Punisher: War Zone--Best Negative Reviews Evar!

[Felon]

A quick moseying over to Metacritic.com floored me with the outpouring of loathing for the new Punisher movie, which currently has a metascore of 30 based on 22 reviews. That's 30 on a scale of 1-100, folks; it's the kind of grade that gets kids held back a year in elementary school. We're talking Freddy Got Fingered numbers here.

(here's the link for those who just want a quick click: Punisher: War Zone (2008): Reviews)

But a little further reading of the various snippoets had me very tantalized. For instance:

Anyone with a modicum of good sense -- or a weak stomach -- will take it as a warning to stay the heck away from this literally and figuratively deadly "War Zone."

This is junk, a bunch of hard-R action scenes kept together by the thinnest of plots.

This awful sequel dispenses with any such pretense, its cartoonish characters running an endless gauntlet of hypergruesome violence.

The script isn't what matters here: This is a slasher movie with guns, and, uh, huh-huh, that's pretty cool.

Although I have to give The Village Voice high marks for their timely Beavis-and-Butthead reference, my personal favorite comes from Roger Ebert...

It looks great, it hurtles through its paces and is well-acted. The soundtrack is like elevator music if the elevator were in a death plunge. The special effects are state of the art. Its only flaw is that it's disgusting.

I tell ya, I hope this movie rakes it in.

 

[Slider Wade]

Hopefully my girlfriends and I will be seeing it Monday night; I never see a movie on its opening weekend.

The reboot is one of my guilty pleasures and I look forward to watching War Zone.

 

[DonTadow]

A quick moseying over to Metacritic.com floored me with the outpouring of loathing for the new Punisher movie, which currently has a metascore of 30 based on 22 reviews. Here's the link for those who just want a quick click: Punisher: War Zone (2008): Reviews. We're talking Freddy Got Fingered numbers here.

But a little further reading of the various snippoets had me very tantalized. For instance:









And my personal favorite from Roger Ebert...


I tell ya, I hope this movie rakes it in.

These review made me want to see it earlier. One negative review i read at rotten tomato talked about how it feels like thea ctual comic book punisher and doesn't do anything with the comic matieral.. ithought cool. punisher isn't for everyone but a faithful punisher is better than an emo one.

 

[frankthedm]

SWEET! I be hitting this tomorrow.

I tell ya, I hope this movie rakes it in.

I have a suspicion that a gruesome/scary movie's financial success really depends on the quality of life of the audience. The better life is going for the masses, the more accepting of 'bad things' they will be. Conversely if the masses are already miserable, a gruesome/scary movie is going to have a hard time with the masses. If the film can strike a cord with the audience [Gojira], or if people are starving for horror [Saw], it can still do well. A strong name can also get folks in the theater, but even RAMBO (2008) did not do as well as it should have. With a strong recession/weak depression going and only a modestly strong name to back it up, I'll be surprised if the movie breaks even before DVD sales. I think it is refreshing to see folks blown to chunks during the holyday season, but even this gorehound questions if the masses feel the same way.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I saw it this morning. I enjoyed it. It felt like the Punisher.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I saw it this morning. I enjoyed it. It felt like the Punisher.

This (except I saw it last night).

It is not, by any means, a good movie. But it's a "good bad" movie, and it's exactly what a Punisher movie should be.

The trick to enjoying this movie is to understand going in that it's a comic book. I don't mean that it's "a movie based on a comic book," like, say, Iron Man or The Dark Knight. I mean that it's a comic book (albeit a bloody comic book) that they happened to film using live actors, and it's written, acted, and "special effected" accordingly.

 

[Knightfall]

I saw it this morning. I enjoyed it. It felt like the Punisher.

That's all the motivation I need to go to see Punisher: War Zone. Critics don't have a clue what I want to see.

The same way that TV executives don't have a clue regarding what I want to see on TV.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Like Ari said, it wasn't at an Iron Man or The Dark Knight level. Also, I felt like I got my matinee price ticket worth and more, I didn't feel like my time was wasted. I got what I went in hoping for.

And I'm not giving anything away when I say that there is nothing after the credits. I stayed through on the history of so many recent Marvel Studios movies having a bit after the credits, and there was nothing extra in my viewing.

 

[megamania]

And I'm not giving anything away when I say that there is nothing after the credits. I stayed through on the history of so many recent Marvel Studios movies having a bit after the credits, and there was nothing extra in my viewing.

This occurs in Marvel MADE movies. Punisher is LICENCED out.

Kinda curious if Marvel did make it.... story AND action.....

Sounds like a DVD rental for me

 

[frankthedm]

The move was a Marvel Knights imprint.

The movie kicked serious ass.

The trick to enjoying this movie is to understand going in that it's a comic book. I don't mean that it's "a movie based on a comic book," like, say, Iron Man or The Dark Knight. I mean that it's a comic book (albeit a bloody comic book) that they happened to film using live actors, and it's written, acted, and "special effected" accordingly.

Very good analysis!

Oh, the movie did not do well at the box office.