Kill Bill: Vol. 2

At a movie night this weekend, of course I couldn’t watch Kill Bill: Vol.1 without watching Kill Bill: Vol.2. Like I said before, I’ve seen both movies a long time ago, and I just always remembered liking Vol. 1 more than Vol. 2. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like Vol. 2; I do like it, it’s just that it doesn’t hit the same level as Vol.1 for me. First, I’ll start with the positives. While I love Vol.1 for the fight scenes, I love Vol. 2 for the character development. Here, we see more into The Bride/Beatrix’s backstory, from her training as an assassin to seeing how she ended up right before the events of Vol. 1. You also get more into the relationship between her and Bill. I also appreciate Beatrix more as a character because once she got pregnant, she just truly wanted a better life for the sake of her daughter, and it’s just sad that Bill and the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad took that away from her. I also love the battle between Beatrix and Elle. It’s a pretty high stakes fight because Elle was the second to last person on Beatrix’s kill list and it matters a lot for them to kill one another because they both had a relationship with Bill. To be honest, I forgot about this fight when I first watched it as a kid, so I was just surprised to see Elle’s other eye get ripped out. That really makes it an awesome fight. Another thing I did like is how ambiguous the ending felt after Beatrix killed Bill. You see her laying on the floor crying, but you can’t tell if it’s tears of joy or tears of pain. To me, it felt like a combination of both because she had such a complex relationship with Bill and she was mourning him after killing him, but also she felt relief because it meant that her and her daughter were finally free. I guess my issue with this movie is just how unsatisfying it feels to see Beatrix kill Bill, since we spent 2 movies hyping it up. While it is cool to see Beatrix do the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, I just kinda wish there was more of a leadup to that move. It just felt like they fought for a few seconds and then it was over. Basically, this movie felt like the opposite of Vol. 1. While Vol.1 was very fast-paced and action packed, Vol. 2 felt more of a slow burn. That being said, I still enjoy this movie and would still watch it after watching Vol. 1. I am curious to see The Whole Bloody Affair edit to see how the two movies work as a whole, so I’m hoping that watching one cohesive edit would help me enjoy both volumes a lot more.