It's Time for the Bride to Kill Bill...

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2007)

The Bride reaches the conclusion to her quest for revenge! After the first volume followed the Bride's confrontations with the first two targets (Vernita Green and O-Ren Ishii), the second volume shows her hunt for the remaining two DiVAS members, as well as Bill himself. We really struck me as odd about volume two was that it was a COMPLETELY different style than its predecessor. Where volume one was a bloody kung-fu exploitation film, volume two tones it down and delves more into the story. It goes into greater detail about what led up to the attack on the Bride, as well as where she received her training that turned her into one of the most dangerous women in the world.
This volume has considerably less violence and less bloodshed. The fights are still spectacular with some of the greatest choreography I've seen in modern movies. The fights are brutal and still pack a serious punch. The battle between the Bride and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) is basically an all-out brawl with elements of martial arts giving it some grace. As I said before, we are given more story in this volume so we get more information around the legend of the Bride. My favorite scene in the whole movie has to be the chapter dealing with her training under Pai Mei (Gordon Liu); I really just loved the character. As a result of increased storytelling, the movie does move at a slightly slower pace than the first volume but it never fully stalls.
Michael Madsen rocks in this movie, but then again I like him in pretty much every role I've seen him in. My favorite addition to this volume was Bill himself. David Carradine almost made me sympathetic for the character when he explains the rationale behind his actions. Unfortunately, the ending was a bit anti-climactic compared to what I went into the movie expecting. For an entire 4 hour saga revolving around the hunt for Bill, I expected something more explosive. It was still a satisfying conclusion to Tarantino's epic tale of revenge and helped make the 'Kill Bill' saga one of Tarantino's best pieces of work.