[Blu-Ray Review] THE PUNISHER: WAR ZONE
Let’s get somethings out the way right now. First off, when I was younger I used to read a lot of comics (certainly more than I do now!) and I used to read The Punisher comics quite regularly. I’ve seen the awful Dolph Lundgren take on the character in the awful 1989 The Punisher directed by Mark Goldblatt (who went on to direct….er…an episode of Eerie, Indiana) and written by Boaz Yakin (who went on to write movies like The Rookie, From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money and the forthcoming Prince of Persia: Sands of Time). It really didn’t do the character justice.
Then came the 2004 version starring Thomas Jane in the role of Frank Castle/The Punisher. Yes, it did get some things wrong, like setting it in Tampa – the Punisher just seems to fit in the gritty world of New York so much better, and having John Travolta as the bad guy. But, overall, I really liked it and when it had finished I was looking forward to the sequal, which promised to move Castle to New York and possibly bring us the definitive movie version of the violent vigilante.
And there where such rumours – like Walter Hill wanting to take a crack at directing the movie, having it based around the storyline from the highly acclaimed Welcome Back, Frank by Garth Ennis etc etc. Unfortunately, this all came to naught when both original director Jonathan Hensleigh and Thomas Jane left the project. At that point Lionsgate Films and Marvel Studio’s rethought their position on the movie, had the script overhauled to make it another reboot and brought on Lexi Alexander to direct and hired Ray Stevenson (who is possibly best known at the moment for his role in the BBC’s Rome) to play the title character.
And at that point my heart dropped and I really lost interest in the movie. You see, I was mildly impressed by Green Street, Lexi Alexanders previous movie, but there was nothing on display during that movie that made me think she would be able to bring anything at all to the table for The Punisher: War Zone and I was also upset at the loss of Thomas Jane in the lead role, as I really liked him as Frank Castle.
But you have to approach movies as their own entity so, putting my preconceptions aside, now that I have had the chance to watch The Punisher: War Zone on Blu-Ray, did I actually enjoy it?
Well, let me give you an answer to that right away.
No, no I did not enjoy it at all.
The problems I had with it are many, but lets start with the positives shall we? Well, the first five minutes are really promising. The inital setup, with Castle tooling up and infiltrating a Mob party, lays initial promise that we might be in for an entertaining action movie. And then the lights go down during the Mob families meal, a flare bursts into light and the Punisher skull symbol flares up on Castle’s chest, but it has to be said it doesn’t pulse like it did in the trailers, and Castle sets about taking out the trash.
And it’s at that point that the movie goes downhill and never recovers. For a start, Castle takes somebodies head off with a knife, but I’ll let that one go. But then, when he realises that loads of Mob soldiers are about to burst into the room, he decides it would be a good idea to hang upside down from a chandelier in the middle of the room to take them all out in a hail of bullets!
And the movie never ever manages to recover from that moment.
Also, for some reason there is a Parkour gang introduced. Probably for no other reason than, because of movies like Casino Royale, all action movies have to have a parkour moment now!
It’s just a shame that they’re not really a very good Parkour gang, as their parkour just seems to be mainly jumping up and down and whooping.
Then there are the primary colours on display. I thought once or twice that I had inadvertantly put wrong disc into my PS3 and I was actually watching Batman & Robin. Either that or Joel Schumacher was giving Lexi Alexander lighting tips!
For a “grim and gritty” New York there seems to be way too much neon on display. And yes, I know there is more than enough neon in New York, it just seemed out of place here.
One thing that the movie does have going for it is the action. There is lots and lots of it, with many many people being taken out in a variety of different ways. According to the IMDB Castle’s total is 81 by the end of the movie! Not as impressive as Rambo’s 236 but still pretty impressive for a movie that only clocks in at just over 100 minutes long! Unfortunately, even this starts to get a bit jarring – and there are some moments that are just so damned over the top that I wish they’d cut down on the violence a little bit!
So what about the cast? Well, Ray Stevenson is pretty impressive as Frank Castle, even if he doesn’t say anything for the first 25 minutes (yes, that’s right), but his hatred of criminals for what they did to his family, told in flashback and closer to the comic books, is possibly equal to Thomas Jane’s portrayl. The problem is that he wasn’t given enough to develop this part of the character, or the effect that it is having on his soul, but in the one or two glimpses that we get you can see what could have been. Which, I have to admit, is actually really annoying.
As for the rest of the cast…..well, the makeup on Dominic West as the homicidal Jigsaw was very impressive, certainly standing up to the demands of high definition, but the problem was that the character just didn’t work. You need more than a cackling laugh and to kill people to bring a character like Jigsaw to life and, especially in a post The Dark Knight comic book world, West’s performance as Jigsaw is not a patch on what was achieved by Heath Ledger as the Joker.
