Much slower than Vol 1 but a satisfying conclusion to the story

Rating: 8/10 (11 May 2004)

Kill Bill Vol 1 was an out-and-out comic book romp, full of violence but always with tongue firmly in cheek. The violence count is severely reduced in Vol 2 but arguably more disturbing. The big difference is that Vol 2 is about the characters rather than the action. Here we begin to find out who these people really are and that, despite there penchant for assassination, they are real flesh-and-blood human beings. The result is that expectations of another high-speed violence-fest are dashed but the seemingly chaotic events of the first film finally get explained. The pace slackens quite markedly towards the end causing an audible amount of fidgeting in the theatre where I viewed it but sitting it out to the end is well worthwhile. As before, Tarantino presents the story in a variety of film styles, my particular favorite being the black-and-white Film Noir that opens the movie. I'd love to see Tarantino do a whole movie in this style but I'm not sure his attention-span would last that long.