Kill Bill, Volume 2 (Uma Thurman, David Carradine) 1/2
From a publicity perspective, Kill Bill, Volume 2 has emerged as the stronger entry over Kill Bill, Volume 1, released only last year. Both installments are essentially one big movie, divided only by a slight change in tone, with the first part being top-heavy with action and the second being top-heavy with dialogue and resolution of plot points. For me though, Volume 2 is slightly less satisfying because it settles into backstory instead of plunging forward with reckless abandon in the way that Volume 1 did.
It picks up with The Bride (Uma Thurman) having just polished off two members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, leaving only Budd (Michael Madsen), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and the titular Bill (David Carradine) on her revenge list. When she arrives at the desert to take care of Budd, she underestimates his prowess and is soon put in a predicament that rivals any James Bond scene in terms of seeming completely and utterly hopeless. Yet, the Bride (helpfully finally given a proper name midway through Volume 2) is one of those characters who always seem to have one more trick up her sleeve.
Meanwhile, there are some flashbacks that flesh out the Bride and Bill's past. We see more of the black and white footage at the wedding chapel where the massacre took place, and the Bride's rigorous martial arts training by Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). I enjoyed these scenes in particular because when the Bride went all Jackie Chan on her foes in the first movie, no explanation was given for her otherworldly skill (or if there was, I must have missed it). As a strict teacher, they don't get any nastier than Pai Mei, who has the Bride bleeding and broken pretty quickly into the training process.
Of course, all of the scenes build to the climactic confrontation with Bill himself, and the sequence does have a rich amount of subtext. However, the part of Volume 2 that is handled the worst is the ultimate reason given as to why Bill has targeted the Bride. The explanation is so flippant that we are left to question whether we should care if anyone is alive or dead at the end of the picture (hint: far more are dead than alive). When the other big secret is revealed, namely the Bride's final words at the end of Volume 1, it is as anti-climactic a payoff as director Quentin Tarantino has implemented in any of his films to date. It forces some padded scenes near the conclusion that belie all of the hard work done up to that point.
Kill Bill, Volume 2 is at its strongest when Tarantino uses every trick in his formidable arsenal to suspend reality, but there only a few instances of these. More often than not he toys with the viewer and as a result the momentum is impacted. Welcome embellishments include a variety of innovative camera angles and techniques, plus a funky soundtrack that is not as good as Volume 1 but has lots of style unto itself. The fight scenes offer dizzyingly exciting choreography, but watch carefully for them as there only a few to enjoy.
When word got out that there would be two volumes to the project, I was willing to initially give the benefit of the doubt and assumed the two features would be different enough to merit separate releases. Having seen both now though, it's quite transparent that with some strategic editing and careful planning, there could easily have been -- and should have been -- one movie that would have come in at 2 1/2 to 3 hours, which is on par with the running times of some of Tarantino's other pictures, like Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. After all, the characters are the same, the timeline for the second is merely a continuation of the first, and you pretty much need to see both pictures to fully understand all of the details.
So what happened? I can't be sure, but I'm willing to bet that Quentin's return to moviemaking after a five year sabbatical gave him carte blanche to the kind of movie he wanted to make, and budgetary requirements must have dictated the need to make as much money off the endeavour as possible. How much of this decision was Tarantino's versus the studio is anyone's guess, but in the end it comes across more as a greedy ploy than an artistic decision, and that is disappointing. Kill Bill, Volume 2 provides all of the answers to our questions and unifies the story, but forcing the audience to wait between installments implied we would be treated to a final mindblowing, earth-shattering coup de grace, and this is simply not the case.
