Former soldier and FBI man Frank Castle (exit Dolph Lundgren, enter Baltimore native Thomas Jane of “Deep Blue Sea” and “Dream-Catcher”, who’s about six or seven inches shorter than Dolph Lundgren but still pretty buffed up and also a naturally blond man having dyed his hair black to match the character’s appearance in the comics) has retired from the action and is looking forward to living a quiet life with his wife and kid. While attending a family reunion at the beach (Roy Scheider plays his dad) Frank’s family is attacked by assassins sent by Howard Saint (John Travolta) to avenge the death of one of his sons from Frank’s last mission. In a shot similar to the original “Mad Max” (1979), Frank’s wife and son are brutally run over with a giant truck while his father, brothers and in laws are gunned down. After being beaten to a pulp and shot in the chest and nearly blown to bits, Frank is saved by a local and nursed back to health. Naturally, he is enraged at the heartless murder of his family and goes after Howard saint, his wife, son, and secretly gay lawyer, thirsting for revenge. He sets up his base of operations in a run down building with three misfit neighbors – a sexy but unloved waitress, a guy with lots of piercings in his face, and an over weight Asian guy.

In many ways closer to the comic book than the earlier film, this one manages to get the skull shirt in there and remembers to at least mention that Frank was originally a soldier before going and making him a cop/FBI guy. Thoug Thomas Jane is not as physically imposing as Dolph Lundgren, he still manages to be a fairly menacing yet sympathetic figure. John Travolta delivers his usual joyful villain routine. Rebecca R-Stamos of the X-Men films (and yes, I know she’s separating from her husband John) plays the sexy but unloved waitress who’s spent the last few years trying to keep undesirable men out of her panties but once she gets an eyeful of Frank she wants to get into his pants because he’s a strong, confident Alpha male who sticks up for the underdog and tries to steer Frank away from his suicide new life style. Rebecca is okay in this role, certainly no worse than any other comic book movie love interest.

One thing that surprised me about this film was how much humor was in it, whether it was Frank’s fight with a giant blond Russian thug or his torturing the informant to be by threatening to blow torch him while actually burning a thing of meat while poking him in the back with an ice pop (“You are not a nice person.”). Also worth noting is Frank’s response to being told that obviously he’s upset: “I used to get upset when I had a flat tire… when a plane was delayed… when the Yankees won the series…” Still, despite this humor, the film is never as ridiculously unbalanced as “Daredevil” or as disconnected as “Hulk” (both released in 2003). I was also expecting a little more violence, but all in all I was satisfied with what I got.

So far this is probably the best of the non-X-Men/Spider-Man Marvel movies. Of course, studios have a tendency to NOT give the lesser known characters a suitable running time to establish who they are because they ARE lesser known and try to compensate by making them fast paced. Once studios learn not to do this, better superhero films will become more common.