Punisher: War Zone 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Punisher: War Zone 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 19, 2022

Lionsgate is back with its latest Best Buy exclusive of a 4K UHD release in SteelBook packaging, and I'll leave it to cultural anthropologists to figure out which category exactly this latest offering from Lionsgate fits into: totally random 4K UHD release (with or without HDR), 4K UHD release perhaps designed to deal with 1080 remainder discs also included in the package, and/or another "stealth release" from Lionsgate that is an actually interesting film. As baffling as Lionsgate's release calendar of 4K UHD product has been, they can do remarkable work, as The Limey 4K, one of their most recent Best Buy exclusive releases in SteelBook packaging, proves.

Punisher: War Zone received a 1080 release back at the veritable dawn of the Blu-ray era, and for those interested in a plot recap, Martin Liebman's Punisher: War Zone Blu-ray review of that now "archival" release should suffice quite handily. Marty's review is also a good resource for his thoughts on the technical merits of the original release, and, as I mention below, he also provides a few more details about the supplements which have also made it over to this release.

Punisher: War Zone 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080 disc also included in this package.

Punisher: War Zone is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with a 2160p transfer in 2.40:1. Lionsgate isn't always the best at providing a wealth of technical information, but in the absence of any other information, I'm defaulting to the assumption this was based off the same 2K DI that the IMDb reports was used initially. While a 4K master could have arguably upped the ante even more, I have to say for the most part I was very engaged by this presentation, one which takes already generally excellent detail levels and probably especially palette saturation from the 1080 presentation and provides noticeable upticks. The film's deliberately fractured presentational style can lead to all sorts of image bells and whistles, some of which deliberately mask detail levels, but in this transfer's arguably "calmer" moments, close-ups in particular bristle with really nice (and in the case of Jigsaw, potentially disturbing) fine detail levels. That said, it's probably the film's color scheme that benefits most from this new 4K UHD version, and courtesy of HDR and/or Dolby Vision, there are some really interesting new highlights observable, and at times in some relatively unusual hue ranges, as in some of the almost garish greens that are on display. Some of the less obviously graded material now attains more of an almost slightly peach colored sepia tone, but some of the more aggressively tinted material really offers some superbly vivid tones in the red and blue spectrums in particular. Black levels are impressively deep throughout, and while I'd argue that shadow definition is at least marginally improved in this version, there are some passing flirtations with crush in the very darkest moments. Grain can look pretty gritty at times, but this is another 4K UHD presentation where my fears about overly "dirty" looking grain were largely quelled by the actual appearance of things.

Punisher: War Zone 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Marty gave absolutely top marks to the 1080 disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, and since our specs don't allow me to turn scores "up to 11", or at least five, all I can say is this 4K UHD disc's Dolby Atmos track takes all of the strengths of the 7.1 mix and then catapults things just a little bit further, to often really enjoyable effect. There's a glut of surround activity throughout this presentation, much of which is detailed in Marty's comments, but the really fun use of discrete channelization in some of the big action scenes is especially noticeable, where things like individual bursts of gunfire can erupts from ping ponging side channels, or when some of the explosive effects clearly engage the Atmos channels. The sound mix here is almost relentless at times, as Marty also mentioned, but the really expert layering of effects, score and dialogue is remarkable and is delivered here with excellent fidelity and precision. The fact that the film is so loud so much of the time might argue against wide dynamic range, but there are some "breathers" here which reveal appealing variations. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Punisher: War Zone 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 4K UHD disc commendably ports over all of the supplements from the previously released 1080 version (which is also included in this release). See Marty's review for a few more details on some of these:

• Audio Commentary by Director Lexi Alexander and Director of Photography Steve Gainer


• The Making of Punisher: War Zone (HD; 9:02)


• Meet Jigsaw (HD; 3:34)


• Weapons of The Punisher (HD; 4:39)


• Training to Become The Punisher (HD; 5:47)


• Creating the Look of the Film (HD; 2:46)


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:08)

Additionally a digital copy code is enclosed, and as mentioned above this features exclusive SteelBook packaging. The color scheme of the SteelBook is largely red and blue, something that's emphasized by a red tinged see through slip cover. The front cover shows The Punisher, while the back features a montage of sorts of some of the other characters. The SteelBook art is credited to Orlando "Mexifunk" Arocena.

Punisher: War Zone 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

They say that even a broken clock is right two times a day, and kind of similarly I'd argue that Lionsgate's somewhat confounding 4K UHD release calendar at least occasionally provides unexpected dividends, and one of them might be this appealing SteelBook release. Punisher: War Zone won't be everyone cup of "t" (as in testosterone), but it's goofy fun in its own way, and the film's stylistic flourishes are shown off to appealing degree by the excellent technical merits of this release. Recommended.