Punisher: War Zone DVD: Review By SCREENWRITER

PUNISHER WARZONE

Okay, so I just watched the 2008 action film “Punisher War Zone”. It’s based on the Marvel comics and when I first saw this movie back in December in the movies, I hated it! Seeing it again on Comcast On Demand, I enjoyed a little more. The day I saw this the first time I must have been having a bad day or something. I mean, this movie isn’t excellent or even good in that matter. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone and I will probably never watch it again or even think about it for a while after this review. Back in 2004, Thomas Jane had a version for the “Punisher” series and it was excellent. “The Punisher” with Thomas Jane is probably one of the greatest MARVEL films there is but this one, eh, not even close. I did expect more from this. A lot more. All this movie really is, is blood and guts., The movie is actually kind of fun for the first thirty minutes but after that 100th kill the movie gets really old and stupid. With all the blood squishing and the guts being ripped open and the old ladies getting blown up, the movie is really over-the-top and quite ridiculous. Plus, the acting of Ray Stevenson is no near as great as Thomas Jane in this. Thomas Jane IS the Punisher, not Ray Stevenson. Ray Stevenson is good, but he will never be known as The Punisher in my book, Thomas Jane will always be my gun-totting action hero.

PLOT:

The plot? Is the plot of this movie even close to being as good as the first? No! Why do I even call this movie a sequel? Its not a sequel! This movie doesn’t even lead up to the first one! Since when does Frank Castle have a daughter AND since when do they die at a funeral! They changed AND ruined everything the first created! That’s one little plot detail I hated about “Punisher War Zone”. I guess this wasn’t mean’t for a sequel but they could of at least kept the story of his family the same for gosh sakes! Alright, here’s the plot:

Frank Castle continues his crusade of hunting down the bad guys and this time after a deadly end for a mob man, who calls himself Jigsaw soon enough, a deadly battle begins between the Punisher and Jigsaw. Once Jigsaw goes after a widow and her daughter, The Punisher fights in a deadly war he never expected to enter to save em’! The movie is filled with bloody violence, swearing, explosions, and over-the-top FAKE action! The plot to me is interesting, but that was mainly it. Most of the acting in this movie sucked and everything else was just a meh. The bloody visuals were cool but after seeing blood every two seconds it got to be all the same. This is by far the darkest MARVEL film and defiantly one of the worst. I don’t hate this movie but I also don’t love it.

ACTING:

The acting in this movie was pretty bad. Ray Stevenson was not that good as The Punisher. His emotion was the same the whole entire movie! He’d get shot and be fine. He’d talk the same way and keep the same serious face the whole friggon’ movie! It was a little ridiculous! The guy who played Jigsaw [I think his name is Dominic West, not sure] was horrible too! The mob accents in this movie sucked so badly that even I could do a better one in my sleep! Lol. Some of the acting was alright but most of it was just absolutely horrible. The lady who played the wife in this movie was pretty good but she wasn’t in the movie enough. I mean, she was a big deal in the movie but her lines were kind of limited. Lets just say, I expect more from the acting.

THE GOOD OF THE MOVIE:

The movie keeps you entertained. It has enough action but it gets old after a while. The plot of the movie was alright but that’s all I can say for the good of the movie.

THE BAD OF THE MOVIE:

The movie doesn’t lead up to the first one. Not at all. I know this wasn’t mean’t to be a sequal but this movie will confuse people that have seen the first one. They could have kept some elements the same. The Punisher never had a daughter in the 2004 version and there was need to make him have one in this. No need at all. All the elements made no sense towards the first. Plus, everything was just too insane and over-the-top. A lot of bad in this one.

VISUALS: [SPOILES KILL SCENES]

Good visuals? Yea. The visuals are cool but they are also a little ridiculous. I mean, all the bloody action looked cool but it was so fake! Exploding people and old women, cutting off heads, the blood making noises, ripping guts out of people, and punching trough someone’s face! Every kill in this movie was out of line. It was stupid. I mean, it was cool in the beginning but it just kept getting dumber and dumber. The visuals were good if you like that kind of fake action and killing, but I didn’t like the bloody kill scenes most of the times so the visual rating for me is goanna have to be a 3.5.

DIRECTION:

The direction was okay. I hated some of the backgrounds though. Like when Jigsaw and his brother tried to build an army and they had a American flag background behind them. THAT was wicked stupid! It was corny humor. Plus, you can obviously tell that this movie was not shot in New York City. You can tell by most of the outside scenes that this wasn’t in New York City. The direction was fine, I guess but nothing great. 3.5 stars.

OVERALL:

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend it. It killed an hour and 43 minutes but this is not even close to being as good as the Thomas Jane version. Not close at all. I would watch this on TV or if a friend let me borrow it, but I made the mistake of seeing this in the movies and renting it again for another view. Even though I liked it better on the small screen than I did the first time I saw it, I still wouldn’t recommend this.

OVERALL GRADE: D+

My Rating System:

5 Stars= A

4.5 Stars= B+

4 Stars= B-

3.5 Stars= C+

3 Stars= C-

2.5 Stars= D+

2 Stars= D-

1.5 Stars= F+

1 Star= F-

0 Stars= Z [No Effort]

-THE SCREENWRITER