Review of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) by Collin R — 17 Oct 2013

If the first Kill Bill was Tarantino's ode to eastern filmmaking then the second part is its western counterpart. Though not quite the straightforward western that his more recent Django Unchained was, there are still many homages and throwbacks to the old spaghetti westerns of yesteryear within the film.

This movie very much feels like a second chapter, which makes sense because initially the two films were meant to be one. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I will always prefer the first one. If you've seen the first one this one picks up right where it left off with The Bride having two names left on her list before the titular Bill.

It pretty much travels along as expected as far as the revenge track goes, but where this film sets itself apart from the first is by fleshing out the relationship between The Bride and Bill and just The Bride's character in general.

I would say the most interesting parts of storytelling are the flashback scenes. It takes a character who could feel a bit two-dimensional at times in the first chapter a history to make her feel real.

As far as visuals and directing go it carries on the same tradition from the first except as I said earlier there are many nods to the western tradition of filmmaking. Where The Bride was samurai in the first film, here she is a cowgirl.

Where that could create a disconnect between the two films I think it instead unifies them. The different aspects of The Bride's character are amplified depending on the situation she's put in and it seems they are simply two sides of the same coin, not two separate characters.

The writing is also what you've come to expect from Tarantino. He has a way of making the most absurd situations feel realistic in the universe he has created. For example one of my very favorite scenes is when The Bride shows up at the diner all dirty, and it is just a real moment of comedic brilliance.

There are so many of those darkly humorous moments tossed into the film that stops the audience from taking the film too seriously. It's meant to be a fun action movie and it reminds you of that, but it still manages to feel legitimate.

It walks the line between campy and serious with remarkable precision. As I said in my vol. 1 review Elle Driver is my favorite member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and here she gets a bigger role.

She is deliciously evil, and the showoff between her and The Bride was well worth the wait. Though not my favorite of the two, Kill Bill Vol. 2 is a fitting concluding chapter to the story of The Bride, and if truth be told the two films should just be cut together into one long film.

It's truly a great package of character, story, dialogue, and visuals and should be seen by any film or Tarantino fan.