Tarantino Introduces One of Cinema's Most Unforgettable Action Heroine

Rating: Null/10 (21 January 2010)

Tarantino gives us one of the most memorable action heroines in the history of cinema. She goes by the names Black Mamba, The Bride, Beatrice Kidda...and more. While the first movie sets up the scene, offering plenty of awesome action sequences, the second movie takes the time to develop the character (but more on that later on). While 'Kill Bill Vol 1' follows the similar 'trademark' that made Tarantino popular, that is, mixing moments of clever and amusing dialogues with sudden action sequences (e.g. 'Pulp Fiction', 'Deathproof'), one of the many reasons why I think he's a great filmmaker is because, most of the time, he stays true to the characters. At first glance, some of them might appear formulaic but then the viewer notices that there's more than what meets the eyes. His films often have strong female characters and 'Kill Bill' is no different. Uma Thurman is an excellent choice and she immortalizes Black Mumba by making the character unforgettable. Darryl Hannah and Vivica Fox are just as convincing as her badass nemeses. Lucy Liu is good too but I thought she could have breathed more fire to make O-Ren Ishii more convincing. On the technical side, the soundtrack has almost always been a plus in Tarantino's films and 'Kill Bill Vol. 1' has some great music. The cinematography, animation and editing are top notch. The director was clearly influenced by various kinds of cinema (Japanese martial arts, Italian cinema, Brian de Palma's thrillers and many Western classics) and with 'Kill Bill' he pays homage to those filmmakers. All in all, this is one kickass film with a lot of action, emotion, violence, humour and culture. What more can one ask for where entertainment is concerned. Now I'm off to watch Vol. 2.