The Best We've Got
Poor Punisher. He hasn't been treated with any respect in other media. The worst offender (that I've seen) is the 2004 Punisher movie with Thomas Jane. I originally got that and War Zone at the same time, and I watched the Jane one first. The only thing close to positive I can say about that movie is the costume looked pretty cool. I quickly got rid of War Zone, and seeing the type of reviews it got, I never looked back.
Fast forward to 2013. It's been kind of boring, I love the Punisher even more than before, and I want some new movies to watch. So, I did it. I got Punisher: War Zone to watch, and see if it's as bad as people say it is.
The Good
- The Acting - The acting in this movie is pretty good overall. There are a few times where it's awful, but I'll complain about that later. Ray Stevenson is good as The Punisher (Frank Castle) Colin Salmon was great in his role as Paul Budiansky (a character I don't remember from any comics), Dominic West was great as Jigsaw, I though Dash Mihok did a really good Martin Soap, Wayne Knight played an amazing Microchip (Linus Lieberman) (I know I've read comics with him, but I forget what he was like in the comics), and pretty much the entire cast was really good.
- The action - The action of this movie is really good. Just some awesome moments, and not much more to say about it.
- Martin Soap - I really wasn't going to go into the individual characters for the film, but I had to point out Soap. He was simply amazing in this film. Like Microchip, I vaguely remember him from the comics, but don't remember too much (man, I need to stop reading Avengers and read more Punisher). However, he was simply a great character in this film that I loved. Won't go too much into him, but he was just great in the film.
- Paul Budiansky - I looked it up, and apparently he appeared in five comics. But that's the most information I can get from the character (I'll have to check the site's wiki when I'm done. Why do I always forget about that?), so I assume he never had any significant role at any point. Anyway, I just thought he was an amazing character in the film. Again, not much to say, just thought he was a fantastic character.
- Humor - I've read a little about people's thoughts on this movie, and I've noticed most complained about humor. With the exception of one (which we'll get to later), I thought they were fine and I didn't feel humor was a major thing in the movie. There were some jokes (most of which I didn't laugh at), but I didn't think this was a problem with the film.
- Skipping over the origin story - It may not be original (The Incredible Hulk did it first), but it works. The 2004 Punisher movie showed the origin (from what I remember), and it SUCKED. Punisher: War Zone does not show the origin (they show how he becomes Punisher, they just don't waste time with a 50 minute origin story), and it was pretty good. This is a lesson all reboots need to learn: We don't need the origin story again! Hulk & The Punisher were awful movies that showed the origin. The Incredible Hulk and Punisher: War Zone are very good reboots that skip the origin. The only good reboot that did the origin again is Batman Begins! Hopefully Man of Steel does the origin story well, but I'm beginning to rant and get off-topic, so I'm just going to stop.
The Bad
- The costume - Punisher's costume just looks REALLY bad in this film. It does still have his classic skull which is good, but it's still an awful costume. I can however give this a little bit of leniency since it is realistic (someone like the Punisher would need a big armor, but it's still frustrating to see a costume this bad.
- A Bit too violent - Yes, it's the Punisher. I realize it's suppose to be violent, I'm not an idiot. But it just got a bit too graphic in certain scenes. The movie is overall still watchable, but there are some moments where I'm forced to look away, it just gets too graphic. There probably are people who don't care, but this is just a little problem I had.
- Sometimes the acting could be a bit awful - Overall the acting in this movie is pretty good. However, there's a selection of scenes where the acting is just plain awful. It's like when they were shooting these scenes, the actors just stopped caring, until later caring again during later parts of the film. I just hate when the movie is really good, then one scene comes along and ruins everything.
- The final line - WARNING! SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!!! They don't spoil the plot, but do contain what the final scene includes (I would put a spoiler block, but I can't for some reason. Was that taken away to do in reviews? That sucks):
The final scene of the movie is overall good. Frank and Soap are walking and Soap tries to convince him to give up being the Punisher. Frank disappears and someone attempts to mug Martin. On a roof of a nearby building, Punisher appears, and the lights dim so you can see nothing but the Punisher's skull. As the screen fades to black, you hear a gunshot, showing that the mugger has become another victim of the Punisher. Before the credits role, Soap says "Great, now I got brain splatter all over me." WHY THE F*CK WOULD YOU END THIS FILM LIKE THAT!?!?! A DARK, VIOLENT, AWESOME FILMS ENDS WITH A BAD JOKE?!?! WHAT THE F*CK WERE THEY THINKING!?! I've heard pieces of criticism for the film that it has too much humor, and I didn't notice too much and though what they did was fine, but that just ruins the entire film! They could of just cut that one line out and it would of ended perfectly, giving one of the most epic endings to a film I've ever seen. Yet they ruin it for a bad joke. WHY!?! Sorry about the rant BTW. I just really hated that. Let's just move on.
And it's not a flaw, but there was one problem with Microchip. I know Wayne Knight as Newman from Seinfeld. I couldn't stop thinking of Newman whenever Linus was there. Whatever the situation, I just kept thinking "Hello, Newman." Not a problem with the film, just a little something that messed me up while watching.
Conclusion
This is an entertaining film to put on at times when you're bored. It's not as good as other Marvel movies, and is by far the worst superhero film in 2008 (but it has Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, and The Dark Knight to go against), but it's still a pretty good film and is BY FAR the best Punisher film we've gotten. However, it still isn't the completely epic Punisher film I was hoping for. It sucks that this film wasn't successful, cause we could of gotten an awesome sequel (Punisher: War Journal?), or when Marvel got the rights back, we could of gotten an awesome Punisher reboot. Oh well. Hopefully after Avengers 2 Marvel decides to start making a "Marvel Knights Cinematic Universe" that has the perfect Punisher movie.
Overall, if you're squeamish, I do not recommend Punisher: War Zone. If not and you love the Punisher (the character, not the movie), I recommend this movie, but don't expect some epic that's on par with The Avengers (you can read my review for that here).
My Final Rating: 3.5/5
PLEASE NOTE: I'd like to give this a 3.5/5 rating (as you can see with my final rating). However, the redesign has taken away the ability to give rating which use half a star, and I don't feel it deserves 4/5, so I had to give it 3/5 (which I feel is too low).
Also, sorry if you're disapointed with this review. I admit I rushed it to get it posted.