Kill Bill: Volume 2
**** - excellent
The success or demise of a Quentin Tarantino film depends on how well the viewer responds to his dialogue. The first volume of Tarantino's Kill Bill duo was a different case, it was all action and hardly any words - what Tarantino offered was his natural knack for direction. Kill Bill: Volume 2 strays away from Volume 1 - the latest film is nearly as talky as Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. His camerawork slows, too - lingering at a similar pace to his previous films.
The problem is, the addition of the Tarantino-stamped dialogue and slow pace is why it isn't as good as Volume 1. I do admire the attempt at adding complexity to all the characters involved, but in doing so, Tarantino falls in trying to transcend the film's Z-movie inspirations too much. The great thing about the first installment is that it upgraded the inspired films - camerawork, cinematography, acting, and the whole spectacle of the thing - but stayed true to them, and acknowledged how cheezy and cheap they are. The problem with humanizing the characters that originally came out of a Z-movie context is that it stops becoming intentionally cheezy, and starts becoming genuinely maudlin.
If Volume 1 was a departure, as a showcase of raw direction over wordplay - then Volume 2 is a departure for Tarantino, as an attempt to become a humanist. That's not to imply that his previous films lacked humanity - Jackie Brown's aging lead, in particular, is a great example. But, whatever previous attempts at humanity go only so far - the characters still feel like cut-outs from the movies he loves so much, which is the appeal.
Volume 2 taught me that Tarantino - at least not in an updated Z-movie context - is not an effective humanist. I didn't feel for anyone any more than I did in Volume 1, it just created a sense of longing for the cut-outs, that feel true to the original works that inspire all of his films. For once, Tarantino gives off a sense that he feels "above" them - that they aren't human enough for him, and that he can transcend them. The problem being is that we remember fights in which The Bride takes down 88 killers and a Japanese schoolgirl with a steel ball - and scenes in which blood comes spouting out of someone's head like a geyser. The ridiculousness of the context quite frankly contradicts with the humanizing - at least for me, it did - which is why Volume 2's more ridiculous scenes, a fight with the one-eyed Elle and training with a white-beared martial arts master, are the standouts in the film. Those scenes don't forget the ridiculousness of it all, they don't work extra-hard to transcend that of which is terrible (but fun), by definition.
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