April 22, 2004
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Review)
Tarantino was clearly saving the deeper parts of the story for Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - the second half of his revenge tale. Where the first volume is a more cartoonish depiction of Uma Thurman’s “The Bride”, this is a deeper look into the character, where she’s from and where she’s going.
Yes, of course, it’s full of action as well, much of it hyperbolic, but the action is now used as punctuation for the emotional story.
The Bride continues her rampage, but we jump around in time to learn what really happened in that chapel and how she learned the skills that allowed her to survive one on one with an entire yakuza army.
I’m not the diligent student of film Tarantino is; I don’t get every one of the references that are surely embedded among the names, images and sounds. But I know what I like. I like the fact that Tarantino delivers a great action film and then gives us a mythology as a followup.
Going through Budd and Elle Driver turns out not to be as certain a task as slicing up the Crazy 88. The closer The Bride gets to Bill, the closer she gets to her past. This is where the first film let us off easy. The past gave Thurman’s character her motivation, to kill and to kill Bill, but it didn’t give her much trouble (she wakes up fully recovered from her coma) nor a reason to exist beyond vengeance. So now we need to be reminded that we’ve gotten a little bit ahead of ourselves, and with the shocking explosion of a shotgun blast. That’s just the sort of thing to slow an audience down, and get them ready for some background.
Taken together, the two films complete a good story. I can see that the first film only gives you enough of the Bride to get you interested. In that aspect, the films are a bit uneven. For people who are not big Tarantino fans, they might have appreciated more of The Bride’s story in the first film rather than a raw action film. Yes, we get startling revelations, but not the character development that the second film holds. I find it hard to be too critical, however, as this combination worked on me. I looked forward to Vol. 2, and I wasn’t disappointed.
We finally get to see The Bride’s past, and how it will affect her future. But Tarantino has already revealed that the consequences of Kill Bill will come back to haunt The Bride. As she tells Nikki, in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 :
Posted by James at April 22, 2004 2:10 PMIt was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that I’m sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it coming’. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I’ll be waiting.
