Punisher: War Zone Movie Review

If you like lots, and I do mean lots, of mindless violence and blood splatter, then you are going to love this movie. The violence with which Ray Stevenson plays the Punisher goes so over the top at times that it actually becomes a bit comical. In one scene, three criminals are jumping across rooftops after robbing and slaughtering a grocery store owner. As one of them is in mid-air, you see this rocket out of nowhere blow him up. The way the scene is done just makes you laugh which I think was intentional in this particular case.

If you’re looking for a movie with any type of serious or well thought out plot, then you will want to avoid this one. I guess you could say they tried to create some conflict with the Castle character when he accidently kills an FBI agent during one of his criminal slaughter rampages but when the 7-year old daughter of the slain agent instantly befriends Castle after he gives the girl a flashlight when he comes to their home to ask forgiveness, you can’t help but wonder if the FBI guy was a pretty bad father. Yeah, it was an accident and Castle was generally sorry about it, but do you really think someone of that age is going to forgive so easily? In a later scene with the girl, Castle is holding the girl in one arm while he blows a criminal away. Yes the girl was looking the other way when he did it, but she didn’t even bat an eye while this guy’s head is blown off in front of her.

Over the years, writers have had many different takes on the Punisher character and at times some of those interpretations have been very much like what we see in this movie, so I can’t tell you this is an unfair portrayal of The Punisher mythos. In fact, this might be the on-screen version closest to early Punisher stories that we have seen to date. For the first time, we see his behind-the-scenes partner Microchip (Wayne Knight) and the origins of his family’s death (seen in flashback scenes) is the closest to the way it happened in the comic books. One of the things I did not like about the Thomas Jane Punisher movie was how they butchered this part of the Punisher’s origins.
The movie’s main villain is a classic Punisher character named Jigsaw who has his face terribly disfigured thanks to the actions of the Punisher. Jigsaw who is played by Dominic West who comes off pretty much as a Joker reject with a psycho brother named Loony Bin Jim who likes to eat people.

As far as Punisher movies go, I will tell you that this is better than the 80’s Dolph Lundgren version but not as good as the more recent Thomas Jane version. Like I said in the beginning, if you’re into movies with lots of mindless violence and blood splatter than you are going to like this movie, otherwise you might just want to pass or wait until it comes out on DVD.