Quentin Tarantino Month: "Kill Bill: Vol. 2"

Kill Bill: Vol. 2

5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Rated R
-Several scenes of action violence including somewhat gory depictions of someone's eyes coming out.
-Strong language throughout including f-words and one use of the c-word.
-Some sexual content








"Kill Bill: Vol. 2" is more than a continuation of the first film. While it does end the story, it takes a step back from the action and gives insight about the characters.

The new information also new meaning to the rest of the story. In "Vol. 1," Quentin Tarantino does not let the audience know a lot of information about who the protagonist is. We know the basic motivations behind the Bride wanting to kill Bill, but we do not know why Bill wanted to murder her in the first place.

Near the beginning of this film, it is revealed what the relationship between Bill and the Bride had been previous to the attempted murder at the wedding. Tarantino does this by showing a moment between them at the church before the other members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad comes to attack.

That scene only reveals part of why Bill does something so horrible. Without spoiling anything, there is something the Bride has done as well, but her motivation is not revealed until she confronts Bill in the end.

This movie is yet another demonstration of Tarantino's superb use of dialogue. He does not lazily force exposition from his characters' mouths. The dialogue flows naturally and allows the audience to make connections on its own.

The character who gets the most interesting speeches is Bill. While there is still very little known about his backstory, he is depicted as an intelligent, insightful man. During the final confrontation, Bill makes an observation about the uniqueness of Superman. He says the superhero is the only one whose secret identity is the innocent civilian. His true self is an alien on earth with incredible powers. This speech ties into an explanation of the Bride's situation in a way that gives depth to the character without confusing the audience.

Before taking vengeance on Bill, the Bride still has two more people she wants to kill. This leads her into a precarious situation that would be near impossible to get out of for any normal human being. However, the Bride has some abilities most people do not have, and the reason for this is revealed in a flashback that directly connects to what is happening. It shows how she was trained, from whom and how she learned the specific move she needs to get out of her position.

There is another character named Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) who has roughly the same backstory. Her and the Bride were trained by the same person, Pai Mei (Chia-Hui Liu). However, Elle is not a very good person. Her badness -- contrasted with the Bride's goodness -- is highlighted when comparing their individual experiences with Pai Mei. They both undergo criticism from him, but they handle it differently.

This installment is not as gory and as "Vol. 1." There are a few action scenes, but none of them show blood squirting out of bodies. The first film is more about the action, and this is more about the characters. I did not like it as much at first. Compared to the first one, it seems slower, but that is because the emphasis is on different things. Anyone who sees it needs to understand that "Vol. 2" and "Vol. 1" are completely different films.

My thoughts on the ending (spoilers):

When Bill is about to shoot Beatrix Kiddo (since this section reveals spoilers, her real name will be used in it), he tells her this is him at his most masochistic. It is impossible to know what he means by this at first, but it ends up being an important line because it highlights the complexity of Bill's emotions.

By the end of this film, we know that prior to the story, Beatrix and Bill are in a romantic relationship. In fact, Beatrix is carrying his child when he shoots her, and the infant survives without her knowing. Their relationship first turns sour when Beatrix realizes she is pregnant. She does not want the child to grow up with the lifestyle she is living with Bill, and she runs away, still in love with him.

Bill becomes angry and tracks her down to find that she is getting married to someone else. Not only that, she is pregnant. Bill does not realize it is his child when he shoots her.

Bill tells her he is being a masochist when she calls him a sadist. These are two words that describe someone who finds pleasure with pain. While a sadist likes to inflict pain on other people, a masochist likes to be in pain. When he shoots her, he still loves her. It causes him deep, emotional pain as he does so. At the same time, he is taking revenge on how she wronged him, and that is pleasurable to him.

Bill's emotions are twisted, complicated and bittersweet, and that is the feeling I get from the resolution of the film. Beatrix clearly has feelings for him, but she also feels she needs revenge for everything he had put her through. In the end, the film goes from being a straight-up tale of vengeance to a complicated, tragic love story.

