Reaction & Review | Kill Bill: Volume 1

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentleman, I'm gonna be covering a martial arts film from 2003. That movie is "Kill Bill: Volume 1".

Yes, guys, I'm gonna be tackling another movie from Quentin Tarantino. Not only am I gonna be covering Volume 1, but I'm also gonna be covering Volume 2 later on this month. So you'll kinda have an idea as to what I have planned for this month. Now, the last time I covered anything from Quentin Tarantino was when I reviewed "Death Proof". Which was a movie that I covered a LONG time ago. And to make a long story short, "Death Proof" was complete shit. At least, to me, it was. And I stated, back then, that thanks to "Death Proof" being a massive turd, I was gonna be more cautious in covering any more of Tarantino's movies. And after about 2 years, I decided to finally break down and give Tarantino another shot here. And I decided to pick both "Kill Bill" movies for this month.

Now, I'm gonna tell you everthing I know about the "Kill Bill" franchise going in. I know that both movies were written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, I know that they both star Uma Thurman, and I also know that she's set out on a mission to kill Bill. At least, that's who I'm going to assume she's after, if the title is any indictation. I'll find out, eventually, when I start watching the movie. Now, I actually saw a little bit of the first movie on TV years ago, but I couldn't tell you much about it, because I honestly didn't know what to think of it back then. I think it might've been airing on FX, though I could be totally wrong there.

Beyond that, I don't know anything else about this movie. So, I'm just gonna go into this thing almost completely blind. I'm hoping that both these movies are gonna be good, but I also have to remember how much "Death Proof" sucked, so I am still gonna remain cautious going in, because I know that Tarantino is not perfect. But I'm still gonna hope that, at least, this movie is gonna be pretty good. And the only way I'm gonna find out how good or bad this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Kill Bill: Volume 1".

9 minutes later

OK, I'm sure there's probably a justifiable reason for this, but I'm gonna ask this question anyway. Why are they censoring our main character's name? They've already done it twice now, and it's beginning to bug me a little bit. Again, I'm pretty sure there is a reason for them censoring our main character's name, but I'm still curious as to why they're going with this route? I'm hoping there's a good reason for this. Otherwise, it just seems kinda stupid.

6 minutes later

So...this little girl just witnessed her Mom getting killed by our main character...and she had no emotion on her face whatsoever. I'm sorry, but any normal child who witnesses their parent getting killed would PROBABLY have a much different reaction other than having a blank stare on their face. But hey, maybe she just doesn't have any idea as to the concept of death, so perhaps, maybe, it was due to a lack of poor parenting on her mother's part. Or maybe she's just a bad child actress, who knows?

11 minutes later

OK, that's something I never wanted to see. I never wanted to see a close-up shot of a mosquito sucking the blood out of someone's skin. That's just...god, that's just nasty.

30 seconds later

...And I never knew that the bullet was still stuck to her head. Jesus, this movie loves to show our main character in pain. Still though, it's, at least, building sympathy for our Bride. I just didn't expect that much pain from her.

8 minutes later

Well, I guess it wouldn't be a Quentin Tarantino movie if we didn't get a shot of our main character's feet. It's good to know that Tarantino certainly has his priorities straight, am I right?

10 minutes later

You know, guys, as cool and as interesting as Ishii's backstory was, it also took up a LOT of time. I'm gonna talk about more about that when this movie is done, but I just thought I'd let you guys know now that that entire backstory felt kinda long.

12 minutes later

Well, guys, I can say this much. Even though the story has definitely slowed down a bit, I will say that the music here is great. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but the music in this scene is great. It's like a mixture of something you would hear from a Western mixed in with Japanese music. It really is fantastic to listen to.

15 minutes later

OK, you know how I commented earlier that the music in this thing has been really good so far? Well, I think I've found a song here that kinda ruins that a bit. I HATE this song that's playing here. It really does suck. Just thought I'd let you guys know.

16 minutes later

OK, you know what? The lighting that's going on during this long fight scene looks really cool. I'm actually really liking how they're playing with the blue lighting during this fight. It kinda spices this long, drawn-out fight sequence a bit. I'm actually kinda digging that.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Kill Bill: Volume 1". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Well...that was indeed "Kill Bill: Volume 1". So, what exactly do I start with? Well, I guess I should probaby state that, when compared to the previous movie from Tarantino that I reviewed, this movie stands head and shoulders above "Death Proof". Now, that may not be saying very much, but it is, at least, something.

