Punisher: War Zone Movie Review
Monday, December 8th, 2008Punisher: War Zone stars an older Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) in his battle against the criminal Jigsaw (Dominic West). I’m a little ashamed to admit that I enjoyed this movie. Despite all of its faults, it possessed small charms that kept me entertained. But boy, were there a lot of faults.
One of the things that the theatrical releases of the 1989 and 2004 Punisher movies didn’t (or weren’t allowed to) embrace was the brutality that is a by product of a one-man-war. For the most part the first two movies were kept clean. Punisher: War Zone exists in violent excess. It quickly became apparent that the point of the movie was the violence, which left everything else struggling to make a difference. The dialogue was terrible, the plot had continuity and feasibility issues, and military tactics were hardly considered. The fight choreography was well done, but the Punisher’s entrance strategies and order of targets weren’t organized for optimum efficiency. The Punisher should be a well oiled machine, not a loose cannon. The movie aptly depicted Frank Castle’s brutal capabilities, but that was the only thing they explored that was treated with cinematic importance. Every fight scene lingered a little too long on the blood, which took away from the desired serious tone, and made the movie a special effects display, more than a movie.
I’m not exaggerating about the dialogue. Frank Castle actually says, and I quote, “Don’t you die on me.”
The incredible amount of violence became comedic as the movie progressed. It was basically a grind house movie crossed with 80s camp, and the filmmakers knew it. Through dark humor and sudden gore, the comedy in the violence became the focus of the movie. Some gags were more successful than others. The humor is the most interesting part of the film. Some jokes are too obvious, but aside from those, they’re mostly enjoyable.
The most intentionally comical (and unfortunately unsuccessful) aspect of Punisher: War Zone is the villains. Not only is Jigsaw difficult to take seriously, but so are all of the criminals in the movie. All of them are over-the-top clowning criminals. Jigsaw looked scary, which adds to the gory display of makeup and special effects, but his inherent frightfulness is distracted from by his intentionally humorous portrayal. The use of stereotypes in mafia movies is inevitable and ultimately forgivable. However, these characters weren’t stereotypes. They were caricatures. It takes away from their believability. Some dark humor is successfully spawned from the over-the-top characters, but not enough to merit the use of caricature criminals.
Punisher: War Zone, like its two predecessors, struggle to find Frank Castle’s characterization. In all three they try to find the humanity of the Punisher. Ray Stevenson effectively portrays the attitude. Had the script been better, Stevenson would have been even better. The problem with most Punisher interpretations is that they don’t understand what a man has to essentially be to become the Punisher. They treat the Punisher as the most talented vigilante, which he is. But what they fail to grasp is the Punisher is essentially insane. The Punisher is a monster in a man’s body. Punisher: War Zone treats him as a man, who for the sake of the innocent, feels obligated to kill criminals. This becomes too apparent as the plot unfolds. Early in the movie the Punisher decides to give up being the Punisher, because he made a mistake and feels his crusade is no longer a noble effort. The plot then becomes bent around convincing Frank Castle to stay a vigilante. This is incredibly silly. Before this would have any agreeable affect on the audience, it would first need to convince the audience that the Punisher’s murderous morality is a noble effort. If the protagonist can see that what he’s doing is wrong, then so will the audience. It’s a useless attempt to humanize the Punisher. There is no way Castle, particularly the Garth Ennis version of Castle, which the film was based on, would give up vigilantism. The best way to humanize the Punisher is to explore Castle’s mental state: to make him aware of his own monstrosity, and have him battle with the insane personal necessity of his life as the Punisher.
The Verdict: If your major reason for seeing a movie is detailed displays of gory violence, then this movie is worth seeing. If you’re a comic book fan, I’ll tell you, it’s not nearly as a bad as Catwoman; you might have a good time. If you like deep insightful character driven movies, you should probably skip this one.
-Vince
