Elden Ring Nightreign Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, so its time for another video game review and this one will be on the latest offering from Fromsoftware, which is the co-op RPG, Elden Ring Nightreign, which come out a few months ago and I did play for a while fairly recently.

So, how does this co-op game compare to the epic original RPG? Well, let's find out...

PREMISE

So, I won't say much about the story and say more on the premise of it instead in which you play as one of eight playable characters, who are known as Nightfarers, who's quest is to dispel the reign of night. You start the game as the character Wylder, who will have to fight many enemies in the realm similar to that of Limgrave in Elden Ring, which is now called Limvled. However, in order to progress in his mission, Wylder must join up with other characters to defeat powerful bosses known as Nightlords, who rule over Limveld over the space of 3 days. 

THOUGHTS

For the concept of the game as co-op, Elden Ring Nightreign holds a lot of promise and it can allow for some engaging battles with online players, as you try and progress through each run to fight the Nightlord bosses. However, this can also be very challenging due to the high number of enemies you deal with as well as not getting caught out by the engulfing night mist, which can quickly drain your HP. You will also have to battle through each run over the space of 3 days, with each day lasting about 14 minutes before you reach the final nightlord boss for that run. So, this is very much a fast paced game that does require a lot of team effort in order to get through it efficiently, which will vary based on the effectiveness of your team. Not to mention, this is a rogue-like game, where if you die, you need to start all over again with no checkpoints, which can be quite annoying but I will say more about that later.

GAMEPLAY: CO-OP & SOLO 

As for the gameplay, you have the choice of actually playing co-op with online players, which are invited in via matchmaking, or a group password can be enabled to allow friends to play together, which is considered the best way to play it as it allows for a better chance of survival and success. You can however also play the game solo, to try and get through the run but this will ultimately be a greater challenge when facing the bosses solo.

NIGHT MIST

Also as work through the run the world will slowly be engulfed by the night mist, which is similar to the effect you see in Fortnite, where getting caught in a shrinking zone can be fatal if you step outside it (not sure if I have that right!). So, this will happen a few minutes into each day and have to outrun the mist in order to survive, or you will die but you will still respawn again.

CHARACTERS

As for the characters there are eight playable ones in the game but you can only access six of them at the beginning and you need to complete two of the Nightlord bosses to access one and fight a boss version of the other. The characters are actually quite good fun to play with and Wylder is a solid starting choice as the default option as he can weild a number of weapons that can be dex or strength and he also has a cool unique ability that causes a large explosion as well as a grapple he can pull himself toward enemies with. Other characters include the Duchess, who is a dextreous spellblade, who uses swift weapons best and casts spells, who is very fast but she also has lower HP, the Guardian, who is quite the opposite and a human tank basically, who uses quality based weapons such as a halberd and the Executor, who weild a powerful katana as well as an additional sword for further damage. Then there Ironeye who is a more ranged option, as he uses a bow that can be useful when you want to not get too close to enemies.

You can also encounter these characters independently in the roundtable hold area of the game, which is the same central hub as to the one in Elden Ring, only its more delapidated looking and you can also get some dialogue from them. You can also change into each character from the hold itself, which will the default to showing your previous character back in the hold. 

WEAPONS AND LEVELS

As for weapons, the game offers some new ones that are specific to each character but most of the weapons found here are from the original game and are purely random based drops, which you can get when you kill enemies or break crates or open chests. As for the character weapons, Wydler uses a standard greatsword, the Duchess uses a magic infused dagger, the Guardian uses a Halberd and the Raider uses a Great axe. These weapons can be swapped out however at any time by picking up another one and you an hold up to six weapons at once. 

In regards to the levels, you will always start off at level 1 and you can progressively build your character up to level 15, which is the maximum you can reach during a run. Its obviously a good idea to try and build up your levels as much as you can as they will effect not only how much HP, endurance and FP you have but also what types of weapons you can access too. So, ideally by the time you reach the 3rd day of a run, its best to be near the max level as much as you can.

CURRENCY AND OUTFITS

As for the game's currency, things are a bit different here as you earn what's called Murk for each run, which will depend of course on how successful you were in the run and you will get a higher amount for completing the run. So, with this currency you can use it to purchase other items such as specific relics, that offer different attributes and abilities, as well as new outfits, one for the daytime and the other for night. These however aren't unlocked until you have completed the first two Nightlord bosses ot the game.

RELICS

Another key aspect of the game are the relics, which are items you can pick up throughout the world and you can equip them at the hold. Relics can offer different abilities ranging from adding specific skills to your starting weapon to boosting your stats such as strength, faith or intelligence by a point or two. The relics are also colour coded and come in different sizes with the larger ones being more effective than the smaller ones but specific ones can only be used with certain characters and not everyone can use the same relics.  

THE NIGHTLORDS 

As for the bossses, these are the Nightlords and there are eight of them to be found in the game although only seven of them are accessible to fight initially as the final one is unlocked later on. So, the Nightlords themselves offers quite a high level of challenge for players but they also each have a specific weakness, which can be exploited and can be read about at the Roundtable hold. So, its a good idea to pay attention to these weaknesses and find a weapon during your run that can help inflict a specific weakness e.g. poison or lightning. However, these bosses can only be fought on Day 3, so if you die before then, you need to start a whole new run. There are also updated versions of these bosses that are more difficult known as everdark bosses, and they offer a higher level of challenge but so far only three of these bosses have such a version of themselves.

GRAPHICS

Moving onto the graphics for the game, its the same engine as used for Elden Ring, so visuals are pretty much identical to what we've seen before and the game looks pretty good overall. So, the environments are more or less much the same in this adapted world of Limveld compared to the original Limgrave but there are still some differences in design but they still look pretty impressive. As for the character models, they all look pretty good too and similar to the ones in Elden Ring in terms of standard. There are still some frame rate issues however that I noticed on the PS5 version, similar to Elden Ring itself, its not entirely smooth but that's to be expected from a Fromsoft game I guess. 

MUSIC 

As for the music, it was composed by five different composers that all worked previously on Elden Ring such as Shoi Miyazawa, Tai Tomisawa and Yuka Kitmura and the music is pretty good overall and of course the usual standard we expect from From (so to speak!). I also quite like the music for the Roundtable Hold, which is a bit different from the original theme.

FLAWS 

As for flaws...yes Night Reign has a few worth a mention.

For starters, your success in this game is primarily based on how good a team you have on your side, and yes I can easily say I am not the best player in a co-op situation but I did play this game for over 25 hours and could NOT get back past the 3rd nightlord boss! So, if this game has one big flaw then for me its the rouge-like nature of it, as having to repeatedly do 40 minute runs to get a boss becomes tedious pretty quick. 

So, yeah this game can be really frustrating when you are being matched up with random players and in most cases I found the random players to be fine and worked well with them. However, this does bring me onto another issue, which is that the pace of the game is a bit too fast at times due to the limit, so its too easy to fall behind and get lost from your team mates as you try and progress. This is especially the case if you die at the hands of enemies or get caught in the might mist and you have to run around and find them again. 