So, right now, I should probably talk about the movie itself. Let's start off with the writing. Now, if you have been reading my reviews in the past, I talked about how much I enjoy revenge films. However, with the revenge films that I've covered in this series, all of those faltered for various different reasons. I'm talking about movies such as "Drive Angry", "Tamara", and I would even include "Death Proof", because it was technically a revenge movie. And of all those movies, as I just mentioned, were terrible because of various problems that happened within their own stories. Whether it's characters that were shallow and completely lifeless, stories that didn't really go anywhere, or just illogical bullshit that didn't really make sense. Mind you, those are just a few examples of the movies that I brought up. I'm probably missing a few other movies, but those were the ones that I wanted to bring up, because those are my examples of poorly written revenge films. But when it comes to "Kill Bill: Vol. 1", we actually have a revenge story that is, for the most part, really well written. And what helps it the most is our characters. Specifically, our main character, who is code named Mamba Black. Now earlier, I did bring up the weird idea of just censoring her personal name, but they did actually take the time to explain it shortly after I complained about it. So, at least, this movie was quick enough to address that. But anyway, Mamba Black's character in this movie is really well written. And you really do care about her when you learn about all of the horrible stuff that happened to her at her wedding. Now granted, some of it is left a bit vague, such as why exactly were they trying to kill her to begin with, but it's not really that important for now. Point is, you do have a reason to care about her and her desire to get revenge against the people that ruined her life. And that's something I've always wanted from revenge movies is to have a reason to care about the characters whom you're suppose to get behind. And this movie certainly does a great job of establishing that reason.

On that same token, they also established who our villains are. Well, to be more accurate, they establish our main villain for this movie, who is named Ishii. Ishii's backstory is given time to flesh out, and that's something I don't see a lot of out of revenge movies. Because sometimes, they might give you a reason to care about the protagonist, but not the villain. Or they may not do either one, and you basically have a pointless revenge film with no reason to care about the characters. But in this movie, they establish who our villain is, and her backstory. And, like I said, the movie does take the time to establish her character, and that's something I also appreciate. However...this does lead to a big problem I had with this movie, which would be the pacing. I've talked about pacing a lot in movies, in how it could either make or break your movie. And while I will say that it doesn't really break this movie, it DOES slow it down quite a bit. Because the backstory involving Ishii roughly takes about 10 minutes to get through. Which may not sound bad, but it does kinda make you wonder why they spent this much time on it? And right from when this backstory ends, and up until Mamba Black gets her sword in Okinawa, there really isn't much happening. And, to me anyway, it just feels like the story took a backseat while the movie just did it's own thing. Now, I understand that Tarantino really likes to try and inject lengthy dialogue into his movies, but I feel like none of the dialogue here was, in any way, interesting. It wasn't interesting in "Death Proof" and it wasn't interesting here. The only other two movies that I've seen from him that made his lengthy dialogue work was in "Django Unchained" and "Pulp Fiction", and that's mainly because those two movies from Tarantino were written a tad bit better. Here though, not quite. Mind you, the story here is fine when it wants to get moving. But the times when it has to slow down, and there's nothing interesting going on, it really feels like, at times, this movie was desperate to try and find a way to pad itself to it's 111 minute runtime. Which doesn't completely ruin the movie, but it is definitely noticeable, especially if you're someone who has never watched any of Quentin Tarantino's movies.

Now that aside, the writing here is still really good, as long as you're able to look past the noticeable pacing issues that this movie does suffer from. And it's also very noticeable during the last half hour or so, when it's all just one giant fight scene. Which is really cool for about 5 minutes, but it starts to drag itself out for quite a while. And by that point, I was just sorta numb to all of the fighting that was going on, because there was just so much of it. But again, the writing here is still good, as long as you're able to overlook what I just mentioned. Anyway, with that out of the way, let's get into the acting. The acting here is really good from, just about, the entire cast. The only questionable bit of acting I have to make mention of is the one lone child actress that appears during the beginning portion of the movie. Throughout her entire appearance, she has only ONE expression which is basically looking dull on camera and not knowing how to express an emotion. Now, I'm not entirely certain if that was the intention or not, but it just feels like her inclusion in this movie was completely unnecessary. Like, I'm still sorta baffled as to how she has no hint of a reaction upon finding her mother being killed by Mamba Black. Again, I don't know if it was because she was never told about the concept of death by her mother, or if this child actress has never acted a day in her life. I don't know, and honestly, she really served no purpose of being in this movie. Beyond her, though, the acting is fantastic from everybody else. Aside from that one child actress, I couldn't find anybody else here that may have phoned it in or just acted terribly. So yeah, the acting here is mostly great.

