An incredibly entertaining movie that is also ingeniously shot with amazing cinematography

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2014)

When I first watched Kill Bill I didn't know what to expect. However, upon seeing it I must admit that it is simply ingenious. Kill Bill Vol. 1 does just about everything right. The action is smart, intelligent, and beautifully shot, yet the movie still has bits of humor here and there. What makes the movie entertaining is that it is fully engrossed in the concept that it is a romanticizing martial arts movies throughout the years (and several other genres). This means that the movie can get away with a few things because it is a slightly cheesy movie.
The movie follows the tale of a woman who will simply be known as The Bride. She loses everything at the hands of a group of assassins (whom she was a part of). What makes this movie work compared to most revenge movies is that she LITERALLY LOSES IT ALL. She literally doesn't have anything left except revenge. In some movies the revenge seems extreme, but in this movie it only feels logical in the cheesy world that the film takes place in.
One of the most interesting aspects of this movie is its camera work. A lot of the shots in this movie are incredibly well done and they really add a lot to the stylization of this movie. The soundtrack is also very good. While there aren't any real ORIGINAL pieces in this movie (like a standard Tarantino movie, it is a stitch work of other soundtracks), they all work very well with the movie's themes. Naturally one would think that having multiple different pieces in one battle (all of different moods) would break the suspense of a movie, but it works here.
A good majority of this movie is simply one giant action set piece... however this action sequence is done perfectly. Just about everything one could want to happen does happen. You have a specific villain in this movie, you have waves of minions, an identifiable right hand man to the villain and other subordinates who are equally as evil as the villain... all die at the hands of our hero. This movie is literally one giant build-up. Everything in the movie builds up to one of the most perfect action sequences in martial arts history.
I will say that I'm glad that they chose a tall female heroine because rarely in movies do you have an interesting female character who ISN'T sexualized AND is also intimidating. In a lot of movies where the female heroine does martial arts, it always looks like the female isn't really that intimidating. She might beat up a bunch of people, but it generally looks like the people she is beating up are just playing stupid to allow her to win. HOWEVER, this movie does it right. Not only is she tall, but she looks stern and determined. She genuinely looks like she could kick-ass.
Overall, a very enjoyable movie. The one stereotype that I don't like in this movie is that it has the classic "Tarantino rapists" that are generally southern hicks/truckers and are basically asking to die. It worked in Pulp Fiction, but it is a little annoying in this movie because it didn't add much other than show how much The Bride has gone through.