Bill' sequel exceeds all expectations

It is difficult to measure how high my expectations were for this film. I mean, if I had been asked, I would have said that it was going to be the greatest film ever made. But that doesn’t quite capture what my hopes were.After seeing “Kill Bill Volume 1,” the expectations rose to even greater heights, as it not only had to adequately conclude the story, but also meet the bar set by “Volume 1.”So, granting that I had massive and inappropriately high expectations for the film, it would stand to reason that the film couldn’t possibly live up to them.But it did.In fact, it surpassed them. I was riveted to the edge of my seat for the entire film, I was engrossed and I was floored by how good this movie was.Now, an important question to ask is, “Was it better than ‘Kill Bill Volume 1’?” My response to that is, do not compare a “Kill Bill” movie to other “Kill Bill” movies, compare them to every other film ever made.I’m less concerned with how it compares to the first than with how the two of them were some of the best movies I have ever seen.David Carradine, who plays the infamous Bill, puts on one of the best performances I have ever seen, especially in a villainous role. As a villain, Bill was portrayed with the sort of depth often lacking from films today. Was he ‘the bad guy?’ Certainly, but he was not unworthy of respect.Uma Thurman, as always, fit her part perfectly. She was thoroughly The Bride. And, for the first time in a long time, there was a child actor that did not make me hate children.Apparently, I’m not alone in liking the film, as the first screening received a five-minute standing ovation. So don’t take it as empty praise when I say that I have nothing negative to say about the movie.That’s not entirely true – the scene where Thurman stomps on an eyeball was more disgusting than it needed to be, but I won’t fault the movie for that minor problem. Now, it’s hard to review a Tarantino flick without commenting on the fact that the story is told out of sequence.Tarantino is very talented at weaving a non-chronological narrative. Even though as each scene ended I wanted to know more, I was more than happy to watch whatever scene Tarantino decided to set forth.Tarantino’s Spaghetti Eastern was filled with rich dialogue, involved characters and enough action to sate even large degrees of bloodlust.Powell can be reached at lpowell@campustimes.org.