Review of Punisher: War Zone (2008) by Simon K — 26 May 2012

This is the third attempt at bringing 'The Punisher' to the silver screen. Lexi Alexander tries to use the MAX comics as her ally, but ultimately fails.

It's not a bad film as such, but lacks anything making it stand out. What's worse is the acting is pretty poor throughout, which I find baffling due to the fact they have a failry good line-up of actors. Frank's acting comes across wooden, rather than closed in. And while Ray Stevens is a good actor, his abilites are not shown here; same is said for Dominic West: good actor, but he is pretty poor in this.

I also thought a major flaw in this film was the characters made for the film, that aren't in the comics and an awful attempt at humour, which tries to go for the 'Ennis' dark humour, but fails in every aspect of its attempt.

So it isn't the acting or the story that saves it, but the one thing the 2004 attempt got wrong: the action! OTT and very gory. It makes the film a whole lot better. And instead of you feeling that it is a terrible film, the overall feeling you're left with at the end of it is 'B-movie' fun.

It's really frustrating; three attempts and all three do something right, but fail overall. It'd be nice to see a new Punisher film with all the bits they got right, rolled up in one film. Not forgetting there is a fair amount of material to go off from te comics alone!