Critical reception
Punisher: War Zone received generally negative reviews from film critics. The film has a rating of 27% based on 101 reviews on
Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 4.3 out of 10 with the consensus "
War Zone recalls the excessively violent, dialogue-challenged actioners of the 1980s, and coincidentally feels two decades out of date."
[46] Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film 2 out of 4 stars, writing, "You used to be able to depend on a terrible film being poorly made. No longer. The
Punisher: War Zone is one of the best-made bad movies I've seen." And that the film's only flaw is "that it's disgusting."
[47] Clark Collis writes that
Ray Stevenson's "character could be called the Not-Much-of-a-Learning Curveinator."
[48] Frank Dasta of RobotBoombox.com gave the movie 0 out of 5 stars, stating "May God have mercy on this film's soul. Punisher: Warzone is bland, uninspired, and it missed the point of the source material entirely. It's like these people have never even read a proper Punisher comic."
[49]
Felix Vasquez of Cinema Crazed, who loved the previous film version, gave
Punisher: War Zone a positive review, claiming "War Zone is a better film."
[50] Edward Porter of the UK
The Sunday Times gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing, "Earning an 18 certificate with its violence, the film is kids’ stuff in all other respects: over-the-top shootouts, monstrous and barking-mad villains, a bumbling sidekick and so on. Highly enjoyable tosh."
[51] Victor Olliver of Teletext wrote, "This is as true to a Marvel comic tale as I've ever seen - gory, serious, intense, dark and utterly psychotic."
[52] Movie reporter Peter Hartlaub of the
San Francisco Chronicle gave the film a positive review, writing that it is the "best Punisher movie by far. The action is satisfying and the dark story is close to the tone of its Marvel Comics source material."
[53]
Despite negative reviews from critics,
Punisher: War Zone managed to develop a
Cult following. Comedian
Patton Oswalt has been a vocal supporter of the film since its release, calling it "THE BEST time I've had at the movies this year."
[54] In October 2011, Oswalt hosted a screening of the film in Los Angeles with director Lexi Alexander, and the two discussed the film in episode 20 of
Paul Scheer's podcast
How Did This Get Made?[55]
In later years, director Alexander stressed how much the film's parent studio Lionsgate had more control over the film and has "regretted" making the film their way, stating, "Marvel was an equal partner, but unfortunately when there were creative decision conflicts, Marvel would let Lionsgate be the tie breaker. I always regretted that I made a Marvel movie this way, because 99% of their notes were much better than the studios and I was more in tune with them". Alexander also noted that she did not have final cut of the film.
[56]
