Punisher War Zone

Punisher War Zone

Based on Marvel comics,

This is an action film that shouldn't be taken seriously, trust me what you need to leave at home is reality and logic, because there is none of that here! The action is also a no-brainer. People think this is a direct sequel to the 2004 movie, but nope this is a reboot of the comic based on the title of the movie.

I always find that Marvel never treat The Punisher like their own character,  they focus their main attention on Spiderman, Hulk or X-Men. The movie wasn't hyped as I first hoped. when I first saw the trailer everyone was going nuts for the movie as it featured music by metal band Ramallah. I was so excited as I never thought they never make another Punisher movie. I waited for 4th Febuary 2009 for the movie to arrive.

I had a very hard trying to find a cinema that was screening this movie. This is due to quiet advertising and a comic not popular with its critics. I mean, what super powers does the Punisher possess? He has none, he was a war veteran, this guy becomes the Punisher when his family are gunned down by a mob who get revenge on Frank Castle for preventing a crime something to do with gun trading, I remember this to be used in the 2004 movie with Thomas Jane in the starring role so my knowledge of the comic series is pretty useless so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, I finally found a cinema that was showing War Zone, first thing I've noticed that Thomas Jane is not Frank Castle in this movie, he is replaced by Ray Stevenson, from the acclaimed 'Rome' made by BBC. My first impression of Stevenson was, he looks the part, he acted ok for a role that has little dialogue. He did a good job but I wondered if Thomas Jane would carried on with the role, how the character would have been.

The whole movie is much more darker, moodier and certainly more violent than previous punisher films, but not as violent as Rambo 4, the whole last 11 minutes in Rambo says it all! Punisher War Zone had one problem in making the violence true to life; anyone that got shot just fell down, in Rambo, whoever Rambo shot, an arm, a leg or even a head would fly off. Punisher had heads chopped off but they didn't fly off so that was a flaw in the violence level. Sticking with its violent nature, there are loads of pistol headshots and a lot of neck cracking twists which get a bit repetitive after a while!

Normally for a movie thats based on the comic, there would be something about how someone became this super... (well antihero for this movie) But not in this movie, it kicks straight to the action, however there are segments of flashback during the movie so new fans are safe here! The action kicks off in a party hosted by mob boss Gaitano Cesar, now you should notice that Frank Castle hates crime lords and mobs and do you think he's gonna drop in, well the lights go out and you can see the trademark skull and a flare shoots and there the Punisher stands tall on the table surrounded by the boss and guests, so when is the action gonna happen? Well after a few seconds, Cesar gets beheaded, a woman's neck gets snapped! Punisher kicks someone in the face and throws knives at various people around the table, for some reason the lights mysteriously turn back on, the Punisher commences to guns and there heads and body shots kick in.

There is a segment where people have moaned and bitched about where The Punisher goes upside down and hangs from a chandelier and spins and shoots (with unlimited ammo) with two pistols. I can understand why people hated this bit but what you have to remember is its an action movie and of course silly things will happen and as I mentioned, when you watch an action movie, you need to ditch the logic and reality and enjoy the carnage.

One segment where someone attempts to do a WWE chair shot to the Punisher particularly sticks in my head, what does that person get, a chair leg in the eye thanks to the kick from Punisher. There was a moment afterwards that made me cringe but think at the same time, but Frank Castle gets a broken nose and the way to fix it was with a pencil! Literally he shoved a pencil up this nostril and 3 cracks, its perfectly normal. Is that even possible? Medical people required here!!

We then focus our attention to Billy Russoti played by Dominic West. He escapes to his recycling plant hideout by Detective Saffiotti who along with Detective Martin Soap were staking out the party. Castle infiltrates Russoti's hideout and murders Nicky Donatelli. Castle ends up fighting Russoti and the result, being thrown into a glass-crushing machine. Castle, who has taken cover behind the body of Donatelli, realizes that the man he killed was an undercover FBI agent and thinks about retiring from his Punisher ways. After much plastic surgery and most of his face muscles being out of use, Russoti ends up being heavily disfigured. Thus becoming the movie villain, Jigsaw, he was a cool villian but his makeup remininded me of Chucky from Child's Play, so sometimes it becomes laughable. At this moment of the film, I normally forget about who Ray Stevenson is as he reminds me of Steven Seagal, also something that shouldn't had bothered me but it did in a big way, did the Punisher used to have a ponytail cause back shots of the antihero always thought of that, I'm not sure. There was one supporting character who I couldn't believe, but Wayne Knight is in the movie!! He plays Frank Castle's ammory sidekick Microchip, I like this actor but I don't think action movies are suited for him so his character wasn't all that to be honest, bit bland and boring but he does play a vital role to the movie I must say. Most of the other supporting characters were pretty lame, the problem I had with this movie was there was some many characters to watch that it got confusing as the supporting characters looked the same and had the cliched New York accent which sometimes I found amusing.

Jigsaw goes to collect his brother Looney Bin Jim, when I first saw him I thought he was going to be awesome with his quiet movement however when he acts crazy, it was funny because it was over the top and at the same time to me it didn't work.

The CGI in the movie was poor, I'm not a fan of CGI, cause its the lazy way for filmmakers and here is a good example.There are two moments which bothered me a lot, there was this gang trio who jump on the building getting away from cops and at one point, one does a back flip only to be ended up being blown up by a rocket launcher, the body parts just fly in random directions and it looked poor. Another example was near the end of the movie (but not the very end!) was just a random moment where Frank Castle kicks a door and some random fat man sitting there and his head gets shot and it looked cool but to be honest afterwards, it looked like something you could make in a computer program on your PC.

I always found the cops in the movie to be the dumbest of all the movies I've seen. Theres a moment where 2 cops go to check in Donatelli's house. Jigsaw and Looney Bin Jim and the gang hold Donatelli's family hostage while they tear the house apart looking for the money that Donatelli was in charge of. The cops knock on the door, Looney Bin answers, now at the point, wouldn't you be suspicious of a guy answering the door with scratches on the head and allowing them in the house. They are easily killed thanks to a baseball bat and a samurai sword through the stomach!

Around at this point there was a moment I couldn't help myself but to laugh at, basically 2 of the gang members are guarding the family, Budianski, who had been intending to capture the Punisher through the movie, goes in the house after the cops (who got killed earlier!) to check in and only to be captured himself, so Punisher goes in and kills 1 member and the cop captures the 2nd and hold him hostage while the Punisher claims the family, as Budianski starts to interview the member until a shotgun blast takes half his face courtesy of the Punisher!

Also I have to mention, the soundtrack of the movie is awesome, being a heavy metal fan myself, I was so hyped when a segment of Slipknot played when the gang are preparing for war against the Punisher.

I think the plot gets a little thin near the end. I don't think the script was written very well, not really much one liners you can remember from the movie. The ending is ok but predictable as you expect from action movies.

Overall it's not an oscar winning movie for sure, it wasn't a bad movie either it has its flaws. But remember what can you expect from an action movie, with production being rushed and a budget that wasn't incredible.

If your a action, comic book fan, its worth a look.

3/5 stars my rating