Punisher: War Zone (Two-Disc Special Edition) DVD Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 03.22.2009

Is the third time the charm for this comic book anti-hero, or has Marvel finally struck out?

Directed by: Lexi Alexander
Written by: Nick Santora, Art Marcum & Matt Holloway

Starring:
Ray Stevenson - Frank Castle / The Punisher
Dominic West - Billy Russoti / Jigsaw
Doug Hutchison - James Russoti / Loony Bin Jim
Dash Mihok - Detective Martin Soap
Colin Salmon - Agent Paul Budiansky
Wayne Knight - Linus Lieberman / Microchip
T. J. Storm - Maginty
Romano Orzari - Nicky Donatelli
Julie Benz - Angela Donatelli
Stephanie Janusauskas - Grace Donatelli
Keram Malicki-Sánchez - Ink
Mark Camacho - Pittsy
David Vadim - Cristu Bulat
Carlos Gonzalez-vlo - Carlos Cruz

Domestic Gross: $8,050,977
Worldwide Gross: $9,905,285

DVD Release Date: 3/17/2009
Running Time: 107 minutes



Rated R for pervasive strong brutal violence, language and some drug use.

The journey to get a truly great big-screen adaptation of one of Marvel Comics’s most famous anti-heroes has been a long and arduous one, met with quite a bit of failure over the years. Frank Castle, better known to fans as the Punisher, has been the subject of two previous film adaptations. The first, released in 1990, featured B-movie icon Dolph Lundgren as the infamous vigilante. Produced by New World Pictures, it changed various aspects of the story and was rejected by critics and audiences alike, though it has become something of a cult hit on the nearly two decades since its release. Cult hit or not, the film’s commercial failure was drastic enough that despite the character’s popularity it would be fourteen years before he would find his way onto the big screen again. When he did, it was in 2004’s The Punisher starring Thomas Jane as Castle. This rendition of the story was far more coherent and hedged closer to the source material, though it still largely failed with critics and commercially, with most critics noting that the film was grim and cheerless. However, the success of the film on DVD inspired Lionsgate to try again. Castle was recast and a new creative team was found, and the result was Punisher: War Zone which came out at the beginning of December, 2008. While the film was much more satisfying to fans of the character, it still failed with critics and with movie-goers, bringing in barely nine million dollars worldwide in relation to its nearly twenty-two million dollar budget. Lionsgate, hoping to appeal to those core fans, have now released the film on DVD in the hopes that the movie can come closer to turning a profit for the financially-troubled studio.

The Movie
The movie stars Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle, a vigilante who has been waging a one-man war against crime syndicates for the past six years as “the Punisher.” When Castle finds out that mob boss Gaitano Cesare (John Dunn-Hill) has been exonerated of crimes due to the shooting of a key witness, he decides to crash the mob party that follows. The only man to escape is Billy Russoti (West), who flees to his recycling plant. Castle tracks him there and, after killing a man who turns out to be undercover FBI agent Nicky Donatelli (Orzari), he tosses Russoti into a glass-crushing machine. Russoti survives and renames himself Jigsaw for his new disfigured look, while Donatelli’s death leaves behind a grieving widow Angela (Benz) and daughter Grace (Janusauskas). With a new manhunt underway for Castle, he tries to make amends to the Angela and Grace while protecting them from the vengeance-obsessed Jigsaw, who busts his brother “Loony Bin Jim” (Hutchison) out of an asylum to take down the Punisher. Along the way he must deal with FBI task force agent Paul Budiansky (Salmon), who is working with Punisher-obsessed cop Martin Soap (Mihok), and his only allies are his gun supplier Microchip (Knight) and ex-gangbanger Carlos (Gonzalez-vlo). With an army of criminals standing in the way of him and his targets, Castle must find a way to keep Angela and Grace safe while taking down his new adversary.