And then there is the character of Jigsaw’s brother, James, played by Doug Hutchison. All that needs to be said is that he is referred to as “Loony Bin Jim” – which tells you everything you need to know about the character. Need someone to do something “crazy”? Well, just wheel out ol’ Loony Bin and you can do anything you want!
And let’s not forget Julie Benz as the widowed wife of an FBI agent accidentally killed by the Punisher. While she does give a good performance, you can’t help feel that the character is just a cypher for Castle to find his humanity again, especially with some of the things that occur during the movie.
Fans of the comic books might also be interested to know that the Punisher’s weapons expert Microchip is present in the movie – and it has to be said that Wayne Knight looks exactly like the character I remember from the comics. Interstingly, the character of Microchip was going to be in the 2004 movie, but director Jonathan Hensleigh couldn’t stand the character so excluded him. And, going by the way the character doesn’t really work here I cannot help feeling that it was the right choice.
As this is the Blu-Ray, it has to be said that the picture quality is impressive. The black levels are seriously impressive throughout, and even though the movie is predominently set at night it is easy to see what is happening without losing the realism of the blackness. Also, for the most part, the skin colours of the actors look suitable natural.
As for the sound it is presented in a lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track which easily handles the dialogue which is never overshadowed by the action and the surrounds are put through their paces with bullets whizzing past and other background noises.
The Extras
I haven’t had a chance to check out the extras on the disc yet, but as soon as I do I’ll update the review with my thoughts, but what you get are:
Audio Commentary with director Lexi Alexander and Cinematographer Steve Gainer
The Making of Punisher: War Zone featurette
Training to Become The Punisher featurette
The Weapons of The Punisher featurette
Meet Jigsaw featurette
Creating the Look of The Punisher featurette
It has to be said, there is much more wrong with this movie than there is right. There are certain moments where you can see a glimmer of what might have been, and they are seriously annoying as in the hands of a different writer or director then we might well have gotten a pretty definitive movie take on the Punisher. As it is, the 2004 effort is still the better movie. If you want my advice, then avoid it. If you absolutely have to check it out then I’d go for rental.
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47 Responses to “[Blu-Ray Review] THE PUNISHER: WAR ZONE”
Woah woah woah…but Parkour rules!
And that scene were he kills all of those Italians in the dinnertable was pretty cool
Thomas Jane is too GQ model pretty boy looking for Frank, Rey Stevenson has a more rugged look…and Lexi Alexander is also awesome. Jigsaw was cool too
I especially liked the part where he throws that guy with dreadlocks off a building and he gets stabbed in a huge fence and then frank jumps off and breaks his neck by stepping on it. That was so beautiful.
Sorry Haz, Warzone sucked!
Btw i’m nervous for transformers 2
Parkour in the movie was some of the lamest I’ve seen, I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but the rocket launcher kill funny. Also, while violence is cool for the most part it doesn’t do anything on repeat viewings.
I watched the 1989 one recently and the acting is a shit ton better in there than this one, which is just odd; Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Huchison, Dash Mihok, Colin Salmon all solid actors who are either playing it too broad, forced or over the top.
If you haven’t guessed it yet, I didn’t much care for this movie either, in fact it’s pretty much shit. I think Lionsgate ****ed up by not going with Walter Hill which ultimately led to Jane’s leaving (not to mention all the horrible scripts).
But I’m pretty sure Jane was having a nice chuckle after finding out this movie made less than Howard the Duck.
Also, a little bit of trivia the Punisher actually did head down to Florida in the comics to kill the people responsible for his families death, so it’s not as an out of place idea fan boys make it out to be.
True- I did laugh my ass off at the rocket part. But I always laugh at gore movies, when someone dies and theres blood I usually laugh…its just funny.
Im still laughing at the part were the black guy was going to handcuff the dude and then he was reading him his maranda rights and Castle shot him in the face with a shotgun….that was ****ing funny
“You have the right to rem-”
BAM!! SPLAT!
“****! He was mine!!”
xD
The freerunning on youtube is the best.Ive never seen a movie that has better freerunning.
Aaron
Well i walked into the theater expecting a dumb action movie that would entertain, and thats what it was for me, to some- it didnt even do that. But yes as a movie it was a piece of shit, but it was good for what i wanted out of it, blood and action =]
Aaron im watching ROTF tomorrow morning, when are you watching it?
Also, the accents what were the thinking? Just about everyone had one shitty accent or another in this movie.
I am most likely going to see ROTF tonight. Can’t wait!
Okay, im watching it in an hour, hopefully its good, im so scared itll suck!
Good luck, I know me too man. Happy Transformers lol
I saw War Zone finally on Monday and I admit I had a blast just watching the action. It’s just non-stop porno violence. I can’t put it any beter than that. I wish I’d had the chance to see it with a crowd because there are so many ‘ooooooooooooooooh’ moments.