Another is to do with the 3 day structure of the runs themselves, as at the end of each day you need to fight a big boss and the 2nd day can itself very tough and that means one thing, if you die, you need to start all over again. So, yeah ultimately the constant reptition of these runs does get pretty tiring and ultimately it becomes a buzz kill after a while. And there were quite a few runs where I managed to get to day 3 and the nightlord bosses have a TON of hp, which takes a long time to work them down and again if you die, you are at the mercy of your team mates reviving you, or if they die, you revive them and if not, then its game over. 

This brings me onto another issue, which is to do with the amount of time it can take to restore the health of a team mate, as it sometimes feels too long winded, although if you have a fast striking weapon it can help revive them quicker. However, in a big boss fight, taking too long to revive them really can be the difference between you losing your run or carrying on, as the boss could also take you out as well as you try and revive your team. So, yeah the whole revival mechanic is a pretty flawed one overall. 

The relic system also feels pretty flawed too, as they can help provide a variety of different effects such as boost your stats, hp, endurance, faith, intelligence etc, which is good but you can find so many and they are a mixed bag in how useful they are. The colour coding of them in the Roundtable hold is also a pain as certain characters can only use certain relics of a specific colour but you might have some relics of that colour that are not useful and you need one of another colour that can be used by another character but not the one you currently use. 

And last of all is to do with the alternate costumes that are available in them game for each different character, as the cost to buy them is ridiculously high, as you need at least 14,000 murk (the ga,e's currency) to buy the cheapest outfit alone and its hard to farm up so much murk per run. So, again, this is a pretty frustrating mechanic and the game punishes you with it pretty badly, if you are intent on getting all the outfits for each character, it will take you quite some time to do it! However, in the end, I gave up on playing this game after 25 hours of gameplay, so I never got past the 3rd Nightlord boss and lost interest in it by that time.  

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP 

So, to sum up, Elden Ring Nightreign can be a fun but also a frustrating experience as the co-op play can be enjoyable but can also quickly become a tedious chore given how successful you are in a run depending on how well your team work together and the RNG you get in terms of enemy and boss difficulty. The fast paced nature can also be fun but at the same annoying too, as you can all too easily get separated from your team mates, so you really are forced to try and keep up with them as much as possible. 

The graphics however are just as good as before in Elden Ring with good character models and the environments still look similar and impressive and the music score is also pretty good as you would expect from Fromsoft. Also, if you do get a good team on your side during a run, this can be a fun experience and quite satisfying when you do get a nightlord boss down. 

However, I do have to say for me, this is still the weakest From game to date overall, as its co-op gameplay really is dependent on how well your team gels together or and how lucky you are with the boss and enemy RNG. Its said to be best enjoyed also with friends, however alot of players don't necessarily have friends that are into Souls games (myself included) so that kind of scuppers them in that regard and that is how to get the best out of it, which is unfortunate. 

So, for me, Nightreign really is a pretty flawed if at times fun game, which has an intriguing concept but ultimately its one that's bound to frustrate and entertain you in equal measure. If you like this game, that's great and if you are good at co-op (unlike me lol!) then you are sure to enjoy this but for me, it was a fun for a while but after so many runs, it get's pretty samey and tiring to go through the same stuff over and over again 40 minutes or so at a time and for that, this game just doesn't cut it for me overall. It can be enjoyable but its far from perfect.   

So, I will rate this game:

7 out of 10

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.

Until then its bye for now! 

 

Doom Eternal Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I figured I would get another review done following up my review of the Switch 2 and review a game I've recently finished (just today!) on the platform, which is Doom Eternal, the sequel to the hugely successful 2016 Doom reboot. 

So, after the acclaim of the 2016 reboot, how does Doom Eternal fair??? Well, let's find out.

STORY 

So, I will say a bit about the plot but not too much as it begins the main playable character, the Doom Slayer, who sets out in his quest to kill three Hell priests, who are co-ordinating the demon invasion of Earth, which has heavily wiped out Earth's population. So, on his way he also reunites with an old ally, Samuel Hayden, a robotic droid, who previously betrayed the Slayer at the end of the first game, who guides him to the final priest and his ultimate quest to destroy an even bigger threat...

THOUGHTS

As a sequel to the Doom reboot of 2016, Doom Eternal is a very entertaining first person shooter, which has plenty of thick and fast action that will keep most players on their toes and can get pretty chaotic at times. Overall, I would also sat I prefer the sequel to the origial reboot, despite one or two issues, its a lot of fun and the crazy and gory combat has its own bizarre charm to it and the game also has a good amount of challenge to it as well.

GAMEPLAY

As for the gameplay, I will do the usual with my game reviews and split into sub-sections below.

MOVEMENT AND PLATFORMING

So, in this game, you can move pretty much as before, as the Slayer can run, jump, climb up onto areas but this time there is a heavier emphasis on platforming itself. So, here the Slayer has to jump between various areas to progress, which can invovle jumping from climbable wall sections to jump onto other walls to reach higher up platforms. This can involve making double jumps in the air but you can also perform mid-air dashes to reach further away platforms. There are also times, Slayer will have to punch out green labelled wall sections to progress as well that will lead into new areas. Some of these platform sections can also be time based and involve careful timing to avoid falling to your doom (I guess!). The platforming certainly isn't without its challenges and can result in a lot of trial and error but I will say more about that a bit later on!

COMBAT

As for the combat, you will have access to the usual weapons that are found in the Doom franchise such as the shotgun, chaingun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and of course the BFG. You can also have access to other weapons such as the super shotgun, which has a built-in grapple called a meathook, which be used to grab onto enemies and can slingshot them. Then there is the Ballista, which fires out a powerful single blast and there is also a special weapon, the Unmakyr, which is a magical sword that can destroy most enemies in one hit (to quote the Fash Show here: nice!). As you play the game, you will also gain access to XP points that you can spend on your weapons to upgrade their features as well as boost the features of your suit that can enhance your HP and armour. 

As for other combat features, similar to the 2016 reboot, the Slayer an also perform glory kills, which are essentially really gory kills, as the Slayer will have a number of brutal finishing moves to take down his enemies. These can tend to be quite funny and over the top in their ridiculousness and there is also the include of a blood punch where Slayer can pulverise weaker enemies with one hit and stun stronger foes as well if not fully take them out. The Slayer can also use an attached blade to perform some of these kills on the demons, which can be both gruesome and at time hilarious to look at. Last of all is the chainsaw, which Slayer can perform kills on enemies with, who will drop weapons and health as a result. Overall the combat is certainly for the most part a lot of fun here as well pretty intense. 

ENEMIES

Moving onto the enemies, Eternal has no end of enemies here, as the Slayer will literally slay hoardes of them as he progress the game. These enemies will range from weak to very powerful and will feature most of the enemies to be found in the Doom series such as the imp, who throw fireballs at you, the Cacodemons, floating blob like creatures with one eye that fire projectiles at you as well the classic "Pinky" demon that charges at you. 

