Punisher: War Journal

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.

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!