Punisher: War Zone is the first film released under the Marvel Knights imprint, a division of Marvel Studios intended to present adaptations of Marvel’s catalog that are intended for more mature audiences. It was certainly a wise choice, as it seems to have freed the makers of the film from producing a more sanitized version of the Punisher that would have handicapped the film. Instead, we get what is easily the most brutally violent Punisher to date, one that is miles ahead of the 1990 or 2004 films in terms of the action and graphic depictions of violence. Screenwriters Nick Santora, Art Marcum & Matt Holloway create an unrelentingly brutal film that pours on the violence and integrates them remarkably well into the story. The writers stick close to the Garth Ennis characterization of Castle and though there are some big differences in story, the spirit of the film and the feel of the characters is kept very much the same. There is one character who was created specifically for the film without a basis in the source material, that of Loony Bin Jim, but he works well within the over-the-top confines of the script and the story keeps things moving along without ever having moments where it drags down. That being the case, it is still not simply a bunch of action scenes strung together as some character moments are supplied, though they are kept short enough to leave the pace nice and brisk.

In choosing a director for Punisher: War Zone, the producers of the film went with Lexi Alexander, who on the surface may have been an odd choice. The arena of action films is notoriously male-driven, and Alexander has a very short resume, with Hooligans being the only film that many would recognize. She also has Johnny Flynton however, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002 for Best Live Action Short, and perhaps her selection was part of Marvel’s ongoing desire to take a more quality-oriented bent to their films. Alexander proves herself a capable-enough director here, as she douses the film in comic book tones and keeps the violence intense, gory, and completely over-the-top throughout.; we get decapitations, chair legs going through people’s eyes, heads blown off with shotguns, acrobatic gangbangers being blown up in mid-air with rocket launchers, Castle hanging upside-down from a chandelier and spinning as he blasts bad guys into oblivion, and that’s just a very small sampling. Alexander doesn’t do anything even approaching revolutionary here, but she knows quite well what the fans of the character wants to see and she drenches the film with atmosphere and blood. This is a film that is unapologetic about what it wants to be and for that, it deserves some credit. Alexander takes some obvious nods from previous comic book successes, in particular Tim Burton’s Batman, but it just barely manages to avoid seeming like a rip-off by keeping itself more on the homage side of things. While some more originality in this respect may have made for a better technical film, one can’t help but wonder if it would have hurt things in terms of the satisfaction the movie provides.

In a film like this where the focus is on a well-loved comic book character, a lot of the success of the movie rests on the shoulders of the lead actor. In this case, those well-built shoulders belong to Ray Stevenson, best known as Titus Pullo from HBO’s acclaimed series Rome. Stevenson embodies Frank Castle the way that Dolph Lundgren and even Thomas Jane failed to do. While Jane may have been the more emotionally-rounded Castle, Stevenson adds the perfect amount of edge to the character and makes him leap right out of the page onto the screen. It doesn’t hurt that the British actor is the spitting image of Castle as drawn by John Romita Jr. and Tim Bradstreet, either, though for a role like this simple looks would not be enough. Stevenson has that tough guy look and that dangerous edge to him that really lets him project Frank Castle beautifully, and he definitely makes the best of the Punishers to date.

Opposite Stevenson in the roles of the villains, Dominic West and Doug Hutchison keep things moving along nicely as Jigsaw and Loony Bin Jim. West plays Jigsaw a little differently than he is portrayed in the comic books, complete with a different look to his disfigurement that really works better than perhaps the original look might have. West has a lot of charisma, and he plays Jigsaw with a manic edge to him, taking a page from Alexander and incorporating a little bit of Jack Nicholson’s Joker from Batman into his performance. The two roles are not that different in style if one thinks about it; a crime figure who is disfigured by the “hero” and comes back to take control of the underworld, adopting a zany new nickname and generally going bonkers for the rest of the movie. Again, the performance appears to be more of an homage than a rip-off, and that is largely why it works. Hutchison, in playing a brand new character, has the freedom to go in whatever direction he wants and he makes LBJ a psychotically enthusiastic killer, calling up memories of Hannibal Lector if he were far less civilized and just liked hurting folks without rhyme or reason. Character depth may not go much further than that, but it really isn’t needed within this sort of a film. The supporting heroes are all fine, with Julie Benz playing a vulnerable and grieving widow well enough and Colin Salmon giving Budiansky the obsessed cop feel without sinking to the depths of idiocy that Chris Klein did in the recent Street Fighter adaptation. Wayne Knight and Dash Mihok both provide good levels of comic relief as Microchip and Detective Soap, respectively.

