Now, the task is just to communicate that in the title.
I find Neeson's most recent film, set to be released this August, a particularly humorous example of that.
The title Retribution has almost a clinical, scientific quality to it. While the words "revenge" and "vengeance" both have a raw, bloodthirsty quality to them -- you can almost taste the blood -- "retribution" is the version of the word you'd see appearing in a legal document. Someone's motive in a crime seems much more suitable for court when it is described as "retribution" rather than "revenge."
Therefore, I would argue it doesn't roll of the tongue very well, which is one of the more important elements to consider when coming up with a title.
It also really feels like they just went to a thesaurus to see what other synonyms they could find for "revenge."
If that's the case, in the future you can expect the following Neeson movies to come out:
Reprisal
Repayment
Avengment (really?)
Reciprocation
Comeuppance
Requital
Counterplay
Counterblow
Satisfaction
All of those don't work equally well ... but most of them are still available.
Get them before Neeson does.