Like my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/criticalchristopher
Follow me on Twitter: @ChrisCampbell02

Quentin Tarantino Month:

Introduction
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Pulp Fiction
Django Unchained
Inglourious Basterds
Jackie Brown
Reservoir Dogs

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" Review

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Rated PG-13
-Moderate amount of language including one f-word
-Non-gory action violence throughout including guns. One gun shot wound is shown, but it is not gory.
-The character design of Koba might be frightening to some younger audiences.
-I rated this up in family appropriateness because it has themes that family's might appreciate.






"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" does for the "Apes" franchise what "The Dark Knight" did for Batman. Not only does it push the characters from the previous film forward, it presents a story that stands on its own and gives insight into human nature.

It has been years since the events of the first film. Many humans have died off from a deadly virus brought about by an experimental drug that was tested on an ape named Caeser (Andy Serkis), who became highly intelligent because of it. He gave the drug to a bunch of other apes, and they all gained the same intelligence. Having rebelled against the humans, they now live in a forest colony outside San Fransicso.

Caeser is the leader of them. He is now more mature, having spent years as the one responsible for who he considers his family. He is also much wiser than the rest because he has had a deep, personal connection with humans. His experiences have led him to the knowledge that there is both good and bad in humanity.

Not every ape understands this. There is one named Koba (Toby Kebbell) who had been tortured by humans before the rebellion. He has only seen the ugly side of humanity, and he thinks they are all awful.

For years, the humans and apes have been living separate lives. This changes one day when some humans unknowingly stumble onto ape territory. Humans are running out of electricity in their colony located within the city, and they know there is a dam around the area that could provide hydroelectric power. They want to find a way to turn it on. However, it is in the ape colony and some apes -- such as Koba -- do not have a lot of trust in humans.

Caeser agrees to let a few humans stay for three days to figure out how to turn the dam on. His condition is they cannot have guns in the area. Malcolm (Jason Clarke), the leader of these few humans, honors Caeser's request. However, not all of the humans respect the apes like Malcolm. Complications arise because of this and because of Koba's distrust.

This film explains one of the biggest problems in modern-day society. It is about the dangers of stereotyping. Not only does Koba think all humans are bad, one of the humans named Carver (Kirk Acevedo) also blames all apes to be the root cause of his problems. Most of the characters -- both apes and humans -- want to avoid killing each other, but there are those few on both sides who believe the other needs to be eliminated.

This is the same thing that happened around 9/11.  On that day in 2001, there were a few Muslims who hated Americans and resorted to killing a lot of them. A lot of Americans became angry at all Muslims, thinking they were evil people, and the religious group underwent a lot of persecution because of it. My own experience has led me to believe they are generally peaceful people. Not all of them would even dream of doing something as horrific as what was done that day. It is just a few that cause problems. Likewise, only some Americans overgeneralized their hate to encompass all Muslims.

What is amazing about both "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" is how much characterization is given to the animals. Both films are more about the apes than they are about the humans, and it is just as engaging as it would have been the other way around. There is also a decent amount of development given to Malcolm. This makes it engaging because during the climax, there is enough emotional investment on both sides to make the audience generally concerned about what happens.

The characterization of the apes could not be accomplished as potently as it is without the use of motion capture technology. The animation is done using real actors, and their facial expressions look very real. There is one scene in the beginning when Caeser meets his newborn son, and it is very powerful because the look of happiness on his face is so clear.

Andy Serkis is the one who does the actions and voice for Caeser. He is notable for doing a lot of motion capture roles, his most famous being Gollum from "The Lord of the Rings" movies. He has been trying to get the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create an Oscar category for motion capture. While I do not agree there is enough movies shot that way to justify an entire category, he deserves to be nominated for best actor in a leading role for this movie.

