Punisher: War Zone

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Movie
German title Punisher: War Zone
Original title Punisher: War Zone
Country of production USA , Germany
original language English
Publishing year 2008
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Lexi Alexander
script Nick Santora
Art Marcum
Matt Holloway
production Gale Anne Hurd
Jack L. Murray
Gary Ventimiglia
music Michael Wandmacher
camera Steve Gainer
cut William Yeh
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The Punisher

Punisher: War Zone ( English Punisher: War Zone ) is an American action film from the year 2008 , which on a Marvel comic called The Punisher is based. The other two film adaptations are from 1989 and 2004 .

action

Punisher: War Zone is set six years after Frank Castle became a Punisher. The now notorious Punisher storms a celebration of Mafia boss Gaitano Cesare and mercilessly executes all the guests. Only Billy Russoti and three of his people can escape and hide in a recycling factory. Frank Castle is caught by Detective Saffiotti as he leaves the villa, but is let go after he recognizes Frank. Furthermore, this Frank gives the hint that Billy Russoti was able to escape to a recycling factory with some people. Frank Castle enters the factory and kills Nicky Donatelli as he enters. Billy Russoti hears the gunshots and tries to kill the Punisher, but after a brief exchange of fire he is pushed into a glass recycling machine, which devours him. A short time later, the guards appear. During the firefight, Frank Castle lands next to the previously killed Nicky Donatelli, noting that this one Undercover - FBI was -Agent.

Nicky Donatelli's former partner, Paul Budiansky, wants to catch the Punisher. He joins the New York Police Department after his funeral and joins the Punisher Task Force, where he meets Detective Martin Soap. In the meantime it turns out that Billy Russoti, believed to be dead, did not die. But since his face was completely destroyed by the glass in the machine, he tries to have it straightened by a plastic surgeon. But even this one cannot restore his face. In his anger, he kills the surgeon and swears revenge on the Punisher. From then on, Billy calls himself Jigsaw and wants the help of his deranged brother who is in the asylum. In the institution Jigsaw breaks the neck of the psychiatrist and his brother, Loony Bin Jim kills a nurse by ripping out an organ of the nurse and eating.

Frank Castle, driven by his guilt, tries to apologize to Nicky Donatelli's family, but is sent away. A short time later, Jigsaw breaks into Nicky Donatelli's house and holds Nicky Donatelli's wife and daughter hostage while he searches for the money the deceased should look after.

Meanwhile, Frank Castle, who is looking for Jigsaw, learns that he has gone to see Nicky Donatelli's family. When Frank tries to run there, he is stopped by Paul Budiansky, who tries to arrest him. After a fight, Paul Budiansky manages to arrest Frank Castle. However, he warns Paul that Jigsaw and his men are on their way to the Donatellis. After he has sent a patrolman there, but he no longer reports, Paul drives there himself and enters the house, where he finds the bodies of the two patrolmen. However, the hostages force him to become a hostage himself. In the meantime, Detective Soap, who is actually an assistant to the punisher, is running it. The Punisher then enters the house through the back door, takes down two of Jigsaw's men and saves the hostages. Still, Paul insists on arresting Frank. When he has already left the house, Jigsaw and his brother, who were on the upper floor, appear and fire at Paul Budiansky. After a brief firefight, Paul arrests them both. In the meantime, Frank has brought Nicky Donatelli's wife and daughter to his quarters because he thinks it would be safer there.

Jigsaw negotiates a deal with Agent Miller by handing him over to Cristu Bulat, who is smuggling biological weapons. Thereupon Jigsaw is released again, gets the money that Donatelli has hidden and the files on Microchip, Frank Castle's assistant. Jigsaw and his brother then kill Microchip's mother, take him hostage and also manage to kidnap the wife and daughter of Nicky Donatelli from Frank's hiding place. They also hire an army of criminals, all of whom hold grudges against the Punisher, and then occupy the Bradstreet Hotel.