I want to mention animation. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because Ishii's backstory is done entirely with 2D animation. And the animated backstory for Ishii was made by a studio known as Production I.G. And they have made a LOT of stuff involving television, movies, and video games that's just too many to count. But on the topic for Ishii's backstory, it's animated very well. I did notice quite a bit of shading on some of the characters which looked a bit rough. But for the most part, it still looks very well drawn. The art style is really good, the color palettes are used fine here. Overall, the animation in this segment is really good. And even though I think it went on a little bit too long for my tastes, it's still animated very well. So, at least, I can give it that much. Our costuming here is good. Special effects are great, mostly because a lot of it involves practical blood. And there is a LOT of it in this movie. So, at least, this movie's not shy in showing it all off. Makeup effects are pretty good. The fight choreography is great. Even though I think the latter fight scene towards the end took up a lot of time, I will say that it is choreographed really well. And I'm kinda amazed that this movie was able to work in so many people involving this one lone fight scene. It is gory, it is long, but there is still enough to like here. So if you're someone who likes a good, long fight scene, then this movie is probably gonna be a treat for you.

Camerawork here is really good, but I do have to make mention of something that ties back into pacing. For those of you who don't know, one of the things that Quentin Tarantino is known for is having a foot fetish. Now, I am not going to judge him for that. If that's what he's into, then that's totally fine. However, he REALLY ups the ante in this movie when it comes to his fetish. If you thought his fetish wasn't known by watching "Death Proof", then this movie is gonna solidify that for you in spades. There are so many shots in this movie where the camera will focus on women's bare feet. And the biggest case scenario is Uma Thurman. Because most of this takes place after Mamba Black leaves the hospital and attempts to get into a really ugly-looking car. And once she gets in, that's when the camera will really focus on Uma Thurman's feet. Now, there IS kind of a reason for this, storywise, but all it really convinced me was that Tarantino really needed to get one out of himself, if you know what I mean. Anyway...setting aside Tarantino's fetish, camerawork here is really good for everything else. The lighting here is also lit really well. It's also used pretty well during the long fight scene towards the end, where it's used a couple of times whenever it has to turn black and white, or it turns blue, at one point, during the ending portion of the fight scene. Sound-mix here is mixed well. The score and soundtrack is fantastic, except for one song. The song is simply titled "Woo Hoo". I don't care what anyone says about that song. I think that song REALLY sucks. It sucked when it played during those stupid Vonage commercials I use to watch a long time ago, and it sucks here, too. I hated hearing that song when it first started playing in this movie, and it brought back bad memories of those awful commercials I use to watch a long time ago. But anyway...aside from that god awful song, the soundtrack and score here is great. But then again, Tarantino movies usually have a really good soundtrack, so I can't really complain about it too much...minus, of course, that one song, but I'm not gonna harp on that one any longer.

Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Kill Bill: Volume 1"? If you're a fan of Tarantino's movies, then you've probably already seen this, and you might already own it on DVD or Blu-ray. But if you haven't, then...yes, I can recommend it, as long as you're able to overlook the pacing issues that this movie suffers from. If you're into martial arts movies, then you're probably gonna absolutely adore this movie, because there is a lot of fighting here, especially the last half hour of the movie, because that's where most of the action is really at. If you're someone who wants to get into Tarantino's movies, I suppose this wouldn't be a bad movie for you to start with. I mean, it's certainly a better starting point than shit like "Death Proof", but that's just me, personally. As for myself, I did enjoy this movie. I wouldn't say that I loved it, but I did, mostly, enjoy what was here. And I'm hoping that Volume 2 is gonna be an improvement over this one. But I'll just have to wait and see when I get to it, now won't we? Anyway...for now, though, I'm gonna go and watch the only other Tarantino movie I have on DVD, that being "Django Unchained". I'm gonna go do that next, because it has been a long time since I last watched it, and I'm kinda in the mood to watch it again after so long. So that's what I'm gonna go do, and I just hope that, again, the sequel for this movie is gonna be even better.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.