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Punisher: War Journal
Updated
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Genre:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2008
Original Running Time:
102
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
91
Time Cut:
11
Subtitles Available?
Available in HD?
Additional Links:
Brief Synopsis:
A movie of The Punisher that feels more in line with the character and takes out the overindulgence the movie tends to have.
Intention:
I could see what they were tying do with the movie, but it was burred under a lot of over the top moments.
Other Sources:
Punisher War Zone Blu Ray
Fan Films:
- Killzone
- Skull
- No Mercy
Music:
- Apocalyptica : Cohkka
- Filter: Hey Man, Nice Shot
- Metallica: Welcome Home Sanitarium (string quartet cover)
- Quake Soundtrack: Various Tracks
- Zombie (Acoustic Cover by Dave Winkler)
Fan Films:
- Killzone
- Skull
- No Mercy
Music:
- Apocalyptica : Cohkka
- Filter: Hey Man, Nice Shot
- Metallica: Welcome Home Sanitarium (string quartet cover)
- Quake Soundtrack: Various Tracks
- Zombie (Acoustic Cover by Dave Winkler)
Special Thanks:
Thank you Dwight Fry for helping to make this release the best could possibly be.
Release Information:
Digital
Cuts and Additions:
- Trimmed the amount of time Punisher(Frank) stands on the mobs dinner table
- Cut some of the mob people at the tables deaths. He’s sitting in one spot too long and needs to be moving faster or there is just no way he is surviving this scene.
- Speed up the kicking the soup into the guys face by 50%. Again, it just moves too slow.
- Trimmed some of the time spent hanging from the chandelier. Same reasoning as the rest of this scene.
- Cut the Jumpy Flippy Guys at the docs minus the one scene where they pick up the cash. Now when Billy say to “do your monkey thing” it now has different context, but we are not supposed to like this guy.
- Moved the scene when Billy (not jigsaw yet) finds out Nicky was a rat to after the Basement scene with Budiansky (who I will now just call Booty) and Soap meet. This way I can cut the whole plastic surgeon part that directly rips off Batman 89.
- Cut the shot of the plastic surgeon with the scissors in his head. He doesn’t exist in this cut of the movie. Now when Pittsy is looking away it’s because it’s the first time seeing Jigsaw.
- After Jigsaw breaks in to get Loony Bin Jim (LBJ) I cut the scene after LBJ says “no brother, fatso’s mine”. He get’s to become too much right away and this character needs to be dialed back. Sometimes it’s just better to hint. More creepy that way.
- Cut LBJ breaking all the mirrors. We only see him breaking one. The scene as a whole feels too silly otherwise.
- At Micros house when Frank says that he’s done Micro talks him back by reminding him that Jigsaw will be going after Mrs Donatelli and her daughter. So I cut away after Frank says Jigsaw is the last one and he’s done. Again I am cutting the jumpy flippy guys. There is no need for this subplot. Frank knows where the Donatelli’s live. He was just at their home trying to drop off cash. So him showing up to rescue them later still works because he is only staying around to stop them from getting killed anyway.
- Cut Frank and Booty fighting and Frank getting arrested. That also means he doesn’t sit in the back of the police car. Soap and Booty said earlier that they were going to be listening to the police band and listen for what crimes are happening, so if Booty hears there is a call at his friends widow’s home, it’s not odd they would also show up to check it out. We don’t need Frank to tell them to go there.
- Slight rearrangement of scenes at the Donatelli home.
- Cut Booty asking Soap how Frank escaped from the car.
- Cut LBJ making a cat sound in the interrogation room at the station.
- During the Jigsaw recruitment speech I never cut back to Jig and LBJ because I don’t like the flag floating behind them. Again the movie just goes too far. So I am using scenes from the special features and some fan films off YouTube as cutaways to represent what Jig is talking about in those moments.
- Cut scene at police station when Booty tells Soap that he is helping Soaps Partner (meaning Frank). Booty has no reason to suspect this now.
- Cut shots of LBJ walking around.
- At the raid in the Hotel, cut shot of guy smoking in the elevators head exploding.
- Trimmed fight between LBJ and Frank to remove LBJ dialog. He comes across a bit more menacing fighting silent.
- Cut Franks line at the end of the hotel scene “This is just the beginning”, It doesn’t fit.
- Cut LBJ random laughing through out the movie where I could.
