Wow, this movie was awesome. Just got back from the midnight showing and I'm still buzzing from it. A truly great, over the top action film. I think if you took every Romero zombie movie and combined them, you're still not going to have as much death and exploding heads as this movie had. There was at least 30 people killed in the first 5 minutes. In brutal over the top fashion. This really IS The PUNISHER! Just like the Max comic books. Hardcore, adult violence. The bad guys are so brutal and horrible you really, really want Frank Castle to punish them, and he does. The story was great, really felt like a comic book movie. I could see this story stretched across say 4-6 Marvel:Max comics. Basically it's been years since Franks family was killed in the park in NY (yes, unlike the 'other' Punisher movie in Florida, Frank is in NY where he's supposed to be.) This movie follows the canon of the comic books very closely. There's Jigsaw, Frank, Det. Soap, Micro, etc. Same characters as the series. So Franks been taking out NY crime/mafia families, and thats where the movie opens up, Frank taking out a family. So it starts right in on the action. It's assuming the audience already knows the story of Frank, though later in the movie there is some small exposition when one Detective is talking with another about who the Punisher is and why he does what he does. There's so many great moments in the movie, parts I really don't want to spoil for any of you. I'm so bursting to say, "this part when he did that!" or "That part, I never saw that coming!" But I don't want to ruin it. I've never heard an audience cheer so loud for someone getting their face blown off, literally. But that's what I heard tonight. The audience was loving the movie and really rooting for the Punisher. I have hopes that this movie might actually get a sequel. As a Punisher fan the movies have really been disappointing. The Dulph Lundgren movie in the 80's was horrible, and while the more recent Punisher movie with Thomas Jane was actually a good movie. It didn't feel like The Punisher. Too much was taking away from the comics in that film. It's in Florida, T.Jane really wasn't big enough to be Punisher. John Travolta as the main bad guy. It was a good movie, but it was a "Hollywood" Punisher movie, where this one was just a balls out brutal hardcore "this is what the Punisher really does" kind of movie. There's parts I'm surprised got past the censors. I can't stress enough how hardcore this movie was. I soooo want to cite examples, but I really just don't want to ruin a single scene. I can count on one hand how many movies I've seen, where as soon as the credits started rolling I wanted to see the movie again, but this is one of those movies. Also, and this part just made me so happy I thought I'd pop. The opening trailer before the movie started was the trailer for the new Friday the 13th remake/reboot that they've made. And as a huge Jason fanboy I just couldn't ask for a better evening. I got to see Jason, then I got to watch Frank punish at least 250 people. Great film, will be seeing it again in the theatre. If you like action, gore, effects, etc. you'll love this movie. Take Rambo, mix one part Romero Zombies, add a dash of Commando, shake and stir. You've got an idea of what this movie has in store for you. 10 out of 10. I couldn't ask for anything more in a Punisher film. Like the MAX comic was lifted right out of the page and put on the screen. Must Watch: Insanely Violent Punisher: War Zone Extended Trailer! FirstShowing.net *warning gory trailer, not worksafe. scroll down past the first paragraph and you can watch the R rated trailer*
I was extremely pissed that my local cinema didn't show it, even though there's no word of it barred by the censorship here, hell even Transporter 3 managed to get through. I might as well wait for DVD then. *pissed*
Sold, Rambo is my movie of the year and i'll pay to see anything thats even half as violent as that was.
I hope this takes off as a sleeper hit for Marvel and it generates enough money to warrent a sequel in the form of a Prequel based off of the Born story arc.
If you liked Rambo you're gonna love this. The last 20 minutes of Rambo was like the first 5 minutes of Punisher. And it just got better. watch out for the line, "Put your hands behind your back...DAMNIT FRANK!!" the audience died in that part, laughing and clapping, it was truly a 'What Would Frank Castle Do?' moment.
It seems the reviews are somewhat divided- critics seem to hate it while viewers/fans seem to love it. Perhaps I should check this out after all....
I read a review on it this morning and it got 1 star :O( I was disappointed but the one with Tom Jane got bad reviews too. I hope its as good as you say I really really liked the last one I thought Tom Jane played a great Punisher too. Good to hear a review on here thanks :O)
I realized I went overboard talking only about how violent the action was, not a great review. I posted this over at the Allspark but I thought I'd add it here to kind of flesh out the review a little more. I just didn't want to give too much away. ____ Yes there is definitely a plot, it's not 90 minutes of heads exploding. I just didn't want to give too much away. Basically Frank by accident kills an undercover agent, and wants to stop being the Punisher. His mistake breaks his moral code of never harming innocents, etc, etc,. Right when he quits he realizes that one of his victims has lived and become a psycho calling himself Jigsaw. Jigsaw blaming the undercover agent for being a rat goes after the agents surviving wife and daughter. Frank can't quite because he feels the need to protect the mother and daughter, probably having feelings of his own dead wife and daughter that he couldn't protect. Meanwhile Jigsaw is rounding up all the gangs and henchmen in NY, paying them to help him build an army that will take down the Punisher. Meanwhile the partner of the agent that was shot is also hunting down the Punisher with the help of a Detective, though most of the NY police don't give a rats ass about stopping the Punisher, they like that he's doing what they can't do. Frank also has his tech partner Micro as being the man who gets Frank all his guns. Yes there's definitely a plot and story. And Ray Stevenson really does a great job of pulling off the brooding, on the edge seriousness that Frank Castle has always portrayed. The tortured anti-hero. That's one of the things about a good Punisher story. You read Batman or Spiderman, and you want to BE them. Noone ever wants to be Frank. Noone wants to live a place that dark, that torn up and conflicted. He's got morals and honor, courage and dedication, which we can all admire. But he's also carrying around alot of demons that noone would want. I think Frank just rubs alot of people the wrong way. Obviously someone who's anti-death penalty and is a vegetarian or something is probably never going