Did IQ's drop suddenly?

Rating: 5/10 (14 October 2003)

By no means did I dislike this movie, but the fervor and claims that this is the best or most entertaining movie of 2003 are retarded. Have you not seen any other films this year? It's not even a complete film, Two Towers and Empire at least have complete dramatic arcs that feel solid even though they clearly require films on either end to be "complete". Vol 1 feels more like Reloaded, half of a movie, rather than a chapter in a saga. For people who are fans of shaw brothers, chambara, and Sergio Leone, I can sympathize with the excitement of an amalgam and update to these classics by perhaps the most zealous film appreciator/creator of our day. For those that have never seen, or don't care to see the roots of Kill Bill I especially can't see why they think this is so amazing. There's plenty of weak sh*t to compliment the good stuff. That's just honesty, people who toss around, "You just don't get it" need to hold their tongues, because I certainly do.
After I got over the Shaw logo, Sonny Chiba, the nod to Fukasaku via Chiaki Kuriyama's presence, the track suit, and Gordon Liu I took a serious look at this film and wonder WTF happened to QT's writing. I don't need snappy dialogue or waxing on about the silver surfer, but goddamn, much of the dialogue is flat. And it's not for lack of acting either. Further, why are some scenes so fatty and long? And by long I don't mean tick-tocks, I mean waste. The Sushi conversation served no purpose till %90 of it was done. It totally sucks the juice out of a scene, and it's not building like the slow burn of Eastwood's Unforgiven or the tension of Scott's Alien, so WTF is happening? This is meant to be a rip-roaring ride of revenge and instead it's got a limp. Before the ADD cracks and MTV generation remarks come flying, that doesn't mean I object to the drama, in fact I think that is what makes the bloodshed engrossing. But it needs to be well done, and in this film I feel that there's too much dead time.
The action scenes are good... and could we expect anything less?!? Wo Ping and Chiba (as the kenjitsu advisor) are vets of the industry and Robert Richardson delivers some great looking film, as one would expect from a man who's worked on tons of Oliver Stone pictures. It would be a travesty to not have them well done. Though it is unfortunate that the grand sword battle had to be made B&W, some shots look classy while others are hard to appreciate due to the difficulty of seeing what's happening. That said this is not the best action I've ever seen. And it lacks a certain soul if you will. A great action scene gets my pulse up and my hands will actually shake. I think I kept a straight 59-65 pulse through the entire House of Blue Leaves (awesome name for a club). Is it technically impressive? Sure. But look at the talent involved and the money. I think the side effect of it, is that the movie lacks hunger. Anyone who has seen a movie called Versus can attest that for $400,000 the movie has great action and splatter F/X, even if they don't like the movie besides these technical merits. Kill Bill has a total budget of 55 million. I didn't see action on the screen that had the same drive to innovate or be clever that Versus or a dozen other similar projects have. Tarantino and crew have basically lifted the WELL established action movements and scenario's from countless classics, and put a lot of money into making them polished. This is all well and good, but the end result is that there is no single moment in the martial fury that the Bride unleashes that isn't a, `been there done that'. Which also isn't really a problem except that people talk about this movie like it's the second coming, and QT himself talked up the action as rivaling anything he's ever seen, and I can only guess he's seen more than I have... So what gives?
I gave this section of the Kill Bill epic a 7/10. It's clearly well made in many respects, but it hardly innovates, or sets the bar higher in any category. Be that an exercise in style, gore, action, story, or characters. Perhaps Vol 2 will raise that overall score.