But it is a bad film really. My biggest problem was how it fit that cliched formula we’ve seen from so many comic book movies. How many times have we seen the hero rescue the damsel (and family), take them to his hideout, leave them there to go hunt the baddies and come back later only to find they’ve invaded said hideout, kidnapped the damsel again and killed his friend who was looking after the place?
And how come Loony Bin Jim had more to do than Jigsaw?
Well, I tried. It was sold out. Then I get home to find the next showing was 7:00! But the thing on the internet set 9 PM
I’m so pissed
I saw it with a crowd Phil, and well they were pretty silent for the most part. Like I said upon first viewing the violence is pretty fun, but it doesn’t really hold up much on repeat viewings except for maybe one or two gags, it seems to want to reach for that Rambo level of violence but just kinda falls short.
As for the LBJ question Phil, I think all the answers fall on to it being a bad script. But here’s another question about LBJ Phil, was Doug Hutchison channeling his character from I Am Sam in this movie?
PHIL
Yup, couldnt have said it better myself, I went with my whole family and I admit the story was complete trash but the action was really good.
Aaron
No! Are you serious? That SUCKS.
I bought my tickets already, I saw it, it was ****ing amazing. I saw it with my friends and tomorrow with my family and Friday with my gf and her dateless best friend.
Id have to say it was amazing, the twins were completely irrelevant, people are overreacting about them way too much, in my opinion there was only one thing i didnt like, they made Starscream seem like a pussy…. he reminded me of Igor, the guy thats the inventors little bitch. But the rest was spectacular, Megan Fox never does anything that makes me go like “Oh no! shes ruining the movie!” like everyones saying, same with the twins
But I have a headache now because seeing it on IMAX was extremely beast.
I will never see an IMAX movie in 3D, IMAX is already too much, if i see an IMAX movie on 3D, i will puke.
IMAX was awesome though, but 2 1/2 hours of non-stop action left me lightheaded =/
JetFire FTW
Yeah it does suck. People in front of us got the last tickets
However, I’m seeing it tomorrow so…
But aweosme you loved it! You’re the second friend to tell me it was awesome, thanks for reassuring me lol.
If I don’t take it to serious then I’ll love it
Whaaat??? Haha..thats almost funny..although it isnt because thats so tragic
The whole theater clapped, all my friends loved it, i really dont get why it has a 30% on RT. I didnt found them good or bad (the twins) i found them to be a normal part of the transformers world, which is serious and cool mostly, but goofy at times. Everytime they opened their mouths the whole theater laughed or clapped…I didnt, its not MY humor, but i didnt hate them. Now i dont see what the deal is with everyone saying they were THAT bad. Megan Fox- every time she was on screen i heard guys whistling or making strange sounds with her mouths…like hissing or something “Sssszz”
She obviously isnt my tipe, but my point is…how did this movie get such a low rating if all the negative things they said about it seemed to be things people liked when i saw it?
And the positive, was great, people loved the action and the graphics.
I dont get it.
Half my friends saw it and we ALL agreed it owns, but all the web sites say it sucks….this is ****ing weird.
I agree, btw Hazmat it’s at 21 on RT, but 62 or something on the community, can’t wait for tomorrow and thank you for not saying it sucks lol
It’s horseshit.
Hazmat, I heard there was actually a transformer that had…..balls? Bay is sick. If it’s in there, I hope it’s not as graphic as Dr. Manhattan’s “hot dog special” in Watchmen lol.
Theyre just wrecking balls, Devastator.
I saw Dr Manhattans dick on IMAX too.
ok good lol, because I didn’t need…yeah lol. That’s one thing, correction, TWO things that I wish Synder would have cut out.
I’m seeing Transformers in 2 hours and 44 Minutes. Woo!!
I hope you like it!
I didnt mind, it was part of the comic book, he kept it pretty faithful to the novel.
Thanks man, I leave soon so…
Yep, he did. My favorite part (in he novel to) but mostly in the film was Dr. Manhattan on Mars with the beautiful cock structure spinning, then it rose and…oh man that part was amazing.
HAHAHAHAHAHAH lol i spelled that wrong so it came out wrong lol. CLOCK structure. Spell it right Aaron!! Damn! Anyway is it me or did Patrick Wilson not do as good as people give him credit for?
Ok, I saw it.
It was AWESOME. But, the had some MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR flaws. Every decepticon was wasted, Bumble Bee was wasted!! How and why the freak?? Anyway it was pretty good. 8/10
You do know theres message editing right? lol
There were WAY too many decepticons to name…it was RAINING decepticons, i could name all of those decepticons but it would be way too much to have them named in the movie, it would be a waste of time
SPOILEER ALERT!