The Punisher asks Paul Budiansky for help and he makes sure that the guards on the bottom floor are distracted by telling Christu Bulat's father where Jigsaw is. He then sends his people there to take revenge on Jigsaw for his betrayal. When Paul and Frank also want to break into the building, Frank hits Paul k. o., since Frank knows that he has to face Jigsaw alone. In a brutal exchange of fire, Frank fights his way to Jigsaw, who gives him a choice, threatening Microchip with a gun on one side and holding a gun to the head of Nicky Donatelli's daughter on the other. Frank has the free choice and should now shoot one of the two hostages. Microchip tells Frank to choose him because Donatelli's daughter is still a child. Frank agrees. When he wants to pull the trigger, he pulls the gun to Jigsaw's brother and shoots him. Jigsaw then executes Microchip and shoots the Donatellis, but Frank throws himself in front of it with his bulletproof vest and kills Jigsaw with his bare hands after the following duel.

In front of the building, Frank says goodbye to the Donatellis, and Detective Soap tries to persuade Frank to let his alter ego Punisher rest. But Soap changes his mind when he is threatened with a gun by a criminal a short time later and Frank saves him from him by shooting the criminal.

Reviews

“[...] Equipped with large-caliber fire power, hand grenades and free from scruples, this incarnation of the Punisher transports his adversaries into the afterlife in a particularly violent way. Die-hard fanboys with a taste for weird humor will be delighted. "

- Kino.de

“As a dirty B thriller, 'War Zone' would have definitely had potential. The shootouts are stolen - it hit their genre colleague Hitman particularly badly , from which whole fight choreographies are taken over - but they are nice to look at. Especially the urban sets with their echoes of film noir and industrial culture have atmospheric qualities. It's a shame that the burgeoning mood can never unfold, but is thwarted again by the banal figures and the wooden dialogues. As if that weren't annoying enough, “War Zone” celebrates an absurd logic of violence, which is underpinned towards the end with a disgustingly pretentious picture: In front of the glowing “Jesus Saves” slogan on a church wall, the punisher is allowed to enter one last misguided homeless person the eternal hunting grounds. It makes sense that Spider-Man once took up the fight against this cynicism. How nice that his fourth screen adventure will be spared by this figure. "

- Filmstarts.de

"Extremely bloodthirsty film adaptation of a Marvel comic, which lets its hero go straight to action."

- Lexicon of international film

publication

Due to its poor box office results in North America, Punisher - War Zone was released in autumn 2009 as a DVD and Blu-Ray release in Germany. The version with FSK 18 has been relieved of most of the violence. However, an uncut DVD / BluRay with the SPIO / JK symbol is also available. A director's cut is also being planned. The film was unindexed in October 2019. A re-examination by the FSK revealed an age rating of 18 years and over for the unabridged version.

Soundtrack to the film

The soundtrack for the film was released in January 2009. Were represented, among others, Rob Zombie , who is also with War Zone wrote the film song, Slayer , Slipknot , Rise Against , Seether , Kerli , Senses Fail , Justice , Pendulum , Hatebreed , Ramallah and Static-X .

synchronization

The German synchronization was carried out by Scala Media GmbH in Munich. Dialogue direction was directed by Peter Woratz , the dialogue book was written by Stefan Sidak .

Trivia

There are some differences in the film from the comics. Ink is not the son of Pitsy and neither are the henchmen of Jigsaw, but of Nicklas Cavella, from the Garth Ennis comics. Also, Jigsaw doesn't have a brother named Loony Bin Jim.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kino.de: film criticism
  2. ^ Filmstarts.de: film review
  3. ^ Punisher: War Zone. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 1, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ^ Message about the testing of the FSK version , schnittberichte.com, May 15, 2009
  5. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/news.php?ID=15280
  6. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/ticker.php?ID=6931
  7. ^ Punisher: War Zone in the German synchronous file
Punisher - movies & series
cinemamovies

The Punisher (1989) • The Punisher (2004) • Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Short films

The Punisher: Dirty Laundry (2012)

Series

Marvel's Daredevil (Season 2) (2015) • Marvel's The Punisher (2017-2019)