The Punisher (2004) & Punisher: War zone, armed to the teeth?

Former Delta Force member, then special agent at the FBI, Frank Castle is about to retire to lead a peaceful existence with his wife and young son. During his final mission, things are going wrong and Howard Saint's son, a powerful businessman and underworld magnate, is killed. Ivre de vengeance, Saint organizes the massacre of Frank and his whole family. But he survives. From now on, he has only one goal: to make the culprit pay for his crime...

Not bad but not transcending its subject (far from the base material elsewhere), The Punisher is an old-fashioned move watch (the cascades are real and there is no CGI) where the action is unleashed at regular intervals. And if friendly finds (the killer singing or the unusual use of ice) counterbalance the absence of real graphic violence (it's quite harmless in the state), this not so bloody crusade clearly lacks scope. However, she remains brutal and entertaining enough so that she does not get bored with her two heads (Thomas Jane and John Travolta).

This UHD transfer is also distinguished from its HD counterpart by the contribution of the HDR/WCG combo. The colorimetric palette is richer and saturated (yellow corvette, red blood, blue hues), the contrasts are more worked (the three dimensionality of the planes is more marked), the blacks are more nuanced but equally deep (the dark scenes are more legible), and the light sources appear to come to life (the daylight of the day, the lighting of the poor apartments, the reflections on the Pontiac GTO). The improvement is therefore notable but it is not a demonstration disc, the fault of the presence of some tinglings and rare double contours (of the edge enhancement if you prefer). Moreover, negative 35mm obliges, the images present a grain well present and sometimes even intrusive (the skys in Puerto Rico). This is not a defect since it is an artistic desire to reproduce the peaty atmosphere of the work, but it is important to report it so as not to expect a clean and smooth rendering.

Remastered in Atmos, the VO takes mixing into (high) spheres that were still unknown to it. On the other hand, Blu-ray's DTS-ES 6.1 track and the present Dolby Digital 5.1 VF are of a staggering platitude (while they send and do not lack life). The voices are not only clearer, but the impacts of the pyrotechnic effects are otherwise more physical (the LFE channel is powerful) and the multichannel presence much more precise (the plot of arrows) and enveloping (the agitation at the club). Thus offering an immersion of every moment, it opens even more space by using an aerial scene (the echo of the pieces, the blast of explosions, etc.) which is far from figuration.

Artistic : 6 | Video : 7.5 | Audio : 10