Bumblebee was not wasted, he squeezed the “skin” off of Ravage and he de-splined Rampage, but that was after he tore his arm off with his knee, there were a lot of Autobots that also needed the spotlight, im glad they didnt give Bumblebee all the fight scenes, in the 1st one he had half the movie to himself.
Lol I do now.
Haz, you HAVE to agree The Fallen was wasted. Awesome film though.
Not really, no one that i know has ever heard of The Fallen, they never talked about him in the show and he was never in the comics
He was only briefly in those “The war of the dark ages” transformers show as a tank, and he got sucked into a black hole….he was only one of the many transformers that sided with Unicron and ended up dead. He was only somewhat relevant because hes one of the original 13 transformers
I will say this though
Starscream was not only wasted, but RAPED
RAPED.
At the end, when Megatron is hurt and screams for help “Starscream!”
I thought he was going to rip megatrons head off for being such a dick to him
If that were the real starscream, he would have killed Megatron, he was weak! he was injured! it would have been perfect timing to murder megatron! but no, he ends up being a little bitch and flies away. Like in the first one, he flied away. What. A. Little. Bitch.
That pissed me off so much, it would have been so epic if Starscream had some real balls and would have fought Megatron
I agree dude about starscream!
I’m just saying this about the Fallen: He’s the main villain. The FILM is titled after him, why have him in for like 15 mins? makes no sense. I’m gonna say Megatron was wasted too.
Here you probably think I’m crazy lol.
When Devastator transformed….BEAUTIFUL!!
The Twins were funny and not annoying, I mean you could technically call it a comedy. The action was awesome, and the graphics top notch. I was really surprised in the film, the entire middle, was almost little action, then it ends with like a 40 min action battle bang thing. I’m a little disappointed in terms of the Fallen but I really enjoyed it. John is being too critical on this one IMO.
I laughed at like..3 things the twins said. The not being able to read thing- I really dont think is racist at all, i mean cmon.
Campea finds them racist, thats cool, its his opinion, i found them to be funny sometimes, but most of the time i didnt care about them
I mean i hate stupid comedy, i hate spoof movies, but some of the lines the twins had were genuinely funny. But the twins werent meant to please the 40 year old dudes, today was the day i went ot see it with my family and my little brothers LOVED the twins. The twins were a way to balance the film to make it for everyone, sure, i would rather not have my little brother not say words such as “pussy” or “bitch ass” but they liked him
This movie had something probably everyone would like, I personally loved JetFire, he was badass beyond belief
I loved every moment Devastator was on screen, i just saw it today again…and…the crowd reacted the same way, they loved the twins, they (the dudes) loved Megan Fox, and there was clapping and cheering at the end. And i (again) woo’ed when JetFire was on screen
I even heard a “oh my GOD!” from a guy when Optimus spat out his tooth.
So its not a coincidence, ive now personally seen 2 completely full theaters love this movie.
Megan Fox cant act, and that Terminator chick was embarrassingly horrid, but the fact that they were hot cancels out all the negatives since most guys are tools. That and starscream were my personal negatives in this movie.
Transformers 2 is dogshit.
You know you can look for another Transformers related article on this site and, you know have a discussion there instead of derailing this one.
Just a thought.
Jesus Christ, all this TF2 talk…I gotta post my review tomorrow quick!
The terminator chick was hot yes, the whole college back story thing…ehh it wasn’t important. It was, but you know…
Btw it got 60 M on Wednesday
Okay, I’ve seen TF2 AND an early screening of PUBLIC ENEMIES and reviews are on the way!!!
I never liked The Punisher. I hated the first movie and avoided this one.
Early screening? Grr… lol
Ok cool, btw how’d you see an early screening?
They screened it in Raleigh on Thursday. A friend of mine got a pass and invited me along since he knows my deep affection for Johnny Depp.
That was nice of him, though he should have given me a pass. Lol
Yeah, if he doesn’t get a pass, I have a friend who is a film critic for NC State’s college paper, and he always gets into screenings and takes me as his plus-one.
Still surprises me how they reboot franchises so quickly these days, i thought both punisher movies were decidely average, but both for very different reasons, wonder what they are gonna do with the Fantastic Four reboot.
You have a critic friend? I must find him lol. Anyway that’s cool
Yeah Aaron, I had college classes with him and we were on the school film committee together.
Lucky. So when are the reviews gonna be up?
Hopefully tomorrow.
Ok cool
Holy shit holy shit holy shit it got $112 mil
And i predicted it would get over a hundo! Boo-ya!
I’ve come down with a another big case of the who gives a shit.
Lol Haz I predicted $102.8 for Transformers
Dude it’s already got $387.3 M worldwide.
Grr, sorry about the delay on those promised reviews. Today was a hectic day. I’m typing my TF2 review right NOW.
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