Originally Published: December 8, 2008, on 1050ESPN.com (now ESPNNewYork.com)
And for your own sake, you had better hope he thinks you’ve been good, otherwise…BAM! Marvel Comics has felt that to help get us all in the spirit, why not treat us with the release of the most blood-thirsty, most gory, most over-the-top, brutal display there has been in theatres, since, possibly, ever. Just in time for the holidays, Punisher: Warzone has been released into theatres. Blood red is a Christmas color, right?
When told about this movie, you are not expecting much because this is the third iteration of the Punisher in the past 20 years with the last one coming in 2004. Marvel did not openly say this was a sequel to that Punisher, but it did come up with a concurrent plot from the last movie so this movie will be treated as a direct sequel by most comic aficionados.
This time around Ray Stevenson (from HBO’s Rome) plays the death-dealing, skull-wearing, anti-hero with his own sense of justice. It is hinted that this movie takes place in current times so it can be assumed that it is about four-six years further down the line in the Punisher timeline from the last movie. Still haunted by the murder of his family by the mafia, Frank Castle continues his one man rampage as the Punisher against those the law cannot prosecute. Castle is so sick of the red tape that he figures he would show that he has nothing personal against the color.
At this point he has desensitized himself so much that all he has is his mission: to obliterate those he deems worthy of punishment. Those who are helpful to the mission, like his arms dealer, Microchip (sitcom veteran, Wayne Knight), are the only contact he has with the real world as he continues his personal war.
After an impressive opening scene to set the gory tone of the movie, Castle hears from a sympathetic cop that the mafia has bought off the docks at a glass recycling plant for the evening and that something big could be going down. With a chance to take down one of the mafia’s higher lieutenants, Castle jumps at the chance.
In the firefight that ensues upon his arrival, Castle accidently takes out an undercover FBI officer and, enraged that he crossed his own personal line by taking out one of the good guys, he takes out his ire on Billy the Buete, a mafia lieutenant more concerned about his looks than his earnings. Poor Billy ends up on the bottom of a glass grinding machine and has all the skin ripped off of his face. We’ll say he doesn’t take well to the skin grafts and born is JIGSAW (played by Dominic West from HBO’s The Wire; is there anyone else wondering if the casting director has premium cable?).
Driven to the brink of insanity, Jigsaw begins his own war, against the Punisher. He recruits every gangbanger, thug, lowlife, and his insane brother (and third tier Marvel villain) Loony Bin Jim in an attempt to take down the greatest threat to the new mafia empire Jigsaw wishes to build.
As a die-hard comic book geek, whenever a new comic book movie comes out, I admit it will be scrutinized a little more than a regular movie simply because the storyline has already been written out. Punisher: Warzone holds up to these impossible comic storyline standards relatively well.
The Punisher lays waste to every lowlife he sees without any remorse or even a second thought. Since this is an older, more hardened Punisher than in the last movie, this is very accurate to the comics. The Punisher is a merciless vigilante who takes the law into his own hands at every turn. A Vietnam veteran trained in many different forms of combat and nearly every handheld firearm known to man, Frank Castle uses his extreme training to bring about an extreme form of justice. And from the get-go, that’s the best way to describe this movie: extreme.
The Punisher is, simply, a killing machine that does not stop until the credits roll. It is a 1 hour and 47 minute bloodbath with overkill being the favored method of doom for the thugs unfortunate enough to be “punished”. It is so over the top that most of the people in the theatre, myself included, just broke out laughing during the movie.
The characters in the movie and what happens to them is very accurate in terms of the comic, as well, except for Jigsaw. How The Punisher deals with Jigsaw in the end was never done in the comics and really irritated many fans of the series, although it did follow in line with how things were going with the overkill in the movie.
Another low point was how many ideas were seemingly stolen from other action movies. No “bullet time” effects were used (as if we haven’t seen enough of those in the last few years), but The Punisher hanging himself off a chandelier and spinning around, unloading bullets into mobsters as he goes was stolen directly from The Boondock Saints. At least it was stolen from one of the best action movies of recent history, but still, stealing is stealing and Punisher: Warzone’s score gets punished because of it.
Another irritating detail was that in the middle of the night, The Punisher would be walking down 6th Ave., with all his guns on display, for the entire world to see. Boy! Doesn’t Plaxico Burress wish he lived in that world right now? What was the costume designer thinking? A trench coat would have been “too much of a stretch”? Because him walking around with an AK-47 and several Berettas on display in the middle of New York City gives a great sense of realism.
Aside from those gripes, if you’re looking for a movie to just vegetate in front of for a while, Punisher: Warzone would succeed. For the most part, the movie does give you a pretty accurate depiction of the Punisher from the comics and sometimes you just need a movie chock full of mindless violence and enough fake blood to fill the Mississippi River. The acting was fairly solid: Stevenson was passable, Dominic West was great as Jigsaw, and all the rest of the cast did a great job supporting the two headliners.
If you’re looking for an action movie with a minimum of dialogue and more explosions than you can count and need an alternative from the happy, cheery, romantic comedy that seems to dominate this time of year, then this movie is not a bad choice. If you’re a die-hard of the series, then you’ll just walk away nodding your head with satisfaction. I can see this becoming a late night, B-movie classic in no time.
Punisher: Warzone gets: 2.5 out of 5.
-Ray Carsillo
RayCarsilloWrites.com 