Taken as a whole, it's a great achievement

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2006)

I felt electrified after watching Kill Bill, Vol. 1, but felt that something essential was missing. I was dazed, my head spinning; it was a caffeine buzz. The first film flies by in a heartbeat. With Volu. 2, Tarantino takes a step back and creates a languid and more mature film. It's a great combination when taken together.
The dizzying riffs on popular culture present in the first film slow down for Volume 2, allowing us to absorb them. I felt tired after watching Vol. 1; after Vol. 2 I was exhausted, but on an emotional level. The first film, with its beautiful gore and wonderful set-pieces, drags you along at a harrowing pace, while Vol. 2 simply presents a harrowing story. The final scenes between Bill and the Bride are moving in a way that is atypical of Tarantino's films. I actually cried. Jackie Brown revealed Tarantino's ability to dabble in pathos and sympathy; in Volume 2 he demonstrates that he has become a master of those techniques.
It amazes me to think how dissimilar Vols. 1 and 2 are, but it's obvious that they need to be so disparate. The zipping, fanboy references in the first film might be annoying, appearing as if QT is saying look at all the cool movies I've seen. The second contains just as many allusions, but it seems to serve a purpose. Like Finnegan's Wake or Gravity's Rainbow, Kill Bill (as a whole) occupies an interesting level of artistic achievement--a creation that acknowledges all artistry and allows it to bleed into and out of its narrative at will. Kill Bill is, if nothing else, a compendium of late 20th century culture, and a brilliantly realized one at that. Kill Bill is the world that existed between 1950 and 1999, and that's an achievement.