Not as good as I hoped

Rating: 6/10 (12 October 2003)

Well, maybe it's backlash syndrome, but I spent most of Kill Bill's 1h50 thinking "when can I leave?". Although there were a few great moments (especially the anime section, and the fight with Chigusa from Battle Royale - i.e. the parts where QT had the least direct involvement?), I thought it was mostly... self indulgent, and unengaging?
The biggest problem I had was with the dialogue - is this really the same guy that rewrote the book on dialogue in Reservoir Dogs? Some of it is just so banal I wanted to throw things at the screen. The editing of the film is also suspect - some scenes are interminable, and the mild non-linearity seems contrived and accomplishes little. I know we're only half way through the story, but I still have *no* idea who The Bride or Bill really are, anyway - the only character in the film that gets any real development is Lucy Liu's.
I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but the violence and swearing just seemed gratuitous too. I have nothing wrong with enormous quantities of both when used well, but here it just didn't seem to serve a purpose or achieve anything.
So, maybe it's just that my expectations or hopes were too high - I guess the film is more interesting than most Hollywood efforts, and there were some things I liked - it was cool seeing people like Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu up on the big screen, the soundtrack was v. good, the anime section was superbly done, and most of the fights were good.
I'll be going to see Pt. 2 in February anyway, and will probably pick it up on DVD, but I was hoping for something more.