The hardest question to ask about this film as a review is, where does it rank? Clearly, it is not a film that ranks among the best of the best. The simple characterizations and elementary design choices are effective within this scope of a film, but does it deserve to be anywhere near some of the best films of the year? Certainly not; The Dark Knight and Watchmen have shown recently how a film can adapt a comic book in a very stylized sense but find much deeper themes while doing so. At the same time, Punisher: War Zone is very effective because it doesn’t take itself seriously and revels in its B-movie sensibilities. It’s not as garish as some of the best B-movies are, but it’s not so serious that it fails in that aspect either. Ultimately, War Zone is a film that can be put in by fans of the comic book and enjoyed as the most uncompromising view of the character to date, and while it may not be one of the best of the year it is certainly an effective one that is easy to enjoy if you aren’t put off by the over-the-top violence.

Film Rating: 7.5

The Video

Punisher: War Zone is presented in a 2.35:1 widescreen ratio that’s enhanced for 16x9 televisions, and looks quite good. Alexander has chosen a vivid color palette for his movie and it comes through looking quite attractive. The film has a tendency of favoring a slight orange-yellow hue, particularly over skin tone-heavy scenes, but this appears to be a stylistic choice rather than a coloring flaw and it works quite well in giving the film that comic book feel. Much of the film takes place in darkened situations and the blacks come through appropriately, making the film easy to follow in the way that other night-based films like Alien vs. Predator: Requiem failed to do. There are no compression issues to speak of, no haloing or anti-aliasing issues, making this a very strong DVD in terms of the visuals.

Video Rating: 9.0

The Audio

There are two options for the audio track, an English Dolby 5.1 Dolby Digital and an English Dolby 2.0, with English and Spanish subtitle options. The 5.1 track is actually quite exceptional, delivering the fantastic audio mix quite nicely. The track uses all channels as appropriate, providing an excellent combination of dialogue, score, effects and ambient sounds to fully immerse the viewer. Furthermore, the dialogue is beautifully balanced with the rest, remaining easily audible throughout, even when the high-octane action scenes threaten to overpower it. Lionsgate has gone all out on this DVD to ensure the best possible experience for the viewer, and it pays off in spades.

Audio Rating: 9.0

The Packaging

Punisher: War Zone is presented in a standard snap case with a slip case over that. The cover image is a simple, red and black image of Stevenson in the War Zone get-up; simple and effective. The DVD menus are nicely laid out and easy to navigate, with the main menu having the standard set of clips set to a repeating music track. The animation between menus is kind of cool, with bullets shattering the menus like glass, yet not so long as to frustrate a bit like some DVD’s do.

Packaging Rating: 7.5

Special Features

Audio Commentary with Director Lexi Alexander and Director of Photography Steve Gainer: The audio commentary track is very technically-oriented, with Alexander and DP Gainer doing a surprisingly effective job of discussing the film from multiple aspects without ever seeming dull. Of course, Gainer talks quite a bit about the film in terms of the lighting and the camera work, while Alexander provides a much broader perspective by discussing the look of the film as well as touching on the violence, the work of the actors, and other such topics. For a track that seems especially geared toward technical buffs it does a good job of keeping the listener interested throughout.

The Making of Punisher: War Zone: (9:02) This is your standard “Making Of” featurette, with Ray Stevenson, Lexi Alexander, producer Gale Anne Hurd, Director of Photography Steve Gaines, Dominic West, Julie Benz and others talking about the film. They talk about sticking to the source material, particularly the MAX series, the writing of Garth Ennis and the art of Tim Bradstreet to make a fully-loaded and authentic Punisher film. The piece stays a bit on the self-congratulatory side of the Electronic Press Kit spectrum, particularly from Alexander who clearly loves her cast, but she feels appallingly praising and seems to sincerely mean it. Stevenson talks about how he wanted to make the Punisher a character that people wouldn’t walk out of the theater wanting to be, amidst all the praise from Alexander. There’s talk about West and Benz and their work as Jigsaw and Angela, and the use of Budiansky as a mirror for Castle. They then turn their attention to Loony Bin Jim, who is a new character created for the movie. The filmmakers missed an opportunity to compare and contrast the film against the previous Punisher films, but Lionsgate probably wanted to play things politically correct. Still, it’s an unfortunate choice for a film that otherwise takes no prisoners.