As for the newer enemies, there are the Mauraders, who are very quick (not to mention very annoying!) and can charge at you, using a shotgun and a powerful shield to block your attacks, as well as summon phantom dogs. Then there is the Doom Hunter, who is a cyborg demon that can fire canons at you, have a chainsaw arm and can also thrusters to move through the air. 

Other enemies that have returned are the Tyrant, who is a renamed version of the Cyberdemon, the Arachnatron, a spider-esque cyborg creature with a canon on it shead, the Revenant, an armoured skeleton with shouldered rocket launchers and lastly of course, the Arch-vile, who can ressurect and buff enemies. So, you will never go short of enemies in this game as there are plenty to be sure and they will offer plenty of challenge.

SENTINEL BATTERIES

Another feature new to the game are sentinel batteries, which the Slayer will pick up throughout the game and these can be used on the hub area, the Fotress of Doom, to unlock upgrades. These upgrades can either be for weapons or for armour, which similarly can be found throughout the game as you progress.  They can also allow access to new armour skins as well for Slayer to put on, if you fancy a change of outfit. 

FORTRESS OF DOOM

As for one of the key areas of the game, the Fortress of Doom is the central hub of the game and from here, Slayer will enter a portal to travel to his next destination. This area can also be explored to find items, armour and weapons, some of which can be unlocked with the use of the batteries as already mentioned. You can also use the fortress to revisit missions and try and cover stuff you might have missed on your first run. 

MULTIPLAYER MODE

The game also has its own multiplayer mode, which is named rather aptly Battlemode, which offers a 2v1 method of combat where two demons controlled by online players take on the Slayer. I have to say not being a big fan of multiplayer games, I haven't really checked this mode out myself but its there for anyone who does fancy a bit of PVP action.

GRAPHICS

Moving onto the game's graphics, well this is where things can be a mixed bag, as I played the game on the least graphically developed platform available for this game, which is the Switch 2, which runs under the backward compatible mode for the original Switch. So, unfortunately this means the graphics and frame rate do take quite a hit here, as you can only play at 720p (if it is even that more like 540p!) and 30fps and the textures are somewhat soft and lacking details The lack of 60fp is also an issue as you can miss out on the fine details of the combat and some of the glory kills as indistinct due to this. That said the Swtich 2 version does still run smoothly given its limitations, although this is more to do with it being a backward compatible version instead of being Switch 2's problem. Hopefully Nintendo or Bethesda one day will issue a Switch 2 update but we'll see. 

However, having viewed the game footage online on different platforms, more specifically the PS4, the game's graphics are indeed excellent and on other systems, e.g. Xbox and Playstation, this game looks great and looks like a completely different game. So, in the other console versions, this game has great character models as well for the enemies and the environments offer plenty of detail and variety and a fine colour scheme, which is more vibrant than Doom 3 for sure by comparison! So, its definitely best to play this game on PS4/5, Xbox or PC as you will be sure to appreciate it more. 

MUSIC

As for the music, the game features another soundtrack by Australian composer, Mick Gordon, who did the score for the first game and its the usual frantic mix of industrial metal and atmospheric synthesizers. So, the score itself is actually pretty good and has some good tracks in it that combine the insane crunching fast paced metal riffs and the more intense and gloomy sythnesizer tracks together very well. The game also features a catchy theme, which will forever stick with you every time you load up the game. 

FLAWS

As for flaws....yesss,  Doom Eternal is not perfect.

For, starters the biggest problem I have with this game is the inclusion of the platforming, which I thought at first was a nice touch but soon becomes apparent that it really has no place in a Doom game (well imho anyway!). So, yeah as you progress through the game, you will be forced to do a number of platform sections to reach the next area and it is way too easy to mess these up and fall to your eventual death (as you lose a bit of HP each time you fall). 

So, quite often these jumps require careful timing, as you need to do a mix of double jumping and mid-air dashing to reach a platform, which I more often than not missed! So, as the game went on, this got increasingly frustrating to deal with and it really slows down the pace of the game and at times even threatens to ruin the game itself. This is also really annoying, as it can force to redo sections of combat, you've already completed. So, yeah, the platforming is no fun and does NOT mix well in the Doom formula.

Another issue I had was to do with the difficulty level of the game, as it can be quite a stern challenge even at its lowest difficulty settings, which is "I'm too young to die" and was what I played it on. I knew going into this game however it would be difficult, as the Doom 2016 reboot was also quite tough even in "easy" mode. So, its fair to say I died an AWFUL LOT during my playthrough to various enemies, as the game really quickly turns into a s*** show as you are engulfed by enemies left, right and centre.

Then there is the issue to do with ammo availability, as most of the time when you run out, you have to chainsaw a nearby enemy to get them to drop ammo and at times health. This can prove also to be very frustrating because sometimes, the low level enemies are not available and if there are bigger enemies around only, you are pretty much screwed and need to start all over again to get some ammo. You will find quite a bit of ammo lying around in the game but there are times where it can also be a bit sparse and this can be a real problem. 

I also found at times the action in the game to be just a bit too frantic and chaotic to deal with as enemies really do come at you thick and fast and this no more true in the final boss fight of the game (which I won't mention the name of here). So, there are definitely moments where you don't know where to turn as you are surrounded from all angles, as you scramble to find a medkit or health items, you can sometimes get killed in the process by enemy onslaught that overwhelms you and this can be quite annoying to deal with.

And yes, I have to give one enemy a special mention in the flaws section and that is the Mauraders, these guys are an absolute pain in the ass! Yes, the lovely Mauraders are unquestionably the most annoying enemy in the game, as they are super fast and give you precious little attack windows and they also throw out these annoying phantom dogs at you. The Mauraders also have a large shield that can block your attacks, so your best to bet is to stun them with a super shotgun blast and blood punch them if possible. So, yeah these guys can be quite infuriating to deal with and are worth a mention in the flaws.  

And last of all, I would have to say that in terms of the game's story its not that compelling to follow and the game is lacking in any interesting characters with maybe the exception of Samuel Hayden, the robotic doctor that aids Slayer in his quest. In fact, it feels like the game had to have some sort of story to justify its longer runtime here but the story definitely feels largely redundant next to the game's action.  

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Doom Eternal is a very enjoyable action game, which offers plenty of fast paced and intense action as well as hoardes of enemies that offer up plenty of challenge throughout. The game also has excellent graphics (well except on the Switch 1/2 versions as they kind of suck visually on that platform!) and a solid metal soundtrack by the returning composer, Mick Gordon. It also offers plenty of customisation in combat options for your weapons and armour as well as additional side challenges. 

