Less action, more talk

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2004)

In the original film, we saw Uma Thurman kill loads and loads of people to get to two people. She namely out to kill two out of the Assassin squad she had once been part of, but which later betrayed her. After she managed to kill two out of it's four members, the movie ended. But we all knew that a Volume 2 was coming up.
In Volume 2 she goes after the remaining members of the Assassin squad, plus it's leader: Bill. This time, it's awhole lot of more talk and less action. In contrast to the assassins played by Lucy Liu and Viveca A. Fox in the first volume, the assassins in these films (played by Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah) are very much developed. At least Michael Madsen's character (Budd). We follow him for a few hours of his life, prior to the moment when the Bride shows up. However, it appears Budd is quite resourceful and manages to evade the Bride's attack.
Daryl Hannah's character Elle is brought into the picture as Budd wants to sell her a sword. Elle get's a little less development as we don't really see any scenes from her normal everyday life. But from the dialogue she later shares with The Bride, we get to know quite abit about her character. Superbly done, everything. The Bride and Elle share an awesome fight scene, with a very surprising and perfect ending.
So anyway, that fight scene is the only real action we get in this film. And one might say that that's not what we wanted, considering everyone loved Kill Bill Vol. 1 for it's over the top violence and action. This film is more story driven than the first Volume, and it's definetly great. Altough some scenes tend to get a little bit to slow. Quentin could have cut some scenes down by a minute or so, to keep the audiences interested, instead of starting to lean back in their seats, waiting for something to happen.
The soundtrack, like all Quentin's films, is superb. The acting is great. The dialogue may not be as good as his other films, but it holds up (most of the time). It has a good ending (altough there's not a big fight involved, if that's what you want). Pretty much, this film has what we wanted from Kill Bill vol. 2. It's an excellent, but not flawless, continuation of Volume 1.
You should definetly go see this. Especially if you enjoyed the first volume.
9/10