Just good enough to make me want to see vol.2

Rating: 6/10 (18 August 2004)

Kill Bill is an onslaught of violence, that is NOT artistic. It has many trappings of "artistic" violence -- but it crosses too often into revelling in its graphicness.
A violent film needs to have violence of one of three types:
1. Artistic -- like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Then fight sequences in that film were like watching a well choreographed dance.
2. Unique -- the Matrix. such as the opener in the original, the battle with the Merovingian's guards in the 3rd.
3. Heart-pounding (purposeful) -- like Gladiator. Maximus seems to be fighting for his life in there, and it seems that he could lose at any point. He beats insurmountable odds.
Kill Bill, vol. 1 does not deliver on any of those three levels -- with the exception of the fight scene involving Vivica A. Fox meets the conditions of #2. Tarantino has gotten violence right in the past. In Pulp Fiction, when Bruce Willis' character kills Zed and his buddy that fit into #3.
You never get a chance to root for the bride, she can't seem to lose. Her quest is well positioned, in that we understand her want for revenge. But she doesn't seem to be in any danger, so it is hard to root for her.
I give it a B-