What a huge disappointment

Rating: 1/10 (17 May 2004)

First, I should preface this by stating I am not a Tarantino fan. I think he is a great director who too often tries too hard to create culturally iconic images which are over-shadowed by batches of tired dialogue laden with uninteresting babble which in his own mind makes him some sort of genius.
I will also say, to the contrary, I am a huge fan of Reservoir Dogs, which was truly groundbreaking and entertaining. However, so few people had seen it before Pulp Fiction was released, that the latter film was credited with revolutionizing the "time machine" style of plot progression. For those who saw these films in chronological order, it is clear Tarantino simply recycled the same formula that made RD such a great film and slapped it on top of a fairly weak and rambling plot with famous actors that depended on "cool factor" to keep viewers interested in PF. I encourage anyone to go back and view PF now...it's one of the most outdated and overrated ten year old movies around.
On to KB Part II. Kill Bill 1 was awesome. Everything from the plot, to the bloody anime, to the fantastic sword fights were clearly the product of someone who has studied traditional Kung Fu films in depth. Even the yellow jump suit (a la Bruce Lee in Game of Death) was right on the money. I was excited to see what Tarantino had in store for Part 2 and was ultimately let down completely.
Where did all the action go? No lengthy choreographed fight scenes of note--the Hannah/Thurman scene in Madsen's trailer was more of a drunk cat-fight than a battle of two warriors--the dialogue in many parts was long, and languished into oblivion for 5-10 minutes at a time without moving the film forward, and the final 30 minutes left me looking at my watch every 5 minutes and praying the movie would end soon. Did we really need 20 minutes of pseudo-intellectual babble about the trials and tribulations of Bill and The Bride's relationship? Granted, I understand the point was to expose her softer, emotional, maternal side even in the face of her enemy, but for crying out loud, take it outside and settle it alright already!
Ironically, walking out of the theater, I couldn't help but thinking that Part II was a completely different movie the Part 1. Ironic because they are one in the same film. It seemed to me the few elements I disliked in Part 1 completely took hold of Part 2. Perhaps it was a yin/yang thing he was going for, but for my taste, the yang really stunk it up! Aside from about 4 scenes (buried alive, anything with Michael Madsen, the "surprise plot twist", and the funny, but all-too-short training-with-the-master segments, the other 75 minutes of this film were fairly awful. This is probably the most disappointing film I've seen since the turn of this young century.