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As The Passion slides down the box office charts and prepares to make its inevitable exit from the top ten, extreme violence continues to dominate the screens this week. This time, though, the violence is in service of revenge tales—one an outrageous, tongue-in-cheek, martial arts spectacle, the other a simple comic book adaptation.

The Bride (Uma Thurman) is back in Kill Bill Vol. 2, this week's box office champ. In this episode, we learn her name and a whole lot more. We learn why her fiancé and her wedding party were slaughtered by a killer named Bill (David Carradine). We learn what happened to the Bride's daughter, who was revealed to be alive at the end of Vol. 1. We also meet her trainer, an indignant, impish martial arts master named Pai Mei (Gordon Liu), and we learn the extent to which she has mastered murderous maneuvers. These deadly talents then assist her in her desperate quest to find and destroy her malevolent nemesis.

While the film certainly serves up the graphic violence you'd expect from a Quentin Tarantino film, it also delivers far more character development, dialogue, and storytelling than Vol. 1. This is catching many critics by surprise, impressing some of them, discouraging others. It is worth noting that the Bride is fighting in order to break free from "the life" of a criminal, just as Samuel L. Jackson's character did in Pulp Fiction. But her methods for doing so are not as level-headed. She's on "a roaring rampage of revenge."

Mainstream critics, who condemned The Passion for its onscreen violence, suddenly seem to have decided that there's nothing wrong with R-rated brutality whatsoever. Most of them give KB2 high praise. Those who object primarily complain about Tarantino's preoccupation with referencing other movies.

The majority of religious press critics, on the other hand, continue to reject Tarantino's work due to the excessive violence.

In doing so, some of them fall short of giving Tarantino credit for his remarkable achievements—the stellar performances he draws from his actors, the surprising moral conflict that is revealed at the heart of the story in this episode, and the technical achievement of his filmmaking. These movies are indulgent and flawed, but they should be recognized as a mix of strengths and weaknesses. (My full review is at Looking Closer.)

Russ Breimeier (Christianity Today Movies) says, "If you're offended by bad language, by less-than-scrupulous characters, and/or by scenes of strong violence—regardless of whether it's hyper-realistic like The Passion or comic book-styled like The Matrix—this film is definitely not for you." But he adds, "Kill Bill Vol. 2 is undeniably enjoyable filmmaking, unpredictable in its storytelling and wholly original in its characterizations."

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) says, "I have to admit, I liked Vol. 2 much more than its predecessor simply because of the focus on the characters instead of on the ways they killed each other." He does confirm that "vengeance remains the central theme of the film."

He finds a spiritual message in the film, however: "Believing is the most important key there is to achieving success. Rarely do we see success if we don't believe that it is possible. God continues to exhort us to believe in Him and in the Word that He has given us because He knows that as we do, we will see the signs, miracles, and wonders that He is ready and willing to send our way."

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April (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48