This Saturday I went to see "Punisher War Zone" at my local theater. I had been anticipating this movie ever since I saw the first trailer as I am a huge Punisher fan. So to get myself in the fanboy mood and to make sure that I would NOT have any reason to leave the theater, I put on my punisher skull emblem t-shirt, and did not eat or drink for 2 hours before the movie. After sitting down with my friend Genesis and my step son Eric, we b.s.-ed until the previews started and right away we were off and running. The trailers were a good start- Underworld 3, Friday the 13th, and My Bloody Valentine 3D. And then.....the Punisher War Zone joygasm began.There are some minor spoilers as to the first 5-10 minutes of the movie, but I WILL NOT REVEAL THE REST OF THE FILM. The movie started with the usual Marvel logo, only difference this time is that it said Marvel Knights instead of just Marvel. For those of you not aware, Marvel Knights is the Marvel Studios new division for mature movies. Anyway, the movie started with a comic book montage of Frank Castle(a.k.a. The Punisher), working on his armory and listening to a television report of how a mob boss got acquitted because the main witness was murdered and the police didn't have the evidence to put him away. We then cut to two cops sitting in a car who we soon find out are Detective Martin Soap and another cop I don't remember the name of. They're siting outside the mob bosses house as he hold an enormous party to celebrate his acquittal, we meet Billy Russotti, who is aiming to become boss of the mobs and is not happy with having to wait. The cops are waiting for The Punisher to arrive, and seemingly have differing opinions on whether or not Castle is a good guy or a bad guy. Well arrive he does and with an incredible amount of violence and gore, fucks everyone up at the party, thus setting the tone for one of the goriest most bad ass comic book movies EVER.
Now with that said I was surprised at how well they captured the comic books. There were f-bombs dropped with amazing regularity, graphic gore in the deaths, no real sexual stuff as it wasn't really necessary, but there were appearances of major punisher characters, the backstory was intact, and the movie WASN'T an origin story. It takes place six years into Castle's war, and shows not only how much damage he's done, but how hard it is for the police to catch him or the mob to kill him. I have to say as a Punisher fan, this is the BEST Punisher adaptation I have ever seen. Better than the 1988 Lundgren "classic"(eww), the 2004 Thomas Jane version, and if they never make another Punisher movie I will be unhappy, but I am satisfied with what they have given me in this one. Hands down the BEST movie I have seen all year, bar none. On a scale of 1 to 10 I have to give this a 1,000,000. Go see it, just leave the kids at home, cause likeI said, this IS a very gory, very violent, f-bomb extravaganza that is rated R for a reason. A billion stars, go check it out!