- Cut some of the mob people at the tables deaths. He’s sitting in one spot too long and needs to be moving faster or there is just no way he is surviving this scene.
- Speed up the kicking the soup into the guys face by 50%. Again, it just moves too slow.
- Trimmed some of the time spent hanging from the chandelier. Same reasoning as the rest of this scene.
- Cut the Jumpy Flippy Guys at the docs minus the one scene where they pick up the cash. Now when Billy say to “do your monkey thing” it now has different context, but we are not supposed to like this guy.
- Moved the scene when Billy (not jigsaw yet) finds out Nicky was a rat to after the Basement scene with Budiansky (who I will now just call Booty) and Soap meet. This way I can cut the whole plastic surgeon part that directly rips off Batman 89.
- Cut the shot of the plastic surgeon with the scissors in his head. He doesn’t exist in this cut of the movie. Now when Pittsy is looking away it’s because it’s the first time seeing Jigsaw.
- After Jigsaw breaks in to get Loony Bin Jim (LBJ) I cut the scene after LBJ says “no brother, fatso’s mine”. He get’s to become too much right away and this character needs to be dialed back. Sometimes it’s just better to hint. More creepy that way.
- Cut LBJ breaking all the mirrors. We only see him breaking one. The scene as a whole feels too silly otherwise.
- At Micros house when Frank says that he’s done Micro talks him back by reminding him that Jigsaw will be going after Mrs Donatelli and her daughter. So I cut away after Frank says Jigsaw is the last one and he’s done. Again I am cutting the jumpy flippy guys. There is no need for this subplot. Frank knows where the Donatelli’s live. He was just at their home trying to drop off cash. So him showing up to rescue them later still works because he is only staying around to stop them from getting killed anyway.
- Cut Frank and Booty fighting and Frank getting arrested. That also means he doesn’t sit in the back of the police car. Soap and Booty said earlier that they were going to be listening to the police band and listen for what crimes are happening, so if Booty hears there is a call at his friends widow’s home, it’s not odd they would also show up to check it out. We don’t need Frank to tell them to go there.
- Slight rearrangement of scenes at the Donatelli home.
- Cut Booty asking Soap how Frank escaped from the car.
- Cut LBJ making a cat sound in the interrogation room at the station.
- During the Jigsaw recruitment speech I never cut back to Jig and LBJ because I don’t like the flag floating behind them. Again the movie just goes too far. So I am using scenes from the special features and some fan films off YouTube as cutaways to represent what Jig is talking about in those moments.
- Cut scene at police station when Booty tells Soap that he is helping Soaps Partner (meaning Frank). Booty has no reason to suspect this now.
- Cut shots of LBJ walking around.
- At the raid in the Hotel, cut shot of guy smoking in the elevators head exploding.
- Trimmed fight between LBJ and Frank to remove LBJ dialog. He comes across a bit more menacing fighting silent.
- Cut Franks line at the end of the hotel scene “This is just the beginning”, It doesn’t fit.
- Cut LBJ random laughing through out the movie where I could.
User reviews
5 reviews
Overall rating
9.5
Audio/Video Quality
9.8(5)
Visual Editing
9.6(5)
Audio Editing
9.0(5)
Narrative
9.4(5)
Enjoyment
9.6(5)
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Audio Editing
9.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
Now THIS is the Punisher movie I have been looking for!
Dark. Violent. Unapologetic.
The original War Zone was a tonal mess that was only saved by Ray Stevenson's pitch perfect casting.
Lantern51 has cleverly retuned the movie by de-emphasizing or completely removing the over the top moments, thus allowing the strengths of the film come to the foreground. Along with some solid scene cuts/trims, the tonal realignment is done mostly two ways. One, a completely new colour scheme. The bright rich inappropriate colour palette has been replaced with a washed out, gritty, grunge landscape. And two, this new colder, darker, semi-apocalyptic look is supported by an almost all new soundtrack that enhances the grittiness, tension and despair.
While I was not a fan of every new music choice, the song used after Frank kills the uncover agent was inspired. There is extensive and impressive audio replacement throughout this edit. The vast majority of it is masterful, and it is only in the final climax it is slightly noticeable due to original spill and the unavoidable side effect limitations of the software used.