Like my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/criticalchristopher
Follow me on Twitter: @ChrisCampbell02

Quentin Tarantino Month: "Kill Bill: Vol. 1"

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

4.5 out of 5 stars

Family appropriateness rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars
Rated R
-Graphic, bloody violence throughout.
-Strong language throughout including f-words and several c-words
-Moderate amount of sexual content including a brief, animated depiction of statutory rape about to happen (it does not actually happen though)







The introduction to Quentin Tarantino month mentioned that I would lump both "Kill Bill" movies together. My reasoning was they are one story. While this is true, I changed my mind. They do make up the same story, but they are completely different films that can easily be discussed individually.

"Kill Bill: Vol. 1" is a stylized revenge film about a woman (Uma Thurman) who seeks revenge on a man named Bill (David Carradine) for nearly killing her.

There is no mention of the woman's name in the first installment. She is either referred to as "The Bride" -- having been found unconscious at a small wedding, wearing a white dress -- or her secret assassin name "Black Mamba." In some scenes, her real name is uttered, but a distinct <bleep> sound covers it.

The Bill character is also an enigma. His voice is heard in several scenes, but all that is shown are his hands. His face is never revealed until the second movie. All we know is he is the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which The Bride was once a part of. Details about his relationship with the protagonist are unknown.

All that is given to the audience is just enough to know why Black Mamba would want to seek revenge on Bill. The film opens to him shooting her in the head. When detectives find her, they think she is dead, but upon realizing she is not, she is taken to a hospital where she spends four years in a vegetative state.

When she wakes up, she is angry: not just for having been shot, but because she was pregnant during the attempted murder. She finds that she is no longer carrying the baby and assumes the unborn child was killed.

Bill is actually the last person on her list to kill. There are several other people from Bill's assassination squad who were present during the assassination attempt, and she intends to save the most important for last. Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) is one of these people, and the Bride confronts her at the beginning.

This bulk of this film focuses on Black Mamba going after O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), the brutal leader of a criminal underground in Tokyo. While there is not a lot explained about where the Bride came from, there is a lot of description about O-Ren. A big chunk of her background is explained in a beautifully-drawn anime that does a great job creating a relatable character who the audience can sympathize with. She is later developed as a murdering psychopath, but at least she has reason to be.

Tarantino knows exactly what to do in every shot to create an atmosphere that is wildly entertaining. This is especially true as the Bride goes to the house of O-Ren to confront her. The way the set is colored combined with the background music and the way the camera follows the main character makes it perfect. Not only are these shots visually stimulating, they create sufficient buildup for the action-packed climax.

This film came out just five days before I turned 14, and the only thing I had heard was how violent it is. It has been said that over 450 gallons of fake blood were used to make it. After actually watching it, I do not doubt this fact. There is a lot of blood! However, it is different than I imagined. It is not realistic like in war movies. It is comical. Whenever limbs get chopped off, blood spews out sporadically. It is even weirder when people are stabbed: a volcano of blood explodes out of their stomaches.

This aspect is both visually appealing and disturbing. It is disturbing because of how entertaining it is. This is why I would not recommend it to anyone who does not understand the basics of both biology and human ethics. Only well-adjusted adults should watch it with a critical eye that it is purely for entertainment. Young people or someone who does not know right from wrong may think the blood looks cool and try it out.

That is something Tarantino and I may not see eye-to-eye on, but I believe it to be possible both because of my religious background and my background in psychology. There is a well-known study by a man named Alfred Bandura in which children were shown an adult behave aggressively towards a doll. The kids were then able to play, and those who had observed the aggressive behavior were aggressive towards it as well. This is called "modeling," and it has been tested many other times and shown to be a real phenomenon. We learn by watching other people and that is why we need to be careful when watching a violent film like this. This film gets a strong recommendation from me, but those who watch it should be cautious about the violence.

Like my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/criticalchristopher
Follow me on Twitter: @ChrisCampbell02

Quentin Tarantino Month:

Introduction
Kill Bill Vol. 2
Pulp Fiction
Django Unchained
Inglourious Basterds
Jackie Brown
Reservoir Dogs