The game perfect and does have some issues, especially its hugely frustrating platform sections, which can be infuriating and really slow the pace of the game down and have no real place IN a Doom game in the first place. The game's combat can also get a bit too hectic at times to follow and the difficulty level is quite punishing even on its lowest setting!  However, if you can forgive the game its flaws, there is still much to commend it and its well worth a look. 

So, I will rate Doom Eternal:

8.5 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.

Until then its bye for now!   

Nintendo Switch 2 & July Nintendo Direct Thoughts

 

 

 

 

 

Well, for this post I thought I would do something a bit different, as I fairly recently bought a Switch 2, which is the successor to Nintendo's original console, which is of course hybrid console that can be handheld and also docked to use on a TV or monitor. 

So, I thought I would share my thoughts on the console and also the recent Nintendo direct that was released yesterday (at the time of posting or writing this).

THOUGHTS ON THE CONSOLE 

Well, as for the console itself, I am quite impressed with the Switch 2 overall with its fairly big screen and also the joy cons, which I found quite unique having not owned the first Switch console. However, I have largely used the console docked on my TV and with the Pro 2 controller, which is an excellent controller albeit a bit too pricey at £75 (how much??!!). I know a large appeal of the console is use it as a handheld but I found it a bit large and unweildy for that purpose athough I have used it with the stand and the joy cons separate and quite enjoyed it that way.

THE SCREEN  

I also liked the screen, which is quite colourful and fairly vivid although the screen itself is actually very prone to scratches, so I instantly bought a screen protector to prevent this from happening, which can be seen a drawback of the console. Alot of people also have criticised the screen for appearing to suffer from motion blur a little despsite being 120hz but again there are hardly any games that currently support this resolution.

NVIDIA's DLSS  

The console does however boast the usage of Nvidia's DLSS technology however it is a more scaled down version of the PC variant of the technology. DLSS also appears in very few Switch 2 games so far with only Hogwarts and the racer game, Fast Fusion coming to mind that support it. What is more confusing however is there are still games that utilise AMD's FSR upscaling tech and its earliest variant, FSR 1, which is easily the worst version of FSR. I found this puzzling however that an Nvidia powered console would even use FSR in the first place but oh well! I just hope future Switch 2 games will provide further support for DLSS however and make improvements to image quality. 

GPU POWER COMPARISON TO PS4

One notable thing about this console however is that doesn't come near the power of the current gen consoles with Sony and Microsoft and only has a fraction of the Series X and PS5, which given its current price point at almost £400 makes it a bit too expensive. It does however sit somewhere between the power of the PS4 and PS4 Pro and comes fairly close in power to the Series S and despite the lack of horsepower compared to the current offerings, I still found the Switch 2 to be enticing enough all the same mainly as I am a big fan of playing games across different platforms. Despite all this though, we are still very early into the life cycle of the Switch 2, so it remains to be see how it will fair with future games and past releases that are yet to be upgraded for the new console or more existing third party games coming to the Switch 2.

USER INTERFACE 

As for the system's use interface, I quite like the layout of the Switch 2 as its quite logical and looks pleasant enough and is pretty easy to navigate. The Nintendo eShop is also quite good for browsing with some decent offers on sale for plenty of popular titles even if some of them are quite pricey at standard retail price. I did think the online account prices were actually pretty reasonable and quite cheap compared to other platforms offering a year's worth at £17.99, which is excellent value although I am aware for add ons, you do pay a bit more. The news section I felt wasn't the best, as I didn't provide any updates on future Nintendo directs and in fact it didn't even notify me of one until AFTER the fact (Well, I think!).

GAMING PERFORMANCE 

As for the game performance of the Switch 2, so far I have to say I am fairly pleased with it but there is still definitely room for improvement and this comes down to the limitation of the original Switch's hardware and backward compatibility. However in the Switch 2's defence, it does a pretty solid job at boosting the performance of backward compatible titles and any games that run poorly on the original console are now running much smoother. However, this also highlights an issue to do with many titles, which are often locked at 30fps such as Doom Eternal, the GTA trilogy, Dark Souls Remastered and the Witcher 3 to name a few that I have tried so far, plus some of these titles are still only at 720p. There are thankfully still some games that have an unlocked framte rate, which now run much smoother and are close to or even locked at 60fps such as Resident Evil 5 and Doom 3 that I tried that are very smooth and look impressive at 1080p. I also tried Darksiders III, which runs very well at close to 60fps with one or two minor dips but still at 720p. 

However, I would have to say that this brings me to an issue with the Switch 2 and backward compatibility being an issue in itself as there are very few Switch 1 games that offer updates other than a few exclusive titles such as the Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. So, this leaves many games waiting for a 60fps patch update or even a resolution bump and this could take possibly months to ultimately update in order to take advantage of the Switch 2's improved hardware, which is pretty frustrating when you are left with the Switch 1 version for so many existing games. In fact I've played so many games at 30fps on this console, I've almost forgotten what 60fps looks like lol(!) and that is the most annoying part as this console is so much more capable than the original but its being held back by the limitations of its predecessor. To be fair from what I understand some games do run locked at 60fps and even 1080p such as the Tomb Raider remastered games and also the Prince of Persia Lost Crown on the original Switch.  

So, in some cases, the Switch 2 is pretty impressive in its ability to brute force previous games limited by the original Switch but in other cases its still handicapped by them. So, ultimately moving forward we are going to need to be patient and see if Nintendo will provide updates and patches for its existing catalog. However, there were reports in the past that Nintendo was not giving out software developments kits (or SDKs) to some developers, which would prevent them from being able to port their games to the Switch 2 or provide updates for this, which might explain one or two things regarding the lack of updates.

So, overall I am impressed with the Switch 2 but we are still too early in its life cycle at this stage to fully appreciate its capabilities and also the current catalogue for specific Switch 2 games is still pretty sparse. In time hopefully this will change but in the meantime, I think we will need to be patient for the console to reach its potential. 

JULY NINTENDO DIRECT THOUGHTS

Moving onto the Nintendo direct, which was broadcast on 31 July, it gave a short presentation, which was a partner based one rather than a general one, so there werent any Nintendo exclusive titles mentioned (well maybe one).

However, despite much hype being around this direct, it turned out to be a big disappointment personally and many Nintendo fans alike were frustrated by the lack of release dates for some previous titles mentioned in the opening direct for the console. The direct itself instead focused on titles I was mostly not interested in such as Dragonball Sparking Zero, Adventures of Elliot, Once Upon a Katamari and camp fire simulator called Chillin by the Fire all of which had graphics that did not showcase the power of the Switch 2. Then there were tiles like EA Madden NFL 26 and NBA Bouce, which again were not really interesting to me, as I am not keen on sports games. 

