Yes, I WOULD like cheese with my comic-to-cinema translaton.

This summer, for the first time in a very, very long time, Hollywood impressed me. Those of you who know me have at least a minimal understanding of just how hard this is to accomplish. Contrary to what a passing glance might make you think, I hold myself to ridiculously high standards in terms of what I contribute to something once I've decided that a contritbution is merited, and those standards aren't exclusively applicable to me. If you're going to do something, do it right, or run away before I get there to see the finished product of your half-assed labor.
After a virtual cornucopia of failures and disappointments (yes, I'm talking to you, Brian Singer. You too, Ang Lee), 2008 finally gave the geek fringe what they wanted: quality portrayals of their favorite characters. I'm still floored every time I watch Robert Downey, Jr., Edward Norton and Christian Bale bring characters to life in a way that the X-Men trilogy and 2003's The Hulk had more or less made me think was impossible. Downey, Jr., Norton and Bale will go down in history as the men who brought something to comic book films that was, until now, sorely lacking. After watching Ray Stevenson portray Frank Castle, Marvel's flawlessly definitive anti-hero, I honestly can't say whether or not he's continuing in that capacity or starting us back down the path to cinematic mediocrity.
Before I say anything else, I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I enjoyed The Punisher: War Zone. Despite walking into the theater with a negative attitude due to unfavorable reviews, I genuinely liked the movie. To say that Stevenson portrays Castle with unprecedented accuracy would be a gross understatement. I enjoyed Tom Jane's portrayal, but all too often Jane's performance robbed the audience of one critical element of The Punisher's dynamic. Frank Castle was not a man driven by revenge, but rather a man on a mission to do just what his moniker implies. Stevenson doesn't come off as some broody ex-soldier shooting people because he misses his wife and children. He shows the audience a bloodthirsty mass murderer trying to right the wrongs he sees in the judicial system.
Not to be ignored, the film was graced with a terrific supporting cast, whose names I won't bother looking up because, frankly, I doubt their names will be any more familiar to anyone else as they were to me. As a matter of fact, the only face I recognized from start to finish was Wayne Knight of Seinfeld fame. Oddly enough though, not recognizing the vast majority of the performers actually lent a certain credence to the story. "Hey, that's not (insert famous actor's name here), that's Jigsaw's crazy, cannibalistic brother, Looney Bin Jim!" Each unknown brought something of their own to the film, and while their own contributions didn't always mesh perfectly, Stevenson's talent was by no stretch of the imagination unparalleled.
If I had to pick one thing about the experience that I found a bit off-putting, it was the excessive violence. It isn't that War Zone struck me as being too reliant on firefights and gory death scenes, but simply that at times it went a bit over the top. Whether this was intentional of simply a matter of the film's dismally low budget I can't say. What I can say is that I would imagine it takes more than a few rounds from an automatic pistol to make someone's head literally explode. Granted, I don't have a great deal of experience with handguns, and what little I do have was gained while firing at empty aluminum cans, but the logic is sound. Three bullets does not equal cranial detonation.
Despite the B-movie feel of a few random deaths, there's a great deal more positive things to say about Punisher: War Zone than there are negative. An appropriate (if not always convincing) cast, solid camera work, well directed combat scenes and more than a few elements derived from the source material are all present. While they don't come together in such a way that you walk into the theater lobby feeling as if your life will never be the same, they do form a coherent, enjoyable genre piece that will put a smile on your face, assuming you enjoy the genre itself and don't walk in with impossible expectations. Easily worth the price of admission, and a great way to kill two hours if you've nothing better to do.