Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Release Date: December 5, 2008

Having seen that most of the other characters have gotten sequels by now, the Punisher decided he wanted one too. If the previous Punisher film wasn’t dark enough for you, then step right up, because you’re in for a treat!

Frank Castle is keeping as busy as always with his work cleaning up the criminal underworld. Next on his hit list is the Russoti family. He crashes a party they’re holding at the family mansion and wrecks the joint in a scene that’s somewhere between McBain and the climax of Scarface. Among the victims is the patriarch of the family, who gets beheaded with a Rosa Klebb style knife-in-shoe trick when Frank decides to do his impression of Raiden from Metal Gear Rising. Absent from the event is son Billy, who had been planning on killing his father anyway, but the Punisher has saved him the effort, allowing him to carry on with his crime ring at the recycling plant. Unfortunately for him, Frank finds out about that and kills everyone there too, including a mole planted in Russoti’s operation by the FBI. Oops. The only survivor is Billy, but it’s not for lack of trying on the Punisher’s part, as he threw Billy into a machine for crushing glass bottles.

After finding out about the innocent man he killed, Frank tries to make amends with the man’s wife and daughter. The daughter befriends Frank, but the wife refuses to accept his blood money and threatens him with a gun before sending him away. (“Who punishes the Punisher?” she asks. Presumably, it’s the same person who watches the Watchmen.) Meanwhile, Billy’s face was destroyed by the machine, requiring extensive facial reconstructive surgery that the surgeon is reluctant to let him see the results of, but Billy insists. (“The mirror. The mirror!”) After seeing the result, and killing the surgeon for not making Billy's new face the greatest in all of Koridai, Billy renames himself Jigsaw and goes to the asylum to release his brother Loony Bin Jim. LBJ’s first act upon being released is to eat the orderly’s liver. Iron helps us play!

Look at that poor man’s face. It’s the kind of face not even a mother could love.

Since he can’t punish the dead mole, Jigsaw goes after his family instead, but luckily Frank was smart enough to see this coming and decided to lurk in the area to protect the wife and daughter. During the hostage situation, Jigsaw’s minions kill two police officers, prompting the police to call a temporary truce with the Punisher to stop Jigsaw. Jigsaw then kidnaps the wife and daughter, as well as the Punisher’s arms dealer friend Microchip, and holds them hostage in his evil lair, guarded by the Mafia, the IRA, the Triad, the Ballas and Grove Street. The Hispanic news team will be arriving any minute now… The police aren’t impressed, because while Jigsaw has an army, they have a Punisher. Even so, the police send the Russian Mafiya, who are mad at Jigsaw for framing their boss’ son, as decoys to soften up the first wave of goons before letting Frank loose.

Frank finds Jigsaw and LBJ on the top floor, holding the wife and daughter and Microchip hostage. Jigsaw wants to play a game, so he gives Frank the choice to save either the wife and daughter, or Microchip, but whoever isn’t saved will be killed. Frank chooses to kill Lyndon Baines Johnson instead, prompting Jigsaw to kill Microchip. Frank avenges his friend by stabbing Jigsaw through the side with a spear and pushing him into the fire in the centre of the room. Puny ‘Saw! If you’re wondering why the room has a spear and fire in it, it’s a boss room. Bosses have it in their contract that they have to fight the hero in the room containing their greatest weakness. Frankly, I’m surprised that Frank didn’t beat Jigsaw by throwing Loony Bin Jim’s severed head at him over and over.

I mentioned earlier that this film is a lot darker than the previous one. It’s darker than panthers fighting in a mine shaft during a power cut. Unfortunately, it’s so dark and bleak that it’s hard to give a monkey’s about any of it. There is an attempt at humanising Frank via his relationship with the little girl, but it seems to ring hollow here. The previous film did a better job in this respect with Frank’s neighbours, as they repay him near the end by refusing to betray him. At least it’s cute. Odder are the attempts at humour, and other strange scenes that clash with the grimdark tone. Scenes like Loony Bin Jim throwing himself at mirrors, Jigsaw shooting the little girl’s dolls and the Punisher breaking his own nose with a pencil (! Uh, sir, you’re supposed to be doing that to the bad guys) leave a viewer scratching their head at the absurdity of it all. There is one exception however. Jigsaw and Loony Bin Jim recruiting the ethnic stereotype gangs with an extremely xenophobic yet patriotic speech is so unbelievably ridiculous that it’s impossible to take offence at it. This sort of pitch black comedy would be right at home in the comics.

Another thing that should be pointed out is that this is definitely the most gruesome of the films reviewed so far, and I don’t really see anything else threatening its position. It’s almost as if the filmmakers watched the first two Blade films, the previous title holders for most gruesome Marvel film and said “Challenge accepted.” The influence of 80s action films is strong here, with scores of gang-bangers and ethnic stereotypes being blown to bloody chunks by an implacable man of few words and less personality, causing a veritable bullet storm. Here, the Punisher is an unstoppable juggernaut who makes Thomas Jane’s Punisher look like a limp-wristed sissy with the safety permanently on his pea shooter. The gratuitous ultraviolence on display is simply too much at times, between beheadings, head and face asplodings, thankfully obscured liver eating, and whatever made half of Microchip’s mum’s head melt and the other half an unrecognisable black thing.

Punisher War Zone’s grit and darkness is its undoing. There was a softer edge to the previous film, a feeling of hope, however slight, that things would improve. Here, it feels too cynical and nihilistic.

Next Time: Exploring the past of Everyone’s Favourite Mutant! ™

Bonus: Comedian Patton Oswalt is a big fan of the film, as can be seen here. Even if I didn’t enjoy this film, I’m glad someone out there did.