With two stinkers already made about Marvel's vigilante hopes were not especially high for this third slice of over the top gore - which is just as well as it is pretty bad. Ray Stevenson steps into the black combat fatigues (following Dolph and Thomas Jane) of Frank Castle to wage his one man vendetta against organised crime. His nemesis this time is Dominic West's (McNulty from The Wire) Jigsaw, a pretty boy who gets terribly disfigured after a run in with the Punisher. While all this is going on Frank is conflicted as he killed an FBI agent he thought was a crook, leaving his widow (Julie Benz) and 'adorable moppet' daughter. Can the big man get his act together and take down Jigsaw, or will Colin Salmon's no-nonsense FBI agent bring him in?
Director Lexi Alexander does her best to recreate the highly violent and stylised work of the comic book, full of exploding heads and primary colours. This is all well and good on paper but on screen it looks clumsy, especially as the meagre budget makes the rubber heads and CGI blood look highly unconvincing. That said, the OTT nature of the mayhem does make Punisher War Zone more entertaining than the previous entries and West, as the deformed Jigsaw, has fun doing his best impression of a 1990s Batman villain, a cross between the Joker and Two Face. He's also given a nutty Hannibal Lector like brother called Looney Bin Jim! Some of the deaths have originality, especially the free runner blown up mid flip by Frank's bazooka! If the film had just stuck to this, Punisher War Zone would be an entirely fine Friday beer and curry experience.
However, the makers also try to make us feel sympathy for Frank. Why? Part of the joy of the Punisher is he's a killing machine, a human Terminator. The comics are darkly humorous, the villains getting the best lines while Frank goes about his nasty retribution with relish. Do we really want to see him anguished and tortured? No - especially as Ray's anguished look resembles someone five people back in the toilet queue in dire need of a crap and losing the battle. Flashback scenes of Frank in the park with his model kids are bad enough but the 'touching' relationship that develops between Frank and the dead FBI agent's daughter is horrendous. Please pass the sick bag. If you love the Punisher, look away when he returns her little wave at the end. That the mum would also warm to the nutter vigilante who shot her husband, and father of her child, dead is also awful, however many moon faced expressions Ray tries to fashion.
In the end, with its mad colour lighting, shoddy FX, TV movie reject cast (Salmon tries hard but has the worst ever dialogue, Wayne Newton is wasted as Frank's ally Micro, Benz is as bad as ever and Dash Milok as the 'light relief' is stunningly unfunny) and uneven tone, Punisher War Zone should effectively put the final nail in Frank Castle's movie career. The audience has been punished enough.
GK Rating: ** The Blog of Delights
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