Review of Punisher: War Zone (2008) by Calvin R — 04 May 2012

This was a surprisingly enjoyable movie. I was expecting a piece of shit but got a good Punisher movie, although not nearly as good as the 2004 one with Thomas Jane. Ray Stevenson was good as Frank Castle and really delivered in the film's emotional scenes.

Dominic West was not bad as Jigsaw but failed to deliver a truly memorable villian as Heath Ledger did with the Joker. The action scenes are over the top and fitting for the source material. The big drawback is that it tried too hard to be the comic.

The visual look feels completely wrong with the tone of the movie. The movie that has a dark tone shouldn't look so colorful. Some characters and dialogue that worked fine in the comic don't work in the movie, like Detective Soap.

All in all, it is a decent adaptation that could have benefited more from a darker look and some script rewrites.