Dec 10 2008
At Least the Fire Hydrant’s Gone
PUNISHER: WAR ZONE (2008)
Dir.: Lexi Alexander
Cast: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchison, Colin Salmon
Plot: Frank Castle continues to wage war against organized crime as the gun-toting vigilante the Punisher, this time trying to protect the family of an undercover FBI agent he accidentally killed from the disfigured mob boss Jigsaw.
Thoughts: The follow-up (or I guess I should say “reboot” a la INCREDIBLE HULK earlier this year) to the weak 2004 comic book adaptation starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta virtually ignores its not-well-received predecessor, relocating from the poor location of sunny Florida to a much more fitting gloomy New York and even going so far as to alter the Punisher’s origin story. While this revamping may still not be anything great, it is certainly superior to the previous movie in that it delivers a lot more of what that one was missing - action. Bone-crunching, bullet-spitting, blood-spraying, cartoonish, ultraviolent action, and a shitload of it! The mayhem kicks off just a few minutes and continues with a brisk pace that only lets up a few times to make way for its thin plot. Hell, the Punisher doesn’t even utter a syllable for the first third of the flick. So it at least doesn’t commit one cardinal sin that the Thomas Jane version was guilty of - it’s hardly ever dull.
One other major change is the tone. While the ‘04 film was dead serious (which really bogged it down), this one has its tongue firmly planted in cheek, completely embracing the fact that it’s a live-action comic book. The violence, as I’ve mentioned, is certainly graphic and brutal, but goes so absurdly over-the-top sometimes you can’t help but burst out laughing, such as in a scene where he launches a rocket at a guy doing a flying flip between buildings and blows up in midair.
There’s also the acting, which is very stylized with almost everybody speaking in cheesy wise guy accents. Thomas Jane’s replacement, Ray Stevenson (whose probably best known for the HBO show ROME) is okay, playing it with a constant set-jaw grimness, with minimal dialogue and mostly relying on body language (although sometimes when he talks his Irish accent can be faintly detected). West as Jigsaw plays it totally camp (wonder if they might’ve been trying to emulate Heath Ledger’s Joker).
Technically speaking, the film looks really good and stylish, with a lot of saturated colors. And it never gives into the modern action movie bane of flashy editing and keeps a rein on the use of CGI.
A decent big-budgeted B-movie that isn’t exactly memorable but a good amusing time-killer. Although I still think I prefer the late-80’s PUNISHER with Dolph Lundgren.
Rating: **1/2
