Punisher: War Zone – Review

Reviews, Top Story

Even the most ardent action film fan isn’t going to like this


Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com

Director: Lexi Alexander
Notable Cast:
Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Julie Benz, Wayne Knight, Dash Mihok, Colin Salmon, Doug Hutchison, T. J. Storm, Mark Camacho, Keram Malicki-Sánchez

The Punisher as a comic book hero is a relic of a bygone era. Rising as an anti-hero in the wake of movie characters like Dirty Harry, The Punisher is a violent sociopath with no real regard for others. It’s hard to figure him as a hero; he’s more of a visceral attitude towards the criminal subculture, wanting to punish them in the most basic way possible. So watching a film like Punisher: War Zone becomes more of the sort of action film that is to the genre that Hustler Magazine is to serious journalism.

Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) has traveled to New York since last we saw him in The Punisher, except then he was played by Thomas Jane, and with a new actor in the role comes a new direction. Gone are the more James Bond style escapades and inserted into the mix is the violent sociopath Castle is in the comics. There is no rest for the wicked as Castle continues his one man war against the mob. Aided by an NYPD that idolizes him for his brand of justice, and a supplier (Wayne Knight) who sees Frank as a sort of crusading angel, he finds a new enemy to confront. Billy Russoti (Dominic West) is the new head of the mob and, after being disfigured into the legendary Punisher archenemy Jigsaw, picks a fight with Castle that ends in a spectacularly brutal shootout.

Punisher: War Zone works in the same manner that The Incredible Hulk did earlier in 2008; it’s a sequel that’s also trying to reboot the franchise at the same time. With Thomas Jane not returning to the role, Stevenson takes the same path to the character that Jane and Dolph Lundgren did before. No smiles, no emotions and plenty of physicality to the part. It’s not a noteworthy role and is identical to anything Steven Seagal has done in the last decade. And that seems to be a recurring theme.

Punisher: War Zone is direct to video quality in terms of its acting, direction and story but with a big screen budget. Everything looks great, especially the action sequences, but there’s nothing special to it. It exists for the sake of existing as opposed to existing to tell a grand story or make a contemplating on the nature of justice. It’s a big, dumb action film with an emphasis on dumb over anything else. Many parts of the film that are meant to be serious are laughably bad. For hardcore fans of Steven Seagal, this is your film. For everyone else, it’s a dumb action film that somehow manages to make The Incredible Hulk look like Citizen Kane.

FINAL RATING (ON A SCALE OF 1-5 BUCKETS):