Meet Jigsaw: (3:35) This short has Dominic X, Lexi Alexander, Julie Benz and Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Short talking about Jigsaw. West talks about his decision to play the character, while Short talks about designing the look of the character and how they wanted to go with something a little different from the comic book. We learn about how the make-up with done and how detailed the prosthetics were. This is a bit self-congratulatory in parts, though West comes across quite nicely in discussing his difficulty with the make-up and how creeped out he was when he saw himself in the mirror for the first time. Outside of those little tidbits and some of Short’s comments, there isn’t too much here and it’s just too short to mean anything significant.

Weapons of the Punisher: (4:39) Weapons supervisor Paul Barrette and Ray Stevenson talk about the variety of weapons used in the film. Military advisor Jon Barton talks quite plainly about playing homage to the fans of the comic book, of which he is one, by letting Castle “create mass carnage.” They run through a quick overview of the many guns used by Castle throughout the film and how they modified the weapons. There’s some focus on the mansion gun fight and then the hotel fight, where they talk about putting in ammo resupply points for realism. They then talk about the weapons that the enemies used. This is a great little testosterone-filled feature that is clearly tailored for people who are part of the film’s demographic, and yet still presents it in a way that’s interesting for those who aren’t heavily into the hardware.

Training to Become the Punisher: (5:47) This is sort of your standard featurette where they talk about the military and combat training that the actors—in this case of course, Stevenson—go through to learn how to convincingly play an ex-military man. The camera follows Stevenson through a training exercise in which director Lexi Alexander takes part. There isn’t a lot of interview moments with this and just lets the training and debriefing after do the talking. There are a few short moments of Stevenson, Alexander and action scene supervisor Pat Johnson talking about the training, the latter of which transitions into hand-to-hand fight training with Stevenson and Johnson. It comes across well enough, though it feels like familiar territory when compared with other training shorts that have been done before.

Creating the Look of the Film: (2:46) This exceptionally short featurette has the crew talking about creating the visual look and color designs of the film. They discuss how they followed the style of the comic book by making sure every scene had a three-color motif to make the film vibrant yet minimalistic at the same time. They discuss making the fight scenes replete with reds and oranges and then cooling things off for more somber scenes. Honestly, these aren’t particularly subtle design choices and are easily picked out during the film, so there isn’t much that’s new here especially when you consider how short it is.

Theatrical Trailer: (1:27) This is the green-band theatrical trailer for the film, which was put together quite effectively to sell the movie. No one who walked into this film after seeing the trailer should have been shocked by what they saw.

Also From Lionsgate: (15:28) Trailers for the similarly-themed but even more ridiculous-looking Crank 2: High Voltage, the horror film The Haunting in Connecticut are included, as well as the red-band trailer for the original My Bloody Valentine and The Burrowers on DVD. DVD trailers are also included for Transporter 3, Saw V, The Spirit and Hulk vs..

Digital Copy of the Film: The second disc consists entirely of a digital copy of the film, which can be transferred to one’s computer and other portable media devices. It’s nice for those who use it, but for most people this is a completely extraneous extra.

Special Features Rating: 7.0

The 411: Gritty, violent and over-the-top, Ray Stevenson finally provides a proper Frank Castle in Lexi Alexander's Punisher: War Zone. Matched with a couple of memorable villains as played by Dominic West and Doug Hutchison, Stevenson's Castle wades through this hard-edge movie with guns blazing. Alexander keeps the movie entrenched firmly within a B-movie sensibility, which works completely to the film's benefit by never taking itself too seriously. An excellent audio and video transfer and a decent set of special features makes this a DVD worth checking out, even for those skeptical of the movie's potential merits.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]