Lots of great cut work throughout this edit, which improves pacing and narrative immensely. Jigsaw and LBJs' performances do at times feel at odds with the new edited tone, but for the most part, they now come across far more ominous and threatening. For me, the only casualty of the new structure is there is no clear reveal of Soap's true intentions, thus he comes across even more oddball and eccentric. But my favourite piece of editing is the new version of Jigsaw's recruitment speech -- brilliant stuff!
The bookend War Journal entries were nice touches and I think, as another reviewer commented, it would have been nice to have had a couple more scattered throughout the narrative for more insight into Frank and to re-enforce the fan edit concept.
When one considers the original source material, this fan edit is an impressive accomplishment. The fan editor easily met and exceeded his goals.
Good stuff!!! :)
Dark. Violent. Unapologetic.
The original War Zone was a tonal mess that was only saved by Ray Stevenson's pitch perfect casting.
Lantern51 has cleverly retuned the movie by de-emphasizing or completely removing the over the top moments, thus allowing the strengths of the film come to the foreground. Along with some solid scene cuts/trims, the tonal realignment is done mostly two ways. One, a completely new colour scheme. The bright rich inappropriate colour palette has been replaced with a washed out, gritty, grunge landscape. And two, this new colder, darker, semi-apocalyptic look is supported by an almost all new soundtrack that enhances the grittiness, tension and despair.
While I was not a fan of every new music choice, the song used after Frank kills the uncover agent was inspired. There is extensive and impressive audio replacement throughout this edit. The vast majority of it is masterful, and it is only in the final climax it is slightly noticeable due to original spill and the unavoidable side effect limitations of the software used.
Lots of great cut work throughout this edit, which improves pacing and narrative immensely. Jigsaw and LBJs' performances do at times feel at odds with the new edited tone, but for the most part, they now come across far more ominous and threatening. For me, the only casualty of the new structure is there is no clear reveal of Soap's true intentions, thus he comes across even more oddball and eccentric. But my favourite piece of editing is the new version of Jigsaw's recruitment speech -- brilliant stuff!
The bookend War Journal entries were nice touches and I think, as another reviewer commented, it would have been nice to have had a couple more scattered throughout the narrative for more insight into Frank and to re-enforce the fan edit concept.
When one considers the original source material, this fan edit is an impressive accomplishment. The fan editor easily met and exceeded his goals.
Good stuff!!! :)
B
Overall rating
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Audio Editing
8.0
Narrative
8.0
Enjoyment
9.0
lantern51 has turned Punisher into an old school 80's style action flick. Its lean and mean, losing all the camp and silliness of the original. It has an almost cypia tone moody look and a terrific soundtrack. The Punisher now comes accross as a man haunted by his past and despite his no compromising violonce still has a moral code. I love how lantern51 had a clear vision of what he wanted this edit to be and focused tightly on that.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
P
(Updated: April 11, 2022)
Overall rating
9.7
Audio/Video Quality
9.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Audio Editing
9.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Very enjoyable edit, the removal of the silliness of the villains is without a doubt the best change you made, no more over-the-top acting and weird performances from Looney Bin Jim and Jigsaw, less clownish, more disturbing and menacing. The action is fast-paced and flows very well. Also, the top-notch music you added was wisely chosen, I loved every single one.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
D
(Updated: April 11, 2022)
Overall rating
9.9
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Audio Editing
9.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
All the out of place moments which I would also dub WTF moments are definitely detrimental aspects of the film that I did not miss and the exclusion of said moments helped the edit to maintain it’s consistent gritty tone which is further enhanced through an excellent choice of colour grading that made it feel like I was reading the pages of a Punisher comic book.
The cutaways from one scene to another were pretty seamless and improved the pacing of not just the narrative but the fight scenes as well which are far more intense and fun to watch for me now and made The Punisher out to be a more efficient killer and tactically smarter vigilante than he was in the theatrical cut, Looney Bin Jim is far more tolerable in this version and the alteration to Jigsaw’s reveal is much more unique and gives the first live action version of the character a better sense of self identity rather than being a Jack Nicholson Joker ripoff.
This edit also gives itself a unique sense of identity through the use of it’s well designed title card and War Journals that I find to be a nice touch and a great nod to the comics and in both continuities case I loved that bit of insight into Frank’s mind and I kinda wish there more War Journal entries scattered throughout the edit, further insight into the mind of Frank Castle is provided through a cover of a certain song which really sells just how much inner turmoil and rage he is feeling in that specific scene.
