Punisher: Warzone (2008)
Vengeance has a name.
I remember seeing this movie in theaters and the theater was bustling full with just me and two other people in it. To be totally fair, I think it was more the quality of the theater seating meant people would rather be elsewhere than that particular one, It does still fall in one of those “I’m surprised I haven’t done this one” category It’s not the first, it’s not the last, but it is pretty fitting - tonight, we go and enjoy Punisher: War zone.
Or if you look at the picture on the box and think it says War Zone Punisher. Either way, this movie takes it’s stuff from comics - comics that I didn’t read, so you’ll have to seek elsewhere if you are looking for comparison data on how it adapts things. That said, as far as the movies go, this Punisher largely skips over re-treading an origin story, slipping it in a few moments and a few PTSD flashbacks. Instead, we get a violent vigilante in the midst of his career, already having racked up a substantial body count against the lawless scum of his city. His run gets a little complicated when during one such excursion he ends up killing an undercover fed, and the crime lord boss escapes death to wreck havoc amongst anyone with ties to the now-discovered fed who was amongst his ranks and the man who ruined his pretty face. It’s a betting list as to who will survive good or bad as it all points to one big final confrontation.
The characters are there, but it also feels a bit subdued. You get the feeling that the character of the Punisher has a bunch to him, and you could say there’s a little bit of an arc with the “hero doubts their actions” section, but most the feeling that the character is a living person comes from the acting here. The baddies have a bit more to play with, given the revenge arc against the Punisher - even though you won’t really be rooting for them on account of being criminal scum. That said, I do find that the interactions between the two brothers is quite endearing at times. The non-villain side characters are all there, and a good few of them have a little bit of action to them - but largely they feel less like super-utilized characters and more like accessories for the story. It’s fine - it is an action movie after all, so we are more here for that element than super fleshed out characters, and when it comes down to it at least there’s no real fridge-women (wherein the only purpose of their character is to die and be stuffed in the fridge for hero motivation).
The actors, in contrast to the characters, do a pretty good job. They add some emotion to the scenes when it’s called for, and our boy the Punisher hits like a truck. There some good action scenes in there, with some believable impacts and reactions to the action. As stated previously, the interactions between the two baddy brothers is probably one of the highlights to me, where it at times almost feels wholesome in a insane sort of way. Yes, some of the side characters might not really get any moments to shine as some kind of big superstar - the “Punisher Department” head is pretty much entirely played up for laughs, a lot of the villain goons are just there to be disposable and make fun “ow I’m dead” sounds. It isn’t to say that any of them do a bad job necessarily - there isn’t any real moments where someone lets loose a line and you groan in pain from the delivery - but the few standouts from the lead and the villains aren’t going to sell the movie to some fancy drama enthusiast.
Punisher sparking the violence.
The movie is put together well. I would say that it does a surprisingly good job of hitting the look of a comic at times, with plenty of times when scenes are washed in colors to give it that artistic feel. It can cut around a good clip during some of the action scenes - but it’s not normally hard to follow whats going on when it does it. I will say that the movie doesn’t always feel like it’s overly ambitious either - which in this case only helps the movie out - if there’s one movie that doesn’t need to get overly artsy, it’s Punisher. The crew does a good job with pacing, and honestly the amount of humor the movie brings up through the unexpected is higher than you’d think also. Yes, I know, a movie about a violent vigilante shooting up bad guys has humor that you might laugh at in it - they aren’t all classic joke moments to write home about, but there’s something to be said for the effects of unexpected events occurring that keeps a watcher wanting to watch to see what happens next, even if you aren’t laughing about them.
Audio is balanced well. No difficulty hearing lines, whether they are delivered through prosthetics and makeup or during a pitched gun battle. Yeah, some of the language is crass - but it’s also a violent movie so I don’t think the kind of people who would enjoy it would be particularly off put by a couple of curses here and there. There’s some accent usage thrown in there as well - nothing too exotic, but you certainly get that “ah” emphasis on some words throughout from a few of the characters. The soundtrack is particularly good - but it’s cheating with the amount of ‘00s NuMetal and hard rock in there, both of which make up a portion of “my jam.” Most the time it’s bits of the songs to amp up the action on screen or about to happen - much like a normal classical score would do - but that doesn’t stop me from recognizing them.
And of course, the action scenes. The big reason people who aren’t comic people would probably come to this movie! It’s pretty good stuff. Yes, it’s before we quite hit the modern phase of trying to cut or hide our cuts as much as possible, but it’s also before the dawn of “we cut so much you’re throwing up in the bathroom.” There’s some heavy fists, a few explosions, and a whole lot of gunfire in here. It’s not the bullet-count kind of action, and things are played up a good amount like you would normally see in an early action movie - sometimes for the shock value, sometimes to get across how violent things are. It’s a lot of stuff that’s not all practical, but it all looks incredibly passable with perhaps a few moments that stand out as being an effect more so than just blending into the movie experience. It does a good job of blending that old action-hero style to a more modern approach where good guys would wear body armor to explain surviving gunfights instead of just never being shot - but it still retains enough that it’s fun to watch while eliciting the occasional gasp or “oh!”
Classic movie cop station.
I enjoyed this movie back when I originally saw it, and honestly I still do. It’s got plenty of action and effects, but takes the time to get some good acting out of the people we spend the most time with - all without resorting to making the Punisher deliver more lines than the merc with a mouth. The soundtrack - at least the one that plays during the movie - is absolutely bumping, It’s got parkour and guns, and a few attempts at some kind of character development that most of us probably will be less invested in than some of the characters it’s happening to. Overall worth a watch I’d wager, and it could be a fun thing for newer Marvel fans to check out to see just what kind of movies we got from comics before (actually, the entire Punisher three-set of movies would be an interesting dissection of the treatment of comic adaptations to be honest, but I’ll leave that to someone who actually knows the comics!).