Two things are readily apparent about Kill Bill Volume 2. First, unlike its predecessor, this is a complete movie. It stands on its own. It is possible to see and enjoy Volume 2 in a way that was not true of Volume 1. Viewed in retrospect, the first installment now seems like an easily discarded prologue. The real meat is in Volume 2. Secondly, Quentin Tarantino needs a new editor - someone who can convince him to make the really hard cuts. Sally Menke, who has held that post for all of Tarantino's movies, couldn't/wouldn't/didn't convince the ego-centric filmmaker that eliminating about 30 minutes of filler from Kill Bill Volume 2 would have made it a leaner, meaner motion picture. ...view middle of the document...
Those in search of a kung-fu gore-fest like Volume 1 will be sorely disappointed. There are a few action sequences (about four, depending on what you count as "action"), all of which are quick and brutal. There's nothing even as sustained as the one-on-one between Thurman and Vivica A Fox in Volume 1. Volume 2 is a talky affair. Although much of the dialogue isn't vintage Tarantino (except a scene like Bill's "Superman" monologue), there's no sense that the characters are inflicted with run-on-at-the-mouth disease.The movie picks up where Volume 1 ended, with the Bride (Thurman) gunning for her surviving two would-be assassins and Bill (Carradine). There's not much more to the film than that. Budd (Michael Madsen) takes longer to dispatch than the Bride plans, but Elle (Daryl Hannah) goes a lot more quickly. The confrontation with Bill involves more talking than fighting, a choice which fits the circumstances. About 50% of the movie is used to provide backstory. We get a lengthy flashback to events leading up to the wedding chapel massacre, as well as a lengthy training sequence in which the Bride learns to become an expert assassin under the tutelage of Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). (For those unfamiliar with the Hong Kong flicks that serve as Tarantino's main inspiration for this segment of the movie, think Yoda with a bad attitude.) The background material in Volume 2 fills out the characters nicely. The Bride even gets a name: Beatrix Kiddo. And, as hinted at during the last scene of Volume 1, she has a new role as well: Mommy.From a stylistic standpoint, Tarantino pulls a lot of rabbits out of his hat. Parts of the movie are in black-and-white (and, since Thurman is dressed all in white, she appears to glow). There are shifts in the aspect ratio. (One sequence is in 1.33:1.) One fight scene involves a split-screen. A two-minute scene occurs in complete darkne...
