Welcome to the second instalment of "Punisher Review". I'm your host Freudian and in this episode I will take you through the new and improved Marvel Knights edition of The Punisher, Punisher: Warzone.
The story is pretty much the same but does the same thing as they did in Incredible Hulk: they don't repeat the origins, they just get to the point and begin with Frank Castle (Played this time by Steven Seag - er...Ray Stevenson, The Book Of Eli) killing a whole lot of people. He also manages to disfigure Billy 'the Pretty Boy' Russoti (Dominic West, Hannibal Rising), who then turns into Jigsaw, an insane crime-lord with an even more insane brother, Loony Bin Jim (Doug Hutchinson, The Green Mile).
After that, Castle finds out that an innocent man was shot during the raid, which makes Frank turn into some kind of emo who tries to set things straight with the remaining family of said innocent man.
Meanwhile, Jigsaw seeks revenge on the one that maimed him, so he decides to go for Castle the easy way: through the family of the innocent dead guy and by means of killing Castle's partners. This makes Castle angry, and he then decides to take up the skull once more to put an end to Jigsaw's madness. (By the way, it's not the old Jigsaw from Saw. You know, in case you were wondering.)
Punisher: Warzone is what The Punisher should have been like. A bad-ass dude with a skull on his chest wreaking havoc in the underworld. There is significantly more violence, which is utilized in some pretty brutal ways. I especially liked the part when a 'good cop' has one of Jigsaw's men in custody when Castle walks in and flat out shoots the guy's head off with a 12-gauge (God dammit Castle!). He also shoots a free-runner with a rocket in mid-air.
The acting in this flick is a lot better compared to The Punisher. I'd say that this is mainly because the characters are a lot more fun to watch, since they're a lot more bad-ass/insane. Stevenson's Punisher is the dark, broody motherfucker we expect the Punisher to be. Jigsaw and his brother Loony Bin Jim's insanity are a delight to watch and the rest of the characters aren't that bad either, even though they're mostly there for comical relief.
So, if you'd like to see a Punisher film, but you're not sure which one you should take, I recommend this one over the previous one, simply because I believe that Warzone portrays the Punisher as he should be: Awesome.
