KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 vs. VOLUME 2 - A Bullet Point Commentary

As promised, here’s my follow up to the posting concerning my loathing of Kill Bill Volume 1 – one of the most over-rated movies of all time. But as much as I hated the first installment, to my amazement, I loved the second one. Indeed, Volume 2 has everything Volume 1 doesn’t. You don’t even need Volume 1; everything is in Volume 2, which I think is the best film of 2004. So how does Volume 1 compare to Volume 2.

*In Volume 1 all you get is the premise of the story and then a pointless two-hour blood bath. In Volume 2 you get the actual story itself, which is then supported by a blood bath that has purpose.

*In Volume 1 the story is secondary to the violence, while in Volume 2 the violence is secondary to the story - i.e. in Volume 1 the story supports the violence, while in Volume 2 the violence supports the story (as it should be).

*Volume 1 is boring because there’s no plot and the action sequences are nothing more than pure porn violence – indeed, Volume 1 is like a two hour live version of Itchy and Scratchy where the plot is just an excuse to glorify violence. Volume 2 is far more engaging because the violence and the action sequences actually have a purpose other than glorifying violence.

*Volume 1 is devoid of any clever, trademark Tarantino dialogue. Volume 2 has plenty of it.

*Volume 1 is devoid of a sense of humour and any attempt at humour feels forced and laboured. Volume 2 is effortlessly and instrinsically funny.

*Volume 1 pretends to be more than what it is – masking porn violence under the guise of high art satire. Volume 2 has no such pretense – it’s simply a clever, funny and engaging action comedy drama.

*Except maybe for Lucy Liu, Volume 1 is devoid of any real great performances while Volume 2 has at least one Oscar worthy performance – a brilliant portrayal of Bill, by actor David Carradine.

THE BOTTOMLINE: The difference in quality between KIll Bill Volume1 and Volume 2 is like night and day. Volume 2 is everything Volume 1 is supposed to be. As I've said, Volume 2 is clever, funny and engaging while Volume 1 is overrated, over hyped, and worse of all: BORING! The two movies would work well together if you cut out about 95% of Volume 1. Other than that, just avoid Volume 1 altogether, because everything worthwhile is in Volume 2.

Kill Bill Volume 1 - 2.0 out of 10

Kill Bill Volume 2 - 8.5 out of 10

THE RICKTER-SCALE:
10 (A+) – extraordinary, a masterpiece
9.5/9.0 (A) – exceptional, a milestone
8.5/8.0 (A-) – excellent, a classic
7.5/7.0 (B+) – very good, a near classic
6.5/6.0 (B) – good
5.5/5.0 (B-) – fair
4.5/4.0 (C+) – poor
3.5/3.0 (C) – very poor, a near disaster
2.5/2.0 (C-) – terrible, a total disaster
1.5/1.0 (D+) – torture, a catastrophe
0.5/0.0 (F) – abysmal, the end of film as an art form