To be fair there were still some games of interest such as the Yakuza games, which Nintendo are keen tio port the whole Yakuza series over to the Switch 2 and this one definitely looked impressive visually and sign of what the Switch 2 can do. Star Wars Outlaws also might be worth a look as a game but I have to admit visually it looked pretty underwhelming and rather soft as they must have had to make some signigicant cutbacks to its visuals to scale it onto the Switch 2, highlighting the new console still has its limitations. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisoment looks intriguing as its part of the Zelda world and an RPG but it didn't even have a release date! Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, a 2D side scrolling action game looks pretty impressive as well. Last of all is Chronos: New Dawn, which is a sci-fi horror game that has Dead Space vibes and looks pretty impressive and was the title that really intriguied me the most, so I might check that out sometime once its out in September.

However, the biggest disappointment of this direct was the lack of release dates for already confirmed games specifically the likes of Elden Ring, Final Fantasy VII and the already mentioned Hyrule, Age of Imprisonment. It was also disappointing to not see some of the rumours confirmed such as The Witcher 3 getting its Switch 2 update, which would have been nice as well as the addition of potential other games like Death Stranding although Microsoft are to confirm some games coming to the Switch 2 soon as well as the PS5, so that would be separate to the directs. There is to be a reported general direct happening in September though, so I guess we might get release dates for these games by then but we'll just have to wait. But this also does raise the possibility of these games even being pushed back to next year instead depending on what is causing the delays.  

So, overall I felt this direct was really lacklustre a few interesting titles and its also frustrating to see the lack of existing 3rd party Switch games not get updates although I guess they do want to target their own platform exclusives first before prioritising 3rd party titles. But for me personally, I felt the majority of this direct might as well have been aimed solely at the Switch 1 rather than the Switch 2, as there wasn't a great deal other than a few titles that appeared to promote the Switch 2's capabilities and in the end it left me disappointed. If however you were excited by what was on offer here overall, that's great but for me, like many other people, I just hoped for more.

Anyway, so that's it for my thoughts on the Switch 2 and the Nintendo direct and I will be back soon with another review post of sorts.

So, until then its bye for now! 

Doom 3 Review (Revisted)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, so apologies for the lack of posts this month, as I've been busy with other stuff but I thought I would get a quick post done before August comes round. 

So, I've been pretty pre-occupied lately with my Nintendo Switch 2, which I got last month and I've been playing a number of older games on it and one such game I played was Doom 3, the BFG edition featuring the DLCs also. So, having done a review of this five years ago, I figured I would update it, as I've just finished replaying Doom 3.

So, let's take a look and see how this game fairs 21 years on from its original release...

And as I will mention some of the story a warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!  

STORY  

So the game is set in the year 2145 and it takes place on Mars, which starts with an un-named marine, who arrives at the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) base on the planet.  Meanwhile a councilman from Earth, Elliott Swann (voiced by Charles Dennis) arrives at the base to meet with Dr Malcolm Bertruger (Philip L.Clarke) as there have been complaints about incidents that have taken place on the base.  Bertruger's research has involved unnatural experiments with teleportation. 

Meanwhile the marine meets with Sergeant Kelly (Neil Ross), who sends the marine to find a scientist on the base who has gone missing.  The marine soon finds the scientist, who tells him about Bertruger's experiments and the dangers involved and that he is trying to send out a message to the UAC base on Earth to warn them about this.  However as a result of another teleportation, a shockwave hits the base, and transforms the scientist into a zombie, who the marine kills.  The marine is then forced to deal with the rest of the base staff and soldiers, who have mostly been turned into zombies as well.

As the marine makes his way through the base, he also encounters demons of different kinds, coming through portals, which he fends off with his weapons.  The marine manages to make his way to a comm system where he receives a message from Kelly telling him to try and send out a distress call to the UAC on Earth.  However Swann has other ideas as he tries to prevent anyone from sending out messages to Earth as he believes the situation should be contained on Mars.  Based on the player's decision the marine will face the choice of either listening to Kelly, and sending the message or to Swann and not sending the message, which is where the game will go in two slightly different directions. 

As the marine progresses through the delta labs of the base, he receives a message from Bertruger, who tells him that he is co-operating with the forces from Hell, in order to prepare for the invasion of Earth.  From here the marine is forced to continue his battle against the hordes of demons and against Bertruger in his attempts to destroy the Earth, as the fate of humanity lies in his hands...

THOUGHTS

As a long awaited sequel to Doom II, Doom 3 certainly delivered the goods, as its complete graphical revamp of the series brought it up to date superbly.

The gameplay of course remains fairly faithful to the original as the marine you simply run around, shooting anything that moves, and picking up key cards to access new rooms, and to access vents and lockers containing ammo and equipment. And one of the main differences to the original games lies in its use of dark shadow and it utilises enhanced lighting techniques to increase the intense atmosphere of the game, as alot of the game is pretty darky lit, it allows for the player to be immersed in its creepy world, as baddies can be all around you and wouldn't even know it, or you don't know it until you hear the groans or screeches. And with that all in mind it adds up to a very intense and unsettling experience and a real jump scare fest, as you never know who is round the corner. 

GAMEPLAY

Gameplay wise the game isn't too different from the original games as its a case of run round and shoot anything that moves with some very cool weaponry. There are a few more aspects to the game this time however, so I will go into them more below.  

MISSION OBJECTIVES 

So, Doom 3 now has more explicit game objectives, which mainly comprise of finding key cards to open doors that require security access, or opening vents to crawl through or talking to NPC's to access door codes and key cards or to carry out other objectives. The objectives are quite basic in themselves and serve simpy as a means for progression. 

PDA AND VOICE AND EMAIL LOGS 

The game also features the use of a PDA (personal data assistant) system where the marine will pick up key cards with personnel's names on them and attached with that there will be audio logs that give background details to the story aswell as codes for doors and storage lockers that store health and ammo. So there are numerous key cards that can be used by the PDA throughout the game, which he will need to pick up to progress. You can also scan found PDAs for emails that may contain useful info as well such as codes for storage lockers. 

WEAPONS 

The games arsenal is also quite impressive as you have pretty much the same array of weapons from the first two games, but they look great graphically and are easy to use.  The weapons feature a hand gun, shotgun, machine gun, minigun, plasma rifle, rocket launcher and of course the BFG (and we all know what that stands for!).  There is also plenty of ammo strewn throughout the game so you will never normally run out of ammo in a hurry, although the baddies can come thick and fast so there will be times will you might run a bit low on ammo so you need to be careful at times but you should usually not go short on ammo

SOUL CUBE (KIND OF SPOILER!) 

The game also features a new weapon of sorts in the form of the Soul Cube, which the marine can access later on in the game once they have travelled to Hell, which is easily the best level of game and is refreshingly very different looking from the other levels. The Soul Cube is acutally quite an OP (overpowered) device in that it can demolish any single enemy in one foul swoop, which makes it very handy indeed! It also kind of helps that the cube has a pretty sexy female voice in a way even if it does sound a little creepy too but I never got tired of hearing it say "use us!" whenever the prompt to use it pops up.     