to like the character of Frank Castle. But personally I do. He's a Dirty Harry/Charles Bronson Death Wish type anti-hero. Noone wants a super violent world. But sometimes it's nice to have a character that feels that a rapist doesn't deserve a trial and jail time. He's just eliminated. In Franks mind, the criminal that has no respect for the rights of others, shouldn't expect to have their own rights respected. It was a great movie. Unapologetic in it's action scenes, but that's what the Punisher comics are like as well. This movie doesn't care about your feelings, it's presenting it's story in a gritty over the top, hyper real, ultra violent fashion. Exactly like the comic book. There's scenes where with the lighting if you could pause the movie it looks exactly like a MAX Bradstreet cover art. That's amazing to me. if you don't like unapologetic violence, then no you're not going to like this movie. If you like Dirty Harry type characters and know nothing of the Punisher, but want to sit back, eat some popcorn and watch some crazy action and have a few laughs, then this movie is great for that. I've been reading some reviews and some reviews on other boards today, and I think some people just already made up their mind to dislike the movie before seeing it. I really liked the Tom Jane movie, despite it's horrid glaring flaws against the character, it was still a decent action movie. THIS new movie is just as good if not better, simply because they didn't ignore the canon of the Punisher and make their own version of him. They lifted him right out of the comic book. That guy Ray Stevenson IS the Punisher. Some of the critics I've seen laughing at "how serious" Ray portrayed the character, and to me that tells me they don't even know the character. Frank doesn't talk much or make jokes ever. He IS a serious character. He's torn apart inside and Punishes himself just as much as he Punishes others. The guy WANTS to die and be with his family, he just hasn't met the person yet who could kill him. I like that he's a somewhat realistic character. He doesn't have super powers. He's an extremely pissed off retired Marine who's tortured that he couldn't protect his family from mafia bullets. And in his moment of grief and psychosis Frank Castle dies internally and The Punisher is born inside him. It's a great anti-hero story full of tragedy and the hope for redemption.
Saw the film and I was quite surprised to see that it was NOT the pile of slag I'd expected after viewing the first trailer or so. Its dark, gory and at points feels like its lifted straight out of the Marvel Knights pages. Which is exactly what a Punisher film SHOULD feel like. Most criticism revolves around the storyline, calling it "lacking" and I'd unfortunately have to agree that the story is secondary to the gun-fights. Punisher is probably the only character we can actually accept this from. Overall, I'd have to hoist "War Zone" up as the superior Punisher production but the 2004 Tom Jane entry is truthfully an outright better film.
you know i really liked it, but i think if you just totally deleted the looney bin jim charcter and all his crap that was over the top i would have liked it alot more, also those freerunner guys were lame until they got sploded, only purpose their lame characters served but when they went they went haha also i think whoever made the trailers sucks, i went into this movie thinking it was going to be HORRIBLE based on them but it was much better than i and i think EVERYONE thought
Did you see the Redline trailers? They gave a much more accurate view of how the movie would be. Problem was the Redlines weren't promoted really since they're rated R trailers. I only knew about them because I've been following the movies production. <---Huge Frank Castle fan.
I don't know much about The Punisher except from the previous two movies, but I have read that War Zone is one of the most faithful comic adaptations out there.
16% on Rotten Tomatoes but 69% from User reviews.... I am going to LOVE this film. I hate film critics usually.
yeah alot of reviewers and bloggers are slamming the film. Though I get the impression from some of them that they didn't even see the film because some of the things they say make no sense or weren't in the same film that I saw. I think it's just too over the top for alot of people. It IS technically a superhero movie, so Frank does of course do some things that a normal guy couldn't get away with, and that over the top'ness seems to be turning some people off. I guess the Thomas Jane movie was a little bit more "realistic", but at the same time they had him in Florida instead of New York, and instead of his wife and kids killed by mafia, they've got his entire family, extended family, and cousins 3 times removed getting killed in the Jane film. I really like the Jane film, but to me that wasn't Punisher as much as a more somewhat normal guy in a skull T shirt running around acting like the Punisher. Great movie and good Punisher movie, but something was missing. The brooding insane intensity that Frank has maybe. I like the new film for what it is. Just a hardcore, not for kids, over the top, action movie. It's fun for being exactly what it is and embracing it. They knew they were making a fun comic book movie, they knew it was a little cheesy, so instead of taking the high brow road and trying to be something they're not. They just went straight at it. The film was plagued with alot of production problems, and script problems, Thomas Jane not coming back, lots of things. But I think they pulled off a fun movie. I mean, is Dusk till Dawn deep cinematic Oscar winning material? No, course not. It's a couple of criminals and a family trapped in a bar full of vampires. Total cheese, ridiculous story, with over the top goofy gore. Does that mean Dusk till Dawn isn't a really fun and enjoyable movie? No way, that movies fun as hell to watch, especially with some friends that haven't seen it before. This Punisher War Zone movie is just like that. It's not trying to be an intellectual movie where you deeply ponder all of Franks motivations and emotions and feel bad for him and blah blah blah. Yes there are some moments where you learn more of his character, his breakdown at his familys tombstone I thought was actually a pretty powerful moment. But all in all this is a movie about watching the Punisher do what he does best, punish criminals in amusing, sometimes humorous, and always violent ways. It's just fun. Sit back, toss some popcorn in your gullet, and enjoy the ride. It's a gory gooshy one. There's so many moments you'll go, "What? Holy Shi- Did you see that? DAaaayyyymmmmm that'd hurt." and it even has quite a few moments of black humor, where you know you shouldn't laugh, it's awful how that guy got killed, but damn it was funny!
i just saw it...... im not sleeping to night.... it was too awsome. awww! now i have brains all over me..
