Kill Bill's quiet ending

The much anticipated release of mad genius Quentin Tarantino's sequel to Kill Bill is a lot different than many fans are probably expecting. Quieter and more reflective, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 nevertheless delivers a deliciously satisfying conclusion to the Bride's epic saga of revenge and redemption.

At first glance, the second movie appears to be less of a continuation of the first rather than a completely different film that just happens to have the same characters. The music in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is quieter, the violence far from over the top (there's no scene remotely comparable to the massacre of the Crazy 88 samurai from Kill Bill), the entire movie is far less stylized and the characters actually matter.

Bloodthirsty teens expecting to see a limb hacked off every three seconds might be disappointed, but the film is still a success. If Kill Bill proved Tarantino can direct non-stop, high-octane action like none other, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 proves that he can still write dialogue and create vivid characters better than anyone else in Hollywood. Also, while Kill Bill was Tarantino's homage to kung-fu films, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 pays more tributes to the old Western movies.

In Kill Bill, the Bride (Uma Thurman) was introduced – a pregnant former assassin who took a bullet to the head from Bill (David Carradine), her former boss and lover. After spending four years wasting away in a coma, the Bride awakens to wreak a bloodbath of vengeance on her former coworkers, the Deadly Viper Assassins Squad (DiVAS) and to square up with her real prey – Bill.

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 shows the actual wedding-chapel massacre that results in the Bride's near demise, then picks up where the first one left off. Like Kill Bill, the movie is arranged in a series of chapters, each a complete story. After killing Vernita Green and O-ren Ishii in the first movie, the Bride has two DiVAS left to dispatch before she can finally take out Bill. Her opponents are the sadistic Budd (Michael Madsen), who has retired from the assassin business and now lives in a run-down trailer in the middle of nowhere, and one-eyed killer Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah), who has lost none of her creepy edge.

However, the Bride doesn't know the one secret that could stop even her cold-blooded payback dead in its tracks. "Does she know her daughter is alive?" were Bill's chilling final words at the end of the first movie. And when the Bride comes face to face with her long-lost child, she has to make a decision she never thought she would – can she really kill Bill?

Overall, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 lacks the manic, hyper-violent energy that drove Kill Bill. However, it makes up for that by really letting the audience get to know the characters they were previously only watching slice each other up on screen. One of the most entertaining chapters of the movie is "The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei," which shows the Bride's brutal kung-fu training under the guidance of thousand year-old master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu).

Don't be fooled - Kill Bill: Vol. 2 has plenty of violence and gore, a snappy soundtrack and characters and situations that truly come to life on screen. The Bride even gets buried alive at one point, and the ensuing scene is genuinely frightening. However, the longer dialogue and slower, more nuanced pacing might make this movie more appealing to a wider audience than the first. People who can't stand watching a room painted in spurting blood only have to shut their eyes a few times, as opposed to the entire movie.

Without a doubt, Tarantino has once again demonstrated that he is one of the most talented living directors. His unique artistic style in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is like nothing seen on the silver screen in recent years. Like Budd says of the best sword smith in the world: "If you're gonna compare a Hanzo sword, you compare it to everysword ever made - which wasn't made by Hattori Hanzo." You can't compare Tarantino's first Kill Bill to his second. You just have to remember that every other movie out there was not made by Tarantino.

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is rated R for graphic violence.