FLASHLIGHT

The marine also has access to a flashlight that will let him see in the dark as there are plenty of dark and dimly lit areas for sure in Doom 3! However in the BFG edition of the game, the flashlight is now mounted onto the marine's shoulder as before you had to swap between your light and weapon to use it, which was a bit annoying, so its a welcome change to use the light and both your weapon simultaneously. The only drawback is that the flashlight in the BFG edition has limited charge and does drain quickly before you let it recharge again. 

ENEMIES 
 
Then of course we have the enemies that feature many of the original foes in Doom I and II and the have been brought back really well starting with the imps, who hurl fireballs at you like they are throwing a baseball, who have a high pitched whine.  There are also the Cacodemons (who still give me the creeps from the original!) who also fire big fireballs at you (a popular weapon in hell I'd say!) and float around. And then we got much stronger enemies such as the Hell Knights, who are massive and probably the toughest of the enemies in the game and they can seriously chunk your health! 

Other enemies also feature the Revenants, who are walking armoured skeletons with rocket launchers attached and the Mancubus who are large blobs with attached flame throwers who featured in Doom II.  Some of the new enemies feature mutated soldiers, who have a long retractable arm that can attack you, large head spiders who can lash out and attack you and freaked me out more than any other enemy in the game. Then of course there are the babies with attached wings that jump out at you, who are without a doubt one of the most horrible baddies in any game! I'm sure John Carmack, the creator of the Doom series is a decent guy but I don't know what he was thinking when he made THIS enemy!

However it definitely has to be said that Doom 3 has no shortage of enemies and there is plenty of variety too.   

GRAPHICS

As for the game's visuals well even 21 years on, Doom 3 still looks pretty awesome for the most part with nicely textured environments and great looking (or creepy) enemies and its use of lighting is very effective also.

The only real drawbacks to the graphics are some dated looking gory details such as bloodied body parts lying about that look naff and of course the character models for the humans look a bit daft and very unrealistic! In fact you could argue that humans in the game look far weirder than the enemies as they have somewhat flattened heads and weird eyes!  So while certain aspects of the graphics look a bit dated, Doom 3 still looks great for its day and holds up quite well today.

MUSIC

As for the music, Doom 3 has a pretty good score, which is largely very creepy and atmospheric sounding by Clint Walsh and ex-Nine Inch Nails drummer, Chris Vrenna, who composed the excellent theme tune for the game. Walsh wrote the soundtrack along with Vrenna as the two of them together were members of the band, Tweaker although it was originaly planned for Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to write the soundtrack, which never came to fruition. Despite this though, it is still a very good score that nails (non pun intended!) the tone of the game perfectly.

VOICE ACTING

And lastly there is of course the voice acting of Doom 3, which is very good overall as the voice cast all do a fine job. Of course it has to be said that the marine you play does not have any dialogue whatsoever, so it comes down to the other NPCs in the game to deliver the game's dialogue.

Starting with Neil Ross who does very well in his role as Sgt Kelly, who is the marine's commanding officer, who the marine keeps in constant contact with throughout most of the game. Philip L. Clarke also delivers an excellent performance as the sinister Dr Bertruger, who is the mastermind behind the demon invasions on Mars and main antagonist of the game. Last of all is Charles Dennis who is excellent in his role as Counsellor Elliot Swan, who is opposed to Bertruger's evil plans and tries to put a stop to them.

FLAWS 

So, flaws...does Doom 3 have any?  Well, yeah there are some.

And for starters I would say that the gameplay can tend to get a bit monotonous after a while, and the level design is at times a bit samey too with so many levels having the same dark corridors, ladders and stairs.  And the gameplay mainly consists of the marine just following the formulaic pattern of just running about shooting anything in his way, grabbing key cards, pdf files, and CDs to gather information, and not much beyond that.  However the intense thick and fast action in the game does help to overcome that for the most part and doesn't spoil the overall experience.

There was also an issue with the controls in the original PC version, where you couldn't hold a weapon and the flashlight at the same time, as you had to access one at a time. However this was fixed for the BFG edition, as I mentioned earlier that the player now has the flashlight attached to his shoulder of the marine's outfit, which he can turn on and off and still use his gun at the same time but the only drawback is the light's charge only lasts for so long before it needs to recharge. 

Another criticism that can be levelled at the game is that most of the enemies can be killed with fair ease, especially some of the ones such as the demon dogs with the robotic legs, which are pretty big in size, yet an imp can still take a few more shots to kill!  Naturally the bigger baddies such as the hell knights, and the mancubus are pretty tough to eliminate but quite a few of them can be dispatched with just one or two shots from your shotgun. However this will all change of course when you increase the game's difficulty but for most part I would say that Doom 3 isn't too difficult, which some fans might find a negative. 

And finally another flaw that can be levelled at the game is the lack of a map in the inventory screen, as it would be good if it gave you a map of each level, as there are times where you can get lost wandering around the corridors at times, trying to feel your way through the level, which means you are running blind, you can eventually get through the level fine but it can take a while based on what level you are doing.  In fact even Doom II had maps for each level, so its bizarre they don't have that in Doom 3 so it kind of feels like a backward step here but maybe its the game makers way of not wanting to hold your hand in working your ways through the levels.

Another issue relates specifically to the BFG edition of the game, which is the inclusion of forced autosaves at key points in the game, which are pretty annoying as there are times they can actually hinder your progress rather than help. And the reason being is because you might get to an autosave at a point where you are low on health or ammo and this might force you to load back in a previous save in order to compensate. So, for this reason I think the autosaves were a bad idea and should have been taken out of the BFG edition of the game. 

UPDATE: As it turns out however, you can actually turn the autosave feature off in the settings, so this thankfully sorts this annoying issue out. 

And last of all I felt that the inclusion of the soul cube device was a bit of a cheat in a way as it actually trivialised the later boss fights in the game as you can use it to attack the bosses and before you know it, they would be destroyed as a result! However I can't deny that the soul cube is a very useful tool in the game as it allows you to kill single enemies and it restores your lost health as a result, so its not all bad but in some ways it definitely feels like a cheating device that weakens the challenge of the game. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP 
 
So, to sum up after 21 years, Doom 3 still remains a thoroughly entertaining, intense and creepy experience and I still prefer it over the reboot Doom game that came in 2016, which I didn't like as much but to be fair, I will try and give Doom Eternal a go quite soon. And even though the game is a bit repetitve in terms of its gameplay and level design, on replaying it again I didn't mind and still had a blast with it and felt I wanted to play it all the way through, which I always think is a mark of a great game.

So, combine the game's great action, weapons, creepy enemies and chilling atmosphere, you have a real classic on your hands, which after all this time still stands up for me years on. 

So, I will rate Doom 3:

9.5 out of 10

So, that's it for this one guys and I will be back soon with another post next month.

Until then its bye for now!  

 

Kill Bill Vol 2 Review "Bitch! You haven't got a future!"

 

 

 

 

So, I thought I would start by saying this is my 800th post on this blog, which is quite a feat although I haven't posted as much as I used, its still great to reach this amount after all these years blogging. 

