Directly released on video in 2009, the action film “The Punisher – War Zone” is one of the feature films most viewed by French Netflix users this week.
This week, on Netflix, The Punisher – War Zone, reboot of the action film The Punisher directed by Jonathan Hensleigh in 2004, comes in fifth position among the most viewed feature films on the famous platform by French subscribers.
A fairly surprising result when we know that this new opus was among our selection of 10 films that Marvel would prefer to forget for various reasons.
Directly released on video in France in 2009, War Zone marks the third adaptation of the famous comic book created by Gerry Conway in 1974. Indeed, the merciless vigilante with particularly muscular methods had already been entitled to two appearances in the cinema: first in 1989, in the guise of Dolph Lundgren, then in 2004, played by Thomas Jane.
In this third feature film, unlike the previous two in which it was Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) who engaged in a merciless crusade to avenge his murdered family, the anti-hero is here pursued by the godfather of the underworld Bill Russoti (Dominic West), whom he left for dead. Back under the pseudonym Jigsaw, completely disfigured, his enemy sets up a veritable army to get rid of him.
Lionsgate
If War Zone is considered more of a reboot than a sequel, it is firstly because it suffered numerous complications when it entered production, particularly concerning its main actor.
Indeed, actor Thomas Jane, deploring a scenario that was too watered down and not dark enough, preferred to withdraw from the project in favor of Ray Stevenson. As for director Jonathan Hensleigh, he also left the ship, replaced by ex-stuntwoman Lexi Alexander.
Despite these repeated changes, the final result turns out to be of a quality quite similar to that of the two previous feature films (the three films obtained an average rating of approximately 2.4 out of 5 from spectators) .
But if Marvel would like to forget this latest opus, it is first and foremost because of its catastrophic revenues (barely 10 million dollars collected for a budget of 35 million).
If you like the character of Frank Castle, we recommend that you opt for the two seasons of the series The Punisher (available on Disney+), worn by the excellent Jon Bernthal from 2017 to 2019.
(Re)discover the trailer for the series…