Well the sound error at 00:07:21 is a bit distracting I am now aware that it isn't a problem with the actual edit itself but rather the theatrical version of the film though I am surprised that slipped by the editor of said theatrical cut, it's not enough to detract from my experience of the edit though and the sound quality for both resolutions of the edit was stable and remained fairly consistent throughout.
There's some good music resonance throughout especially during the fight scenes which compliment the newly added FX rather nicely with said FX feeling as if it belongs right in the movie although it may be hard to tell that it's newly added FX at first though that is not a criticism but rather praise of Lantern51's editing skills but as for recommendations I would recommend this for those who are into the more grounded and grittier side of the Marvel Film Library and for those who like short segmented origin stories that don't eat up the runtime as Frank's backstory in both this edit and the theatrical cut pretty much explains everything one needs to know about one of Marvel's most popular Anti Heroes without hurting the pacing.
The cutaways from one scene to another were pretty seamless and improved the pacing of not just the narrative but the fight scenes as well which are far more intense and fun to watch for me now and made The Punisher out to be a more efficient killer and tactically smarter vigilante than he was in the theatrical cut, Looney Bin Jim is far more tolerable in this version and the alteration to Jigsaw’s reveal is much more unique and gives the first live action version of the character a better sense of self identity rather than being a Jack Nicholson Joker ripoff.
This edit also gives itself a unique sense of identity through the use of it’s well designed title card and War Journals that I find to be a nice touch and a great nod to the comics and in both continuities case I loved that bit of insight into Frank’s mind and I kinda wish there more War Journal entries scattered throughout the edit, further insight into the mind of Frank Castle is provided through a cover of a certain song which really sells just how much inner turmoil and rage he is feeling in that specific scene.
Well the sound error at 00:07:21 is a bit distracting I am now aware that it isn't a problem with the actual edit itself but rather the theatrical version of the film though I am surprised that slipped by the editor of said theatrical cut, it's not enough to detract from my experience of the edit though and the sound quality for both resolutions of the edit was stable and remained fairly consistent throughout.
There's some good music resonance throughout especially during the fight scenes which compliment the newly added FX rather nicely with said FX feeling as if it belongs right in the movie although it may be hard to tell that it's newly added FX at first though that is not a criticism but rather praise of Lantern51's editing skills but as for recommendations I would recommend this for those who are into the more grounded and grittier side of the Marvel Film Library and for those who like short segmented origin stories that don't eat up the runtime as Frank's backstory in both this edit and the theatrical cut pretty much explains everything one needs to know about one of Marvel's most popular Anti Heroes without hurting the pacing.
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
P
Overall rating
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Audio Editing
10.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
Back in 2008-9 I actually enjoyed Punisher: War Zone quite a bit. Guess that after hating the insultingly tame 2004 movie so much, anything that came along that felt more true to the comic book character would appear to be the Second Coming to me. However, in repeated viewings it falls completely apart. It comes across as a terribly clichéd and run-of-the-mill direct to video B-Movie of the era with terrible villains and way too much silliness, and the CGI blood doesn't help either. The only thing holding it together is Ray Stevenson absolutely nailing the title character. He is perfection, the best possible Punisher, and it's sad that he never got the chance to reprise the role in any follow-ups. But other than him, I came to wonder why I even liked the movie to begin with.
Now, this cut. THIS is how I wanted to remember the movie.
Lantern51 has smartly carved this and gotten to the core to reveal an actually decent film under the rubble. It is now much tighter and surprisingly effective, with hardly any goofiness remaining (the villains are still sub-par and the splatter is still digital, but what can one do) and plays like a pretty solid Punisher graphic novel. The color grading and the choice of music are very inspired, and high quality is maintained all through in the encoding.
Editing can indeed make or break a movie, and this is one of those cases. Highly recommended for any Frank Castle fans out there!
Now, this cut. THIS is how I wanted to remember the movie.
Lantern51 has smartly carved this and gotten to the core to reveal an actually decent film under the rubble. It is now much tighter and surprisingly effective, with hardly any goofiness remaining (the villains are still sub-par and the splatter is still digital, but what can one do) and plays like a pretty solid Punisher graphic novel. The color grading and the choice of music are very inspired, and high quality is maintained all through in the encoding.
Editing can indeed make or break a movie, and this is one of those cases. Highly recommended for any Frank Castle fans out there!
D