Anyway, so with that said, I figured its time to move on to doing Kill Bill Vol 2 since I've been putting off for a bit and this will again be a revisit of the older post I did for this film. So, the usual expansion of sections will be done etc looking into the film and ordering it a bit better.

So, with that said, let's take a look at this film, which is now 21 years old (already!) and see how it fairs...

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

STORY  

So, the story begins with the flashback of the Bride (Uma Thurman) being paid a surprise visit by Bill (David Carradine) at her dress rehearsal for her wedding, where Bill appears to give her his blessing to marry her groom Tommy (Chris Nelson) but instead the Deadly viper squad then ambush the rehearsal and kill everyone (Bride excepted).  

The story then moves forward to the present with the Bride seeking out the next member of the Deadly viper squad on her hit list, Bill's brother, Budd (Michael Madsen), whom she follows home from work as he lives out in the middle of the desert in a trailer.  As the Bride attempts to charge in with her samurai sword, Budd shoots her with his shotgun which is loaded full of rock salt and he then buries her alive in a coffin.  

The story then flashes back to when the Bride was first initiated in her training by Bill as she meets the cantankerous martial arts master, Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) where he at first ridicules her but slowly the Bride gains his respect as she trains hard and develops her martial arts skills.  The story then moves forward to the present again where the Bride manages to loosen one of her boots and takes from it a straight razor and uses it to cut her bonds and she then uses her incredible punching skills she learned from  Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) to break free of her coffin and crawl her way up out of the earth back up to the surface to freedom.

After this Budd calls up one of his ex-viper squad members Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) who wears an eyepatch on one eye, and asks if she would want to trade the Bride's Hanzo sword for a million dollars.  Elle comes along to Budd's cabin the next day and secretly stashes a black mamba snake in the suitcase of money, which bites Budd several times on the face and he eventually succumbs to his wounds and dies just after Elle reads out information she acquired about the black mamba snake and the devastating effects of its poison.  Elle then calls Bill to tell him that Budd has died and that the Bride has been buried in a coffin and during the call gives the Bride's real name as Beatrix Kiddo.  

However just as Elle is about to leave the trailer, Beatrix flies into the room delivering a brutal kick to Elle and they engage in an intense fight, which Beatrix eventually wins by plucking out Elle's only remaining eye (the other one was plucked out by Pai Mei during her instruction and Elle reveals that she killed Pai Mei herself by poisoning his fish heads) but decides not to kill her and instead leaves the trailer with Elle screaming hysterically, flailing helplessly and now blind.  

After this Beatrix then travels to the Mexican countryside where she finally tracks down Bill but when she arrives and finds Bill she is given a surprise she did not expect as she sees her daughter, B.B (Perla Haney-Jardine) is alive and well.  Beatrix spends the night with Bill and B.B. and after Beatrix puts her daughter to bed, she goes down and confronts Bill for the last time.....

THOUGHTS 

Volume 2 continues the tale of bloody revenge of the Bride very well and given its the same film, its hard to quantify it being better than Volume 1 but I would say its about the same. What I would also say is Volume 2 is more character driven as well than Volume 1 and it also allows us to see more of Beatrix's backstory as well as that we also finally discover her real name as you might remember any instance of her name used in Volume 1 was bleeped out.  The second film also draws a more vivid picture of Bill as well and while he is still very much a ruthless killer and as he himself even puts it "a murdering bastard" you can also see how he was hurt by Beatrix's sudden decision to run away from her job as an assassin and let him think she was dead all this time she had been away.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and strong language!) 

Getting onto the performances of the film the cast are all on great form.

Staring with Uma Thurman, who is great again as the Bride and she adds more elements to her character than before as we now see her more as a person in Volume 2 than in the first film, through her stages of training under Pai Mei's tutelage, her engagement with her fiance Tommy, and also her relationship with Bill.  

Uma has quite a few highlights in the film such as the scene of Beatrix's fight scene with Elle, which remains one of the best scenes in the film.  And as the two of them fight, Beatrix finds Budd's Hanzo sword (who Budd had previously lied to Bill that he pawned it) and Elle asks what it is and Beatrix replies "Budd's Hanzo sword!" and Elle says "Budd said he pawned it" and Beatrix smiles and says "Guess that makes him a liar now doesn't it?".  And as Elle taunts Beatrix by telling her that she poisoned Pai Mei and also that she will soon kill her and take her sword "That's right, I killed your master and now I am going to kill you with your own sword, which in the immediate future will become my sword!" and Beatrix says "Bitch! You don't have a future!" just before they clash swords and Beatrix then plucks out Elle's eye.  

Then there is the funny moment where the Bride punches her way out of her coffin and manages to climb her way to freedom up through the Earth and it then cuts to a diner, where we see an employee look out the window and we see the dusty and dithering figure of Beatrix slowly walks towards the diner.  And Beatrix covers in muck, dust and Earth enters the diner, sits down and calmly says "May I have a glass of water please?" with a smile.

Then there is of course a great moment where Beatrix finally tracks down Bill's whereabouts and as she enters Bill's expansive house, she is stunned to see her daughter B.B. and she nearly falls to the floor in shock and it remains one of Uma's best moments in the film. So, in the scenem Bill playfully tells B.B. to shoot Beatrix and she says "Bang bang!" so Bill tells Beatrix "You're dead, mommy, so die" and Beatrix catches on and dramaticaly clutches her chest and says "Oh, B.B! I should have known, you are the best!" and she fake collapses to the floor.  

This is then followed by the great confrontation scene where Beatrix and Bill talk with one another and Bill shoots her with a truth serum dart in the knee and as he does Beatrix groans loudly and says "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SHOOT ME WITH???!". So, Bill tells her "What I shot you with, which is just begging to course its way through your veins, is a potent and quite infallable truth serum". So, as they talk, Bill asks her "Why did you run away from me with my baby?" and Beatrix truthfully tells him "You remember my last assignment?" and BIll says "Yes. Lisa Wong" and Beatrix says "While I was in my hotel on that mission, I got sick and I threw up, so I started thinking, what if I was pregnant?". 

And in the scene Beatrix tells Bill why she ran away from him, which cuts to the flashback scene of Beatrix in a hotel room, taking a home pregnancy test, which turns blue, but she is then confronted by a rival assassin who tries to kill her but then they engage in a stand-off as both point guns at one another.  Beatrix then tries to reason with the assassin and tells her "I just found out, just a moment before you blew a hole in the door, that I'm pregnant!" and she get's the assassin to read the instruction of the pregnancy test to confirm it and Beatrix says to her "I'm the deadliest woman in the world, but right now I'm just scared shitless for me and my baby!" and the assassin let's her go saying "congratulations!" before running off.  

And last of all is the scene where in Beatrix and Bill's final scene together where Bill asks her if his reaction was so surprising and she says to him "Yes, it was.  Could you do what you did?  Of course you could.  But I never thought you would or could do that to me!" and Bill says she thought wrong, which prompts Beatrix put her samurai sword on the table and she says "You and I have unfinished business....!" and Bill says to her "Baby...you ain't kiddin!". 

Moving onto David Carradine who is great in his role as Bill and the film also helped revive his career somewhat as well. Carradine himself would die later in 2009 from suspected auto-erotic asphyxia.

Carradine also has some great moments in the film, such as his first scene where he meets with Beatrix during the flashback of the wedding rehearsal and Beatrix hears him play the flute and they meet eyes and he says to her "Hello Kiddo" and she asks "How did you find me?" and he says "I'm the man". So, as they talk, Bill then meets Beatrix's groom to be and afterward, Beatrix tells Bill "Bill I..." and Bill says to her "You don't owe me a damn thing, if he's the man you want, you go stand by his side".  

Then there is the scene where Bill meets with his brother Budd and he tells him how Beatrix killed the Crazy 88 and he says "There wasn't really 88 of them, they just called themselves the Crazy 88" and Budd asks why and Bill says "I dunno.  I guess they thought it sounded cool!".  Bill then asks Budd "I know this is a stupid question before I even ask, but you haven't been keeping up with your sword skills have you?" and Budd says "I pawned that thing three years ago" and Bill shocked says "You hocked a Hatori Hanzo sword??? It was priceless!" and Budd laughs and says "Not in El Paso it ain't. In El Paso, I got $250 for it". Bill then warns Budd "Look, I know the last time we spoke wasn't the most pleasant but you've got to stop being mad at me and start being afraid of (bleeps out the Beatrix's name) because she is coming to kill you and without my help, she doubtless will succeed".  

Another good scene from Carradine is where Bill drives Beatrix to Pai Mei's temple so they can start her training, and he comes down the long steps, his face beaten looking as they had a fight and he tells Beatrix "Just a friendly contest. He will accept you as his student".  Beatrix then asks "When will I see you again?" and Bill jokes "That's the name of my favourite soul song from the 70's. When he tells me you're done". So, Bill tells Beatrix of Pai Mei "Now remember, no backtalk, no sarcasm.  At least not for the first year.  You're gonna have to let him warm up for you.  He hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women, so in your case that may take a little while!".  

Then there is the scene where Beatrix and Bill confront one another at the end and he gives his speech on how Superman unlike other superheroes disguises himself, in this case as Clark Kent and uses that anology for Beatrix pretending to be someone she is not by intending to marry her fiance Tommy.  "And that's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us.  Clark Kent is how Superman views us.  Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.  Sorta like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs Tommy Plimpton".  

Lastly there is the final scene between Bill and Beatrix where Beatrix says "You and I have unfinished business!" and Bill says "Baby... you ain't kiddin!" before they have their last fight and Beatrix (PLOT SPOILER, OF SORTS!) finishes him off with her five point palm-exploding heart technique (taught to her by Pai Mei).  So, as Bill gasps dying, he asks Beatrix "Pai Mei taught you, the five point palm exploding heart technique?" and Beatrix smiles "Of course he did" and Bill asks "Why didn't you tell me?" and Beatrix now a little teary eyed says "I don't know, because I'm a bad person". So, as they make, Bill says to her "You're not a bad person, you're a terrific person, you're my favourite person.  But every once in a while you can be a real c***!" and Beatrix laughs. So, Bill asks her "How do I look?" and Beatrix says "You look ready" and he stands up and takes his five fatal steps and falls to the ground dead.  

In the supporting cast Michael Madsen is also really good as Budd, Bill's somewhat downtrodden brother, who after the deadly viper gang disbanded, now works as a bouncer in a strip bar.  

Madsen also has some good moments in the film such as the scene where he meets with Bill and he reflects on Beatrix's quest for revenge and he says "I don't dodge guilt and I don't Jew out on paying my comeuppance.  That woman deserves her revenge and we deserve to die.  But then so does she!  So I guess we'll just see, won't we?".  

Then there is the scene where Budd surprises Beatrix as she barges into his trailer and he blasts her full of rock salt and then afterward buries her alive.  And as Budd is about to bury her he says "Now you are going into the ground tonight and that's all there is to it" and he gives her a flashlight and says "But if you're gonna be a horse's ass, I'll spray this whole can right in your eyeballs!" as he holds a can of mace in front of her eyes "Then you're gonna be blind, burnin and buried alive.  Now which is it gonna be sister?".  

Then there is the scene later on when Budd meets with Elle he says to her of Beatrix "You gotta hand it to the old girl.  I never anybody Buffalo bill the way she Buffaloed Bill.  Bill use to think she was so damn smart.  I tried to tell him "Bill, she's just smart for a blonde!". In the scene, Budd also asks Elle of her betrayal of Beatrix and what she feels more relief or regret. So, Budd asks Elle "So, which R are you filled with more? Relief or regret?" and Elle says "Little bit of both" and Budd says "Horseshit! I bet you feel a little bit of both but I bet you feel more one than the other. Now, which is it?" and Elle conceeds "Regret". Budd then sits down and opens the suitcase filled with money and he laughs as he looks at the stacks of dollar bills and he says to Elle "Thanks a bunch!" just before he meets his fate with the black mamba snake hidden inside, which suddenly bites him. 

Daryl Hannah is also really good in her part as the manipulative and conniving Elle Driver, who later confronts Beatrix in Budd's trailer.  Hannah has always been something of an underrated actress and this film confirms that as she provides a fun and corny performance which works really well in the film.  Hannah also rightfully appears to relish in the dialogue she is given as Elle and her main highlights are of course her scenes with Bill and later her fight Beatrix.  

Hannah also get's some good lines such as where the black mamba snake has just bitten Bill and he says to him "I'm sorry, Budd.  That was rude of me, wasn't it?  Budd, I'd like to introduce my friend, the black mamba.  Black mamba, this is Budd".  And Elle proceeds to read some facts she gathered from the Internet on the Black mamba and she says "A bite to the face or the torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes.  The single amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan!  You know I've always like that word "gargantuan", I so rarely have the opportunity to use it in a sentence!".  

Elle then continues to say to Budd as he is dying from the snake bites from the Mamba, "Now in these last agonising minutes of life you have left, let me answer the question you asked earlier more thoroughly.  Right now the biggest "R" I feel is regret.  Regret that maybe the greatest warrior I have ever known, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin, scrub, alky piece of shit like you!  That woman deserved better!".  

Then lastly there is of course Hannah's fight scene as Elle takes on Beatrix and he taunts her by telling her that Pai Mei plucked out her eye because she called him "A miserable old fool!" and that she poisoned "That miserable old fool!".  And Elle then finally says to Beatrix "That's right I killed your Master!  And now I'm gonna kill you, too, with your own sword no less, which in the very immediate future will become my sword!" and she gives a rather cheesy villainous look as Beatrix glares angrily and tells her "Bitch! You haven't got a future!". 

Lastly, