Three Monkeys Online Reviews

Kill Bill Vol.2

Kill Bill Vol. 1, or The 4^th Film by Quentin Tarantino, was a bloody mix of female assassins, Samurai swords and missing limbs that managed to elicit extreme love or hate reactions in cinemagoers. While some of us loved it for its pace and humour, others criticised its resultant lack of typical Tarantino dialogue. However, the second instalment, we were told, would involve less action and consequently provide us with more complex characterisation and emotional depth.

And so to Kill Bill 2 or The One With The Dialogue as The Bride (Uma Thurman) continues to seek revenge on the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DIVAS) who were responsible for the wedding chapel massacre that saw the death of her husband and unborn child. With two members already removed from this mortal coil in the first film, her list now consists of Buck (Michael Madsen), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah in extreme bitch mode) and her ultimate nemesis, Bill (David Carradine). After a near fatal mistake when confronting Buck, The Bride/Black Mambo/Beatrix gets her rampage back on track with Elle being on the receiving end of some particularly just desserts. Turning her full attention to Bill now, she manages to locate his whereabouts only to discover what the audience have known since the first film – that her daughter is alive and well.

This being a Tarantino movie of course the narrative is not quite as straightforward with the action heavily interspersed with scenes such as Bill and Beatrix’s meeting at the wedding chapel and her training at the hands of the superbly sadistic Pai Mei.

I feel that Kill Bill Vol. 2 will definitely produce a more unanimous verdict among cinema audiences but unfortunately I don’t think it will be in the way that the studio might have hoped. From the outset the pace and style of the film is greatly at odds with its predecessor. Where Vol. 1 drew criticism for being more style than substance, the second part mostly eschews intricately choreographed set pieces in favour of slightly laboured character development and attempts at imbuing the film with emotional depth in a way that is perhaps just too much of a contrast with what went before. If we are to take both films as two halves of a whole (the director’s intention) then it seems like an unwise idea to have such a major gear shift half way through as the fight sequences in Vol. 2 fall short (in both length and intensity) of those in Vol. 1. There is a major lack of balance which results in one film being too action orientated for many, while the other feels quite flat and anti-climactic in places. Also, the emotional outpourings in the latter part of the film sometimes threaten to spill over into one genre that Tarantino has not previously paid homage to – that of the TV movie.

Saying that, there are some hugely entertaining scenes in the film such as those with Pai Mei, and Beatrix’s impressive disregard for basic laws of science as she struggles to escape Buck’s attempt to kill her. These combined with Tarantino’s usual inspired incidental characters and asides makes the film well worth a look...but just don’t expect too much. It is a real shame that it wasn’t edited more ruthlessly it ends up being just ‘ok’ when it could have been ‘excellent’.