’s poor quality was due to Lionsgate’s involvement.
Apparently, Marvel was an equal partner on the film, but allowed Lionsgato to make final decisions, and we all know what happens when greedy corporates from the movie industry weigh in on how a franchise should look like. Season 3 of The Witcher is the most recent example.
Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone went on to make some $4.2 million on its opening weekend, grossing only $8 million domestically, making it the lowest-grossing movie based on a Marvel Comics property ever, even below 2005’s Electra and 1986’s Howard the Duck, whose cameos we saw in various MCU releases in the past decade.
The movie made only $10 million worldwide, making it a box office bomb against its $35 million budget. And though these numbers might be concerning, the movie itself—as we previously stated—isn’t bad.
In fact, we’d say that Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone is more faithful to the source material than any other Punisher movie from the pre-MCU era. The film remained loyal to the dark, more violent tone of the comics, despite not being the direct adaptation of any particular storyline.
But, in hindsight, it didn’t really capture the depth and nuance of Frank Castle as a character, despite Ray Stevenson’s look as the eponymous hero being closer to how the character is depicted in the comics. Ray Stevenson’s Punisher: War Zone is now available on Hulu.
