Punisher: Warzone

Year: 2008
Director: Lexi Alexander
Cast: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Julie Benz, Doug Hutchison, Colin Salmon, Dash Mihok, Wayne Knight


In case any of you were unaware, I am a huge fan of The Punisher comic book series, and subsequently became a fan of the film made in 2004 starring Thomas Jane. And just like The Incredible Hulk last year, Marvel launches a new film on the great anti-hero. But considering the fact that Thomas Jane actually was in the running to be in this film only to pull out later, one wonders if this is actually a sequel. And after viewing it today, I noticed how little relevance it made to the original film, so how can this be a sequel at all?

For the uninitiated, The Punisher a.k.a. Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson) is a former Vietnam war veteran who lost his family at the hands of the mob when they became witnesses to a gang war. Castle has been waging a one man war against criminals since that day. In this film, he is up against Billy Russoti (Dominic West), a ruthless mobster with a penchant for violence. One night, Castle engages Russoti and his gang while they were trying to smuggle dangerous cargo into the country, and in the process, Russoti ends up getting disfigured badly. Castle on the other hand kills a man whom he thought was working for Russoti, but is actually an undercover FBI agent.

Castle is overwhelmed with guilt and decides to quit his crime fighting activity for good, until his friend and weapons supplier Micro (Wayne Knight) convinces him to nail Russoti before he goes after the wife and daughter of the fallen agent for doublecrossing him. Now Castle has to protect the agent's family from Russoti, who now calls himself Jigsaw, and his lunatic brother Loony Bin Jim (Doug Hutchison) while trying to evade capture from the fallen agent's colleague Budiansky (Colin Salmon).

It's interesting to note that the director of this film is a female. Lexi Alexander helms a film that is dark, brutal and unflinching in its portrayal of violence. The censors cut out most of the stuff, but there are still plenty of shots of people getting blown up, shot in the head and thrown into walls. This is exactly the way The Punisher is portrayed in the books, and even Ray Stevenson looks the part. Most of the supporting characters like Jigsaw, his goons and the cops are also based on the comic book, so for a fan of the book like myself, it's like a fitting tribute to see them all on screen, though not exactly in the same way they were meant to be.

But the question is, is it good? Well, not really. Not if you compared this to the Thomas Jane version. Sure, this film has the violence and the feel down pat, and Stevenson is almost perfect as Castle. However the action sequences aren't mind blowing, save for one hilarious scene where a guy that jumps off a building gets shot with a rocket. Aside from lots of gunfire and explosions, there isn't much to shout about. Alexander opts to favour brutality over finesse, so you get a lot of in your face action, but nothing you haven't already seen someplace else.

More importantly, the fact that this film doesn't make any references to the Thomas Jane version or give a more detailed insight into Frank Castle's origins will leave lesser informed viewers confused. Surely they'd like to know where he came from, what makes him tick etc instead of just a brief skimming of it by the cops in this film. Like every comic book film before it, The Punisher should have his own origins spelled out properly.

I'll give Punisher: Warzone full points for accuracy, but not for entertainment value. It deserves just a little more depth and drama. (3.5/5)