Here comes the disappointment from Tarantino

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2003)

Kill Bill Vol. 1
Quentin Tarantino's 4th film, Kill Bill, is a story of revenge that is quite stylistic in terms of fighting scenes but lacks a story that stirs up the emotions of revenge in the audience. It starts with a Klingon proverb from the movie, Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan: `The revenge is a dish best served cold' The movie doesn't waste time heating things up. First, we get a glimpse of Umma Thurman's character severely beaten face, a sound of shotgun (which supposedly should have blown her head off) and we skip to the part where Umma's character starts to take revenge from the people who did her wrong. As we go along, we are introduced to the characters of Deadly Viper Assassination Squad through flashbacks.
This kind of backward storytelling, where we start from the end and gradually move back in time through flashbacks may work for other themes. Sadly, it doesn't work for a movie about revenge. By the time, we get to know what has gone wrong between characters, the revenge part has already taken place and the movie is over. When we are watching Umma's character killing her enemies, we do not feel anything. I admit that every scene is very stylish, especially the fighting scenes. However, without establishing any familiarity towards the characters, the scenes are simply unable to create any emotion. This, I found to be the biggest problem with Kill Bill Vol 1. One might say that the real revenge will take place between Urma's character (Black Mamba) and Bill later, in the Volume 2, and by the time we get to see that happen we will have been acquinted with every little detail about the events that led to it. Even if this is true, the Kill Bill Volume 1 would remain to be a movie where an unknown character is taking revenge from her unknown assailants from the past. The fact still remains: we do not know enough about either Urma or her assailants to feel the slightest emotion for either one of them.
Quentin Tarantino was apparently influenced by the old time Chinese Kung-Fu movies and wanted to make a movie where he pays his due respect to those old classics that led him to directing movies in the first place. He does add his own style and humor to what is already a well-established, a distinctive genre of film-making. Nevertheless, a movie where you know so little about the characters is doomed for failure. If you are interested in seeing a very-well shot martial arts movie (Kung-Fu combats and sword-fight scenes) embellished with super neat camera angles, choreography, music and editing, then Kill Bill might be just your movie. If you are expecting more than that, then it will probably disappoint you. If you want to watch a good revenge movie, I would simply recommend First Blood/Rambo. You will find yourself take side with Rambo against the evil small town cop. And when Rambo kicks ass, you will cheer for him as hero and take pleasure in the pain of his enemy, something you will not experience in Kill Bill Vol 1.