Kill
A Film Review.
Kill Bill Vol 1 & Kill Bill Vol 2
Very few things - be they computer game, film or TV series - live up to the hype generated. Upon the release of Kill Bill, the hype reached some kind of incredible hype peak. If ordinary advertising is like being casually shown a reference, the Kill Bill obsession was like having an automated pamphlet hurler throwing them in your face every few seconds while being pecked in the head by a bald eagle.
Nevertheless, I thought these films would be good to see, and after an epic quest it culminated in me getting the DVD sets for my birthday. Naturally only a week after they're being shown on TV, but that's to be expected. Even if I got a pirate DVD of Casino Royale it would still be shown the next bloody week. This happens all the time and really annoys me.
To cut a long story short, the Kill Bill films are pretty decent, but not worthy of the hype or the fandom they generate, even if Chiaki Kuriyama (from Battle Royale, another upcoming review) is very cool as the psycho schoolgirl who wields something similar to a Manriki.
I assume everyone knows the basic plot - Uma Thurman was an assassin, she was betrayed, she wants revenge and has 5 people on a death list. The script is generally good, the action is generally great, but it lacks something.
For a start, the finale of the first volume is very dull. After a great fight against a vast array of bodyguards, including the now famous Gogo Yubari, the fight with the actual target is quick, boring, and a total letdown. Also, the sequence before this is partially in black and white.
Note to Quentin Tarantino : Putting a sequence in black and white does not instantly make it more arthouse.
The films are also fairly disgusting. From someone being scalped (resulting in a nice brain shot) to someone having the blood sucked out of them by a midge in main camera focus (not very nice) to someone's eyeball being trampled underfoot, the films are not for the faint of heart. Vol 1 has more action while Vol 2 has more speech, and as Tarantino seems to like doing the scenes aren't in the right order, though this isn't much of a problem.
The biggest problem with the films is that you simply don't care enough, and the action scenes don't grab you as much as they do in other films. While generally extremely well choreographed, I found the scenes where she fought only a single enemy sometimes better than scenes with masses of incompetent fools.
On other points, the camerawork is good, but music was used way too much. It struck me as rather lazy directing with the 30th sequence of people walking from Point A to Point B while a racy soundtrack played. This got tedious quickly. Finally, I knew Tarantino was a fan of Battle Royale, but I was disappointed to see that he copied it in a few other ways, mainly having someone bleed out of their eyes.
In conclusion, the films were good but could've been better. They lacked something which really makes you interested in the plot, and while some bits really got you into it, other bits left me comparitively cold.
Nevertheless, I thought these films would be good to see, and after an epic quest it culminated in me getting the DVD sets for my birthday. Naturally only a week after they're being shown on TV, but that's to be expected. Even if I got a pirate DVD of Casino Royale it would still be shown the next bloody week. This happens all the time and really annoys me.
To cut a long story short, the Kill Bill films are pretty decent, but not worthy of the hype or the fandom they generate, even if Chiaki Kuriyama (from Battle Royale, another upcoming review) is very cool as the psycho schoolgirl who wields something similar to a Manriki.
I assume everyone knows the basic plot - Uma Thurman was an assassin, she was betrayed, she wants revenge and has 5 people on a death list. The script is generally good, the action is generally great, but it lacks something.
For a start, the finale of the first volume is very dull. After a great fight against a vast array of bodyguards, including the now famous Gogo Yubari, the fight with the actual target is quick, boring, and a total letdown. Also, the sequence before this is partially in black and white.
Note to Quentin Tarantino : Putting a sequence in black and white does not instantly make it more arthouse.
The films are also fairly disgusting. From someone being scalped (resulting in a nice brain shot) to someone having the blood sucked out of them by a midge in main camera focus (not very nice) to someone's eyeball being trampled underfoot, the films are not for the faint of heart. Vol 1 has more action while Vol 2 has more speech, and as Tarantino seems to like doing the scenes aren't in the right order, though this isn't much of a problem.
The biggest problem with the films is that you simply don't care enough, and the action scenes don't grab you as much as they do in other films. While generally extremely well choreographed, I found the scenes where she fought only a single enemy sometimes better than scenes with masses of incompetent fools.
On other points, the camerawork is good, but music was used way too much. It struck me as rather lazy directing with the 30th sequence of people walking from Point A to Point B while a racy soundtrack played. This got tedious quickly. Finally, I knew Tarantino was a fan of Battle Royale, but I was disappointed to see that he copied it in a few other ways, mainly having someone bleed out of their eyes.
In conclusion, the films were good but could've been better. They lacked something which really makes you interested in the plot, and while some bits really got you into it, other bits left me comparitively cold.
posted by Mkzrj at 6:01 pm
4 Comments:
Anyone else seen them? And what did you think?
That sounds like a fair review. I haven't seen either of the films though...
And it is true, very little actually lives up to the hype. Very little.
I have two copies of Kill Bill... soundtrack vinyl! Anyhow, nice review and great text effects on the 7/10 (especially for paint!)
9/10 for KB1, 8/10 for KB2, based on a 1 time viewings some time ago.
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