Starts with promise but ends with more of the same

Rating: 6/10 (13 June 2016)

I would say this review contains spoilers but Tarantino is so predictable, the following should contain no surprises.
Tarantino is a writer of some caliber, and that was evident, more or less, in the first half of The Hateful Eight. His characterization and little moments of comic relief that penetrate an otherwise bleak and tense landscape are clever. And there's no doubt he has an eye for cinema.
As he likes to do, the film has been titled with chapters, which was unnecessary and somewhat pretentious. Is he trying to make a comparison to a literary work? And the sudden "appearance" of a narrator about an hour into the story, offering a brief, yet mostly self-evident explanation of events was also odd, perhaps lazy directing. Tarantino played masterfully with time in Pulp Fiction, sending the audience back and forth to assemble the narrative piece by piece. But here, it is done a little clumsily, even using an on screen cue "Yesterday" to jump back to the story's prelude.
The performances from the three main stars - Kurt Russel, Sam L Jackson and Jennifer Jason Leigh were impeccable, really stepping into their roles and clearly having fun with their characters. At times, it seemed, Jackson was reprising his character Jules from Pulp Fiction, but, in part, that was in the writing and direction of Tarantino.
With a few notable exceptions such as Jackie Brown and Mallory Knox, Tarantino doesn't create characters for women very well. This was painfully evident in the minor characters of Minnie and Judy, both being vacuous and perky female stereo-types. If it was to highlight the contrast between their innocent nature and the gruesome, undeserving fate in which they met, then that is bordering on cheesy pantomime. But I'll give Tarantino the benefit of the doubt on this one and say it was a parody of the two dimensional supporting female characters of old Hollywood Westerns.
In contrast, the central character of Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), with relatively few words, came close to stealing the show. Somehow she managed to just hold on to an indefinable essence of femininity through a pervasive wildness, hostility and incivility. Never playing victim or seeking empathy, on the contrary, often maligning and mocking her captors. There was light and shade in her character, though mostly darkness, at times almost summoning Linda Blair's character from The Exorcist.
I enjoyed the first half. Tarantino set the scene very well for what could have been a gripping, suspenseful interplay between characters. But alas, the second half descends quickly into a silly, bloody gore-fest that we've all seen before (eight times according to the opening credits). I am by no means turned off by violence, but it's just ridiculous, gratuitous trite, reminiscent of the second half of From Dusk Till Dawn - just different characters in a different time and location.
I truly hope Tarantino matures in his film making. He has so much promise and potential beyond mindless slaughterhouse nonsense. I can't help but feel that when he puts pen to paper there is a little boy inside of him who was relentlessly bullied in the school yard and harbors intricate and gory revenge fantasies that he needs to get out. Hopefully the eighth film has finally depleted those fantasies and he can get on with using his talents to make more original and thoughtful pieces. I don't want to go to my grave thinking Pulp Fiction was a fluke.
Those that gave this one star are passionately overstating their dislike (I mean, really, Chipmunks: The Squeakel is a one star movie). I will take the hang man's advice and judiciously give this a dispassionate 6: an average of 8 for the first half and 4 for the second.