In the third reboot of the franchise, “Punisher: War Zone” seeks to distinguish itself as the most violent and merciless of the comic based films. This tendency towards gruesome deaths and random acts of violence instead pushes the film into self-parody. The action sequences are joyless and macabre, with the Punisher punching people through the head and stabbing chair legs into people’s eyes. Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson; HBO’s “Rome”), aka the Punisher, is supposed to be a normal man with a hunger for vengeance not a superhero gone insane. In this version, Stevenson may be physically imposing but his anti-hero won‘t garner viewers’ sympathies, with his painful inability to express himself and a lack of clear purpose.
On a positive note, “Punisher: War Zone” skews closer to the comic origins of the character than the prior incarnations. Castle has been living the life of the Punisher for five years by the time this story begins. The death of his family is seen in flashbacks, reminding the viewer of why Castle hates organized crime. At the beginning of the film, the Punisher interrupts a mob meeting and metes out his idea of justice on the participants. In a strikingly similar origin story to the Joker in Tim Burton’s “Batman,” the new mob guy Billy Russotti (Dominic West; “Hannibal Rising”) is scarred in his initial encounter with The Punisher, creating the disfigured maniac Jigsaw. Jigsaw releases his insane brother Looney Bin Jim from an asylum and determinedly seeks out the Punisher for revenge. Caught in this scheme are a widow and her child, who’s undercover agent husband/father worked under Russotti until killed by Castle during the raid.
The characters are criminally underdeveloped in this story. The widow and child are simply included as a plot device to make The Punisher question his methods and give him someone to protect. The viewer learns almost nothing about them during the course of the movie. Castle’s attempt to apologize and connect with the mother and daughter feels inauthentic and flat. The rest of the performances are either so over the top as to be cartoonish or so lifeless that the characters are easily forgotten. The villains are caricatures of what a comic book villain should be, especially Jigsaw. He can’t play the insanity game well with Looney Bin Jim getting the juicier role and has no apparent skill at leadership or planning, so he just keeps running his big mouth, making dialogue challenged proclamations.
Jigsaw and his brother lack impulse control and kill indiscriminately. They aren’t particularly threatening because they kill the person before threats become necessary. Overall, there is no spectrum to judge the major villains’ or the Punisher’s actions by. If anyone’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, its almost guaranteed that person will die and in the most gruesome way the director can think of. No one gets “roughed up,” knocked unconscious, or threatened; just dead. Without any barometer to measure the heroes’ or villains’ actions by, this constant overreaction becomes a joke.
The plot is predictable and unoriginal, with a finale involving a tied up mother and daughter for The Punisher to save from Jigsaw’s lair. Even the fighting scenes are rather run-of-the-mill when not overdone, except one battle between Loony Bin Jim and Castle which felt novel. This is one of the worst comic book adaptations released, to the point where some unintentional humor may be mined from its viewing. Though 2004’s “Punisher” may stray somewhat from the comic material, it is a better overall film and stands as the most successful version to date.
Rated R for pervasive strong brutal violence, language, and some drug use.
