Missing a lot

Rating: 7/10 (8 December 2003)

Kill Bill has turned out to be a rather incomplete piece of art, because a lot is weak and a lot is missing. Here is what I mean: First of all sophisticated choreography and editing do not hide that Uma Thurman cannot fight. The training sequence - unmissable element for any decent martial arts revenge movie-is poor. The way the Bride finishes off her first victims in the hospital is rather uninspired. Her ex-squad sister looks kinky but quite out of shape and has not a single good line. The Bride uses the best sword ever made and O-Ren-Ishii praises its quality in her final breath - so why don't we see it being manufactured? There could have been many ways of making it a memorable sequence. The Yakuza Dinner scene does not pull any strings. The Go Go Yubari character is great, but the introduction of her violent madness is boring. She kills a poor idiot in a bar - is that the craziest thing she did? There is no fine dialogue. Then this whole movie is slow and rather short, while some scenes are still too long - why cut it in two? There are also scenes I did not understand, like the motorbike ride, extensive exposure of the list with Bill's hand and the sheriff's senseless conclusions on the wedding slaughter scenery. Bill himself was too stupid to kill the Bride but then finds it below standard to kill her in the hospital ? The mountain of preparation time that Tarantino has taken, cannot be found back in the movie. It looks like the script has been glued together in weeks. In the end, there are many open identity questions involving husbands, parents, daughters, Bill and the Bride. This Who is Who-idea can only work if you really burn to know the solution, a feeling that I frankly miss. So, despite Sonny Chiba, a beautiful animation sequence and the gorgeous snow falling in the garden showdown, this movie is like the band at the restaurant: Looking better than it is.