Kill Bill has soul, but it doesn't have A soul

Rating: 7/10 (14 October 2003)

I really enjoyed Kill Bill while I was watching it, but the more I think about it, the more I feel certain that Kill Bill is not a truly great movie. Here's why.
I think I have to consider two aspects of this movie when critiquing it: the style and the substance. Style includes things like the music, the visual quality of the movie, the references to other movies and genres, and even the tone of the
dialogue. Substance, though, includes the quality and the originality of the narrative, any moral or philosophical dimension, and whether the movie offers anything actually to think about when it's over.
Put simply, Tarrantino is a stylistic genius. If all I wanted were style, this movie would be beyond a 10. No one matches a soundtrack to the feel of a movie like Tarrantino. No one can make an audience think "bad asssss" like Tarrantino;
there were some lines of dialogue that made the audience laugh and cheer
because they were so bad ass. The fight sequences are great, the animation
sequence was extremely cool, the black and white scenes worked. The feel of
this movie is simply amazing, and that's what keeps the audience engaged
while the movie is playing. The movie has soul, without a doubt.
But it seems that Tarrantino put all his energy into the style of the movie and spent little time on anything substantive. He uses the standard revenge plot that's served as the narrative backbone for thousands of movies and books over the years, and he adds very little to it. It's almost as if he wanted to save time and energy on the actual writing so he could devote more attention to making
the film look and feel really really cool. To tell the truth, I care very little about any of the characters in this movie, and I don't really wonder all that much what's going to happen to them. In fact, using the standard revenge plot line even
takes the interest out of Tarrantino's so-called "non-linear" storytelling
sequence. I mean, since it's a revenge plot, there is a correct sequence, even if Tarrantino chooses to show the events out of order; the result is that his non- chronological sequence seems like more of a gimic than anything else. When it comes down to it, Kill Bill has soul, but it doesn't have A soul--something that powers the movie from deep within, something that lives on when the movie is
over. What I mean is that there's really nothing under the surface of this film. It's empty spectacle.
Maybe this is what "genius" has come to in our times. We're so cynical about things we can't see that surface spectacle is all we ask for, as if that's all that could possibly matter. But I think that movies like Crouching Tiger, Pulp Fiction, Hardboiled show us that a movie can be quite violent and visually stunning but with some actual thought-provoking substance. I think Tarrantino managed to
develop both aspects in his previous three films, but he fails in this one.
One caveat with something of a SPOILER: if Kill Bill, vol. 2 gives us some truly incredible breaks from the typical revenge plot, stuff that we never could have expected (maybe the missing baby will prove to be significant in this regard), this might redeem the disappointment I feel after Kill Bill, vol. 1. If vol. 1 is just a set up for the surprises of vol. 2, all may be forgiven.