I’m a bit of a Marvel movie geek. I’ve seen all of them – including the Dolph Lundgren Punisher and George Lucas’ Howard the Duck, and the TV-movie of Doctor Strange [which I have on VHS]. I have most of them on DVD – and have re-watched most of them [including Howard the Duck] – and I really wanted Punisher: War Zone to be good. Sadly, it is the worst of the lot.
Why? Well, like another action movie I reviewed recently, Max Payne, PWZ is an exceptionally well crafted film, technically, but it’s simply awful as a story. The thread thin plot is simply an excuse to create mayhem, much of it so far over the top that it becomes [somewhat queasily] hilarious.
Director Lexi Alexander is a stuntwoman turned director, so she understands how to stage action set pieces of both the fistic and bullets & booms varieties. There’s a lot of imagination in those areas and they’re supported by solid and occasionally very good performances from the cast – Ray Stevenson, especially, embodies Frank Castle as well as he can be.
In the end, though, all the the technical expertise in the world can’t hide the fact that this is a Marvel movie that lacks what Marvel has always been good at – heart and soul. Punisher is literally “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” No wonder Thomas Jane wanted nothing to with it.
Final Grade: D