Sometimes style is more than enough

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2017)

Kill Bill Vol. 1 is one of the best action movies I have ever seen. At it's core, it's little more than a typical revenge flick. Our protagonist survives a brutal attack and after waking up from her coma, proceeds to go and kill two of the five people on her list. It is admittedly cliche, and Tarantino doesn't even provide us with the full background of what happened to the protagonist and why (at least, not in this volume). But what's remarkable is that Tarantino is able to give meaning to the action even without providing us with the full backstory. This is because of the characters; Tarantino spends enough time on the actual backstory of the villains and the protagonist for us to actually be emotionally invested.
But what really sets this movie apart is how impressive it is in execution and style. Tarantino really perfects style in this movie and makes the action almost like art. Almost every bold move by Tarantino pays off here, and it helps set this movie apart from all the revenge and action movies. You really get the feeling that you are experiencing a master at work, even if the master is doing nothing other than reveling in style and cinematic delight.
The music deserves a special mention, it really does drum up the excitement for the action scenes beautifully and is one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in a movie.