punisher: war zone review

i was rather concerned with this new punisher: war zone movie. i am still traumatized from watching the dolf rungren film in the 80s (as an 80s action film it was perfectly fine, but to call it "the punisher" fucking FAIL). the last punisher film with thomas jane made up for that abortion of a film. sure it deviated from the comics a greta deal but did a great job of keeping the spirit of the thing. the trailers for war zone looked full of grade A cheese and i was not looking forward to this. till i got the call that a reliable source saw it and it was good. i had to see it for myself.

i love it when movies start off in the middle of things. the punisher has already been out for a bit and everyone knows he kills criminals dead. that's all he does. like the terminator. sure the police "offically" are trying to catch him, but deep down inside, they love him. he can do the things they cant do. paying the price they wont. he even takes sick glee in the creation of jigsaw (slight comic deviation, but acceptable). jigsaw at the plastic surgeon smacks of the joker in tim burton's batman. let this be a lesson to all plastic surgeons, if you ever have to operate on an insane and deformed criminal, just save time and inject that needle full of air into your arm ASAP. i also do not remember jigsaw having A)  a brother and B) said brother being a cross of hannibal lector and the joker.

at least they did a great job of making all these evil doers rememberable and with a unique reason for you to hate them and cheer ol' frank castle on as he puts out their lights. everyone from the stereotypical mobster with his fuck up, emo, coke-head son (oh do not get me started on him. i think it is a him. cannot be too certain with emos) to the carribean parkour catburlars. the sheer amount of gore and vicera flying in the air is on a new scale of awesome. the only place to see more human gibblet pieces in an a B grade horror movie. heads were exploding every other minute. it was great. this was blooder than every other marvel studios movies, combined.

some weak spots i found were the expressedly cheesy parts. hanging from the chandlier, spinning and shooting mobsters by the roomful in slow motion has been done to death. no more, i beg of you. jigsaw's pimp walk with patton-esque speach. and frank's little talk with a priest at what looks to be limelight in new york city (party monster, yeah!). all that i could do without, but what do you expect in a balls out action flick? wherehas i know why punisher has microchip and understand that dynamic, it leaves the non-comic book fan a little in the dark. they are left wondering why he is helping punisher so directly.

personally, i felt the climax of the film was not in the last 15 minutes, but in the first 30. you see, punisher is not out there to punish the bad guys. he is so guilt ridden from his family's death he really punishing himself by fighting a war that will never end, hoping that one day either some street punk gets lucky or a good guy is there the day he fucks up. he is only human.

 

i give it a bloody thumbs up on account i sliced my thumb open on accident shortly after watching it.

 

ps fanboy momment of the year is the brad street hotel. if you know, you know.