Ok, fuck The Spirit, fuck Hulk, fuck Hellboy, fuck even the Dark Knight. I just caught this trailer before Wanted (a poor man’s Matrix, a Sudan-destitute refugee’s Fight Club), and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Holy Shit. This could be everything the craptacular, Tom Jane-led 2004 Punisher was not: brutal, dark, violent, relentless. OH, and it’s Rated R — a definite crapshoot for Marvel, who’s never strayed into R territory, especially with such a marquis title.

As much as I thought Jane could portray the steel-jawed, morally unhinged, lawless vigilantism of the inimitable Frank Castle, the first Punisher just sucked balls. Not cos of Jane really, moreso cos A) they hired the gayest man in Hollywood to be the bad guy (Travolta), and B) they inexplicably changed Castle’s hunting grounds from New York City to…Florida??? This version however, brilliantly casts Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle. Ever since he played Titus Pullo in HBO’s remarkable and under-rated Rome series, I was hoping Stevenson would land something worthy of his acting (anyone remember that scene where he had to strangle his mistress to death, after she admitted murdering his wife? One of the best scenes in HBO history I shit u not). And now he’s got it: Frank Fucking Castle. Big Kudos to whoever had the guts to make that decision.

Although some of the scenes in the trailer look a bit questionable (hang upside down from a chandelier much?), the anger and unfathomable bile that is Castle finally seems to have seen daylight. Or at least celluloid light. We’ll see of course, but this could be a doozy…