An Objective Critique - 8 Stars

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2016)

This review contains spoilers Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003) is a genre-spanning feast for the eyes, ears, and sensibilities of film buffs as well as fans of many specific genres. At its heart it is a tale of cold revenge taken in a cause than is not really just. Killing killers who tried to kill you because you didn't want to kill people anymore doesn't exactly compare to being Robin Hood. The charm of this film is seeing how Tarantino creatively, lovingly, and nearly expertly handles his tributes to Italian westerns, Chinese martial arts films, Japanese samurai films, Brian De Palma and more. This film features all the violence that Quentin Tarantino has become associated with but in this film it is so over the top that it becomes surrealistic, easy to detach from, a simple guilty pleasure. Once you drag yourself past the notion that there could be an elite squad of female assassins all highly trained in martial arts you never again consider that fact that martial arts training would be useless to real assassins in this day and age.
Let's just break this film down by the numbers and let the chips fall where they may: A) Plot -- a strong revenge driven story with great character back stories succeeds well -- 9 B) Characters -- forceful, fully realized, if fanciful characters -- 9 C) Acting -- Superb and believable characterization, great action acting -- 9 D) Script -- an action driven piece rich with the now famous Tarantino dialogue. -- 9 E) Direction -- a excellent job showing mastery of western, martial arts, samurai, anime, and Brian De Palma -- 9 F) Cinematography -- stunningly captures each genre to create an artistic whole and organic feeling -- 9 G) Editing -- concise and efficient while conveying the action in a perfectly understandable manner -- 9 H) Production Design -- strong design elements lend touchstones to the various genres and give the film a natural look within highly stylized designs -- 8 I) Costume Design -- distinctive costumes enhance the characterizations in this film and a very well done despite being unobtrusive -- 8 J) Stunts -- Wire-Fu abounds as does sword and knife play; all masterfully handled -- 10 K) Special & Visual Effects -- The special effects achieved on camera are impressive when considering how many limbs must be removed and how much blood made to flow; a good job, if gruesome -- 7 L) Music -- Original music by The RZA and songs by The 5, 6, 7, 8s as well as other little known compositions work brilliantly to create and sustain moods -- 8 M) Sound -- Good level sound with no too subtle effects, balanced and clean -- 7 N) Entertainment Value -- 7 Average 8.384, call it 8 stars out of ten. Pop an extra tub of corn and make it a double feature with Vol. 2 queued up next.
This film features strong bloody violence, language, and some sexual content.