The Punisher is a bit of an anomalous comic book creation. Inspired by 70s revenge movies such as Death Wish, his rise to infamy can perhaps be attributed to three factors. Firstly, he was a gun-waving psycho in an age when the comic book antihero was still relatively fresh. Secondly, he killed his enemies, which during the reign of the comic code was deemed pioneering. Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, he was one of a (then) handful of “superheroes” who wasn’t exactly super. Even Batman had a costume, an elaborate Batcave and hi-tech gadgetry. Frank Castle had a skull-emblazoned T-shirt and an uzi.

It’s the latter of those above elements, the regular hero battling a fantastical world, that has been absent from all three of the Punisher’s movies so far. It’s also indicative of why both this new cinematic incarnation and its predecessors have failed to varying degrees. Take the Punisher out of the Marvel Universe and his rampage of vengeance on the gangsters that killed his family (and beyond) offers no more than any other violent revenge-driven actioner.

Stylistically at least, Punisher: War Zone comes closest to the character yet. The 1989 Dolph Lundgren vehicle was a lifeless straight-to-video Batman cash-in, while the 2004 follow up had an agreeable 70s vibe to it but wandered from the character’s origins and provided little of the action that its bloodthirsty audience demanded. War Zone, unrelated to either movie, has leapt a decade forward from there, and is a decidedly 80s movie in character. It is also undeniably violent, exploitative and mindless; but in the case of this franchise that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.