completion of Vol 1 is worth it

Rating: Null/10 (18 April 2004)

I felt compelled to write something, as the comment on the main page at this moment is a negative review. Now, I can understand negative reviews, but this reviewer preferred Vol. 1, and that's not a viewpoint I can understand.
In contrast to Vol. 1, Vol. 2 has a better storyline. The characters are fleshed out a lot more, and the plot starts to make sense. Important details missing from Vol. 1 appear and tie the entire story together. Whereas Vol. 1 got bogged down a bit in overlong sequences regarding O-Ren Ishii, the pacing in Vol. 2 is much better.
Uma Thurman is really on the top of her game in the Kill Bill series. She projects strength and intelligence that is often missing in female leads (I'm thinking, for example, of Kidman in Cold Mountain). Michael Madsen, David Carradine, and Gordon Liu are terrific, and Darryl Hannah is simply dastardly. Samuel L. Jackson has a cameo that is very difficult to spot! The action and dialogue are both terrific, as we've come to expect from a Tarantino movie. A mixture of cinematographic techniques keeps the viewer on edge, and the background music harkens back to the tradition of melodramatic '70s TV (esp. the "Ironsides" music).
On the whole, a very enjoyable film.