Blu-ray Review: Punisher: War Zone

Released back in 2004, the first Punisher was very much a Marvel property given a cautious outing.  The budget was relatively low by both comic adaptation and Hollywood standards, and while it wasn’t a particularly great movie (you can read my review of the very shoddy UK Blu-ray release here) it had its moments.  Particularly Tom Jane as the hero, who brought a good deal of humanity to a character who is essentially a revenge stricken, walking death machine.

This sequel gives us a reboot to the franchise.  After many years in development hell that finally saw Jane get tired of waiting for his second shot at the character, and brings the relatively unknown Irish actor Ray Stevenson to the role.
Warzone is a far more over the top outing for the character, creating a decidedly more comic book style world of daft named villains and one dimensional supporting characters as opposed to the slightly grittier real world of the first movie.

In actual fact, right from the start I was very impressed with how director Lexi Alexander managed to create a very well styled comic book look for the movie through the use of colour and lighting.
But back to the plot of the movie itself.  The vigilante Frank Castle has been on the loose for quite some time, and the movie begins with him taking out the Cesare crime family after the big boss has just avoided some serious prison time.

The families’ top enforcer Billy Russoti (The Wire’s Dominic West) escapes with his goons to their nearby hideout only to find his way into the bottle crusher that leaves him for dead.  During the ensuing fire fight, Castle kills an undercover FBI agent named Nicky Donatelli.

Donatelli’s partner (played by Colin Salmon, yet another British actor forced to fake an American accent) joins up with the NYPD Punisher task force (actually two blokes in a basement with a lot of files) in an attempt to avenge his partner, and his family.

In a scene that appears to be an utter rip from the Joker reveal in Tim Burton’s first Batman movie, Rusotti becomes known as Jigsaw and embarks on at attempt to complete a deal he started before his extreme makeover went awry, busting out his criminally insane brother “Loony Bin Jim” from the asylum to assist.

Castle tries his best to make amends with Donatelli’s late wife and daughter, sparking a connection with the little girl, but unsurprisingly not making any headway with the widow (played by Julie Benz).
What follows is a series of ridiculously over the top, bloody encounters that will turn off the more casual action movie observer.  This is an extremely violent, no holds barred action movie, not quite up to the levels of Crank insanity, but certainly not for the faint hearted.

Personally I’m not particularly squeamish, so the action didn’t bother me and am actually surprised at just how well it is executed given the movies relatively paltry $35 million budget.  The fight scenes are well choreographed, and it is directed in a slick, but classic style.  There is no over the top MTV style editing or shaky camera work here.

As I mentioned previously, the film itself actually looks very good, it is certainly a well put together and stylised comic book world.  There is a bold use of colour in many of the scenes, particularly as much of the movies action takes place at night.  Daytime scenes are also good, tweaking the colour palette to give the whole movie a limited colour palette the works extremely well.

Unfortunately for me, the movie itself just doesn’t hang together.  For the man who will always be the incredible Jimmy McNulty in The Wire, West mugs up his performance that just doesn’t hit the notes properly for a stumbling villain.

Likewise, Doug Hitchison is flat out irritating as Loony Bin Jim, and the couples sociopathic rampages aren’t well timed enough to be funny, and the attempt at humour doesn’t even make them remotely scary.
Stevenson himself actually does a pretty decent turn as Frank Castle, able to handle the action with emotional detachment but can show little flashes of humanity well when interacting with young Grace.

The rest of the supporting cast are merely cyphers that have come straight out of the comic book supplemental characters basement with Salmon being the exception to the rule, representing what could be Castle’s “light” side.  They are decent enough, but let’s face it, we aren’t re-enacting Shakespeare here are we?  My only real bugbear is with Julie Benz who is a very competent actress, but seems to have had some work done to her face that leaves it smooth and emotionless.

Punisher: War Zone is a fairly decent action movie that is one of the better attempts at bringing a comic book to the big screen.  Sadly it is let down by a pantomime villain and a lack of particularly likeable characters, but that is nearly outweighed by the over the top action that is enough to keep most viewers chomping through the popcorn.

Audio Visual
While the movie itself is a little hit and miss, this 1080p MPEG4 transfer is a surefire winner.  I gave a critical pasting to the visual quality of the first movie, but have no complaints about this second instalment.

Comic book worlds always contain plenty of bold colours, usually set in very dark environment with a sprinkling of rain thrown in for good measure.  War Zone is no exception, and all throughout the movie the transfer is rock solid.  You will hear no complaints from me regarding the black levels that could so easily have been a real problem given the amount of night footage up against primary colours you find here.

After having reviewed a number of rather lacklustre catalogue makeovers in the past, its a joy to be reminded at just how good a well encoded HD transfer can look.  Top stuff.

Sonically this disc is very interesting.  War Zone is a Lionsgate Pictures release, who are part of Sony Pictures.  In the US the disc was previously released under the Lionsgate name, with a 7.1 DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack.  Here in the UK it is a SPHE title, and has been changed to a Dolby TrueHD track as it is their format of choice.

I have long made it known that I rate DTS over Dolby Digital, and would be interested to see if there is a big difference between the two discs but this True HD track is a boneshaker.

During the many action scenes all of the speakers are going bananas, the subwoofer is in constant growl mode, and bullets ricochet around with even more veracity than in the recently reviewed The International.
Loud, chaotic and definite demo material.

Bonus Features
Commentary – First up we have a commentary from director Lexi Alexander and cinematographer Steve Gainer.  Alexander is quite outspoken with her thoughts and views on the movie, and this is quite an informative track from a technical standpoint, but is unlikely to appeal to Punisher fans in general.  I found it quite interesting and helps to flesh out the making of the movie a little better than the rest of the bonus material.

Making Of – This is quite a bog standard EPK type affair running at just under ten minutes.  The main cast and crew talk about their characters and that’s pretty much it.

There are also three featurettes called Training to Become The Punisher, Meet Jigsaw, The Weapons of The Punisher and Creating the Look of The Punisher.  Most are around five minutes in length and give bite sized chunks of information.

My favourites are the Training which shows just how much effort Stevenson put into becoming Frank Castle, and the Look in which the decision to allow only three colours into each scene is described to create a more authentic comic book feel.

Summing Up
The Punisher: War Zone has quite a European active movie feel about it, the director is German, and many of the cast are either British or Irish, all adopting American accents.  While the story itself is hardly genre defining, the action more than makes up for its other shortcomings.  This Blu-ray disc looks and sounds fantastic, and while the supplemental features are a little thin on the ground, they receive bonus points for all being in HD.

It won’t be to everyones taste, but The Punisher: War Zone is well worth a look for action and comic book fans alike.

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