Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Story: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Uma Thurman, David Carradine
Music: Robert Rodriguez, The RZA
Time: 136 minutes
Bottom-line: More talking, less action, and very slow, compared to Volume 1

Released few months after the first part, the much anticipated sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 completes the story of The Bride’s revenge. Uma Thurman reprises her role as The Bride, while David Carradine plays Bill, the person whom The Bride wants to take revenge on. While the first part had more action, more fights and more thrill, Volume 2 is comparatively less violent, and is driven by dialogues than action.

The film begins with The Bride (Thurman) going in a car, saying she is on her way to kill Bill, thereby completing her mission. She narrates the story of what actually happened on the day of her wedding, where Bill (Carradine) and his assassination squad killed all the guests and also tried to murder her. For the first time, Bill’s face is shown. The scene cuts back to the present, where Bill meets his brother Budd (Michael Madsen), another member who tried to kill The Bride. Bill tells him to be prepared. The rest of the film tells whether or not The Bride (whose real name is also revealed) gets her revenge against the three remaining members of the assassination squad: Budd, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and finally Bill.

Uma Thurman reprises her role as The Bride

Uma Thurman’s acting is brilliant again. Her expressions of pain, anger and surprise and shock are all excellent. David Carradine was faceless in Volume 1, but in this part he plays a pretty evil villain. Some catchy phrases boost his character as well. Madsen and Hannah don’t have much acting, but they too play convincing villains in this film. Several things about the characters are revealed in this film: The Bride’s real name, Bill’s face, the character of Pai Mei, and one more important character who is shown towards the end of the movie.

Michael Madsen as Budd

The story has some good factors, but many negative aspects too. Kill Bill: Volume 2 completes the story well. It answers all the questions, shows the ending of all the tracks and ends the two-parter on a high note. Many questions are answered, and many other things are also revealed: the reason why Bill and his gang tried to kill The Bride and the explanation of the twist at the end of Volume 1 is shown clearly. But, as a film by itself, is disappointing, just like The Dark Knight Rises, which also completed the Batman trilogy very well, but was a disappointing film. The entertainment Kill Bill: Volume 1 could provide in 111 minutes, Volume 2 couldn’t provide in 136 minutes. The action scenes in Volume 1 were much more entertaining (except that fight with the Crazy 88), while the scenes in this film were more bloody, but less thrilling. There are many unnecessary scenes too, like the scenes showing Budd in the bar, some scenes from the flashback of Pai Mei, the entire sequence where The Bride meets Estaban (Bill’s father figure) and few scenes when The Bride goes to meet Bill, towards the end. If Tarantino released the film in two films because of the screen time of over four hours, he could have very well reviewed the films again and cut a good 45-60 minutes of screen from both films together.

Daryl Hannah as Elle

The score is good, but the camerawork is not so good compared to Volume 1. This is mainly because there was need of some good camerawork in Volume 1 to show the fight scenes in an entertaining way, but here, the action is much less, as is the violence. However, the fight scenes have more twists than Volume 1; when The Bride meets Budd for the first time, you will be hit with a shock, and I admit, this particular incident is pretty much unexpected (what follows is somewhat unrealistic in my view). The scene where Elle meets Budd also has another unexpected twist.

To sum up, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a good entertainer, but could have been at least 20-30 minutes shorter. Uma Thurman’s acting is splendid once again, and David Carradine’s acting is also superb. The film is comparatively very slow, and there are more of dialogues. After seeing Kill Bill: Volume 1, I sort of expected more action, and if you do too, you will be disappointed. Yet, the film concludes the four-hour story quite well and also provides more twists than Volume 1. Watch it to understand the complete story of Kill Bill (I would say watch it only for this reason), but in my view, Volume 2 still falls short of the earlier installment.

My Rating: 2.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 84%