We've seen it all before

Rating: 6/10 (25 April 2004)

First off, I have to admit that I hold Kill Bill Vol 2 to a higher standard do to the fact it is made by Quentin Tarantino. Also, I felt so much hype around the movie that it inflated my expectations.
When some people read my One Line Summary "We've seen it all before" they will think, "Thats the point, Tarantino is paying homage to films that influenced him." However, I don't think recycling old ideas to squeeze a few more bucks out of them is paying homage. One of the things I anticipated the most when watching Kill Bill Vol 2 is finally finding out The Bride's name. I thought this was a pretty cool idea, but its really stolen from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. If you've seen many martial arts movies, like me, you'll probably be pretty unexcited about the action in both Kill Bill volumes. It definitely doesn't break any new ground with special effects or new styles of displaying fighting. *This part of my comments could be considered a minor spoiler so skip to the end of the next paragraph if you want* I loved and hated Pai Mei at the same time. I loved his laugh and how he played with his beard, but personally, I find the stereotype of the ancient and insanely strict kung fu master pretty tired. I can't count the number of movies I've seen where someone goes to be trained by a kung fu master. The master is ALWAYS barking orders to the pupil and ALWAYS uses some weird training techniques (wax on - wax off, catch the chicken, etc).
Personally, I felt the best thing about Kill Bill was its style, and I felt that most of its style came from the music. The Kill Bill soundtrack is definitely something I'd look into getting.