Punisher: War Journal

It has been a very long time since I watched this - probably over 10 years. My copy was literally collecting dust. This effectively made me a borderline new viewer as I did not remember much of what I previously saw. I was confident lantern51 would do good work this as I was impressed by his edits of the Amazing Spiderman movies. I was not disappointed.

The dark shade coloring of the movie really fit with the dark tone the movie was giving off. The added musical score also amplified the dark feelings while I watched this. I could tell in various instances where things were cut, but the transitions put in place smoothed those out to minimize any jarring effect.

I personally felt the narrative was logical and flowed quite well throughout my viewing experience. Major credit to lantern51 on this. This is not always easy when cutting material throughout a movie, and even rearranging scenes. As referenced above, I am a partial first-time viewer so I could not rely on my memory to fill in the gaps.

Some of my enjoyment was hindered by the gore in this movie. As I have gotten older, I have gotten progressively more turned off by overly bloody material. This is not the editor's fault obviously, but this is something to keep in mind for others reading this review who are considering to watch this.

Overall, this was a fun watch. I want to express my gratitude to the editor for the hard work put into this and sharing the edit with me. I do recommend others to watch this if an opportunity arises.

ABSOLUTE BANGER!!!

This is what i always thought the original version was going to be before i watched it for the first time and realized that it was a total mess lol. I absolutely love the new moody look of the movie, all the new music you've added were also made up for a nice touch. Overall, this is a really enjoyable and straight to the point edit. Great job, Lantern51!

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!!! :)

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.

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.