Alex Reviews "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair"

As Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair does not contain much new material, this review will be a little different from the normal film critique. It is more an experience to see both parts of Kill Bill in the theater than seeing the picture as a new entity. That is not to dismiss this experience as I have long been a fan of Quentin Tarantino’s work. Very few directors could sell me on a 4 hour and 35-minute experience, but Tarantino’s trademark rapid fire dialogue and world building are among the best of all time and makes the time feel quick. The 15-minute intermission definitely helps.

The full story of BLEEP the Bride plays out exactly as awesome and violent as I remember with a mash up of styles and fight signs equally fast as the repartee between characters. If nothing else, I am so grateful that I finally got to see these pictures on the big screen. Kill Bill: Part I is one of my favorite pictures, so I will try to stay objective, but while others might not think the additions to the first half do not add anything to the narrative, I could not disagree more. The extended animation sequence of a particular character’s origins enhances the dramatic climax significantly for me. It is very rare that a beloved property can be made better without upscaling or modernizing, but this scene took one of my very few gripes about Part I and eliminates it (in more ways than one).

Be advised that the intermission is not a stop. It is a break built in and when the time is up, it jumps right into Part II. While the added scene enhances the first half, it does make the distance between the enjoyment of the first film and the second one more noticeable. Particularly as Beatrix’s (Uma Thurman) story slows down in the home stretch. Still, the shifting from a “Kung Fu movie with Western elements” to the modern “Western with Kung Fu elements” feels smoother with a brief time between these stories. It also adds some entertainment value while showcasing the talent of Gordon Liu (The Man with the Iron Fists) and Michael Parks (Tusk) dual roles with the brief intermission.

In addition to the film, we were shown The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge which was made using the popular video game Fortnite as a basis and the ever-evolving Unreal Engine for the animation. It is visually impressive to see how far game engines have come, but the whole thing fell apart for me when it turned into a ten-minute Fortnite advertisement. I cannot knock the quality of what was created, but as a non-player, it left me behind where I have to assume that fans of game will cheer. The chapter is thin, but I wouldn’t view it as a part of the Kill Bill story. It does make me wish I had seen what this lost chapter could have been in the style of The Whole Bloody Affair.

If you are reading this, I’ll have to assume you are either a fan of Kill Bill or have similar interests to myself. So, I will say don’t go see The Whole Bloody Affair alone. It will be an awesome group outing full of glorious carnage and the wittiest of dialogue in an almost satirical Kung Fu Western shell. I loved every single minute of it right up the doubled or tripled credits due to the two-fer experience. Pay your respects to those that made this happen, but don’t expect a post-credits scene. More than anything else, find as many friends as you can and experience Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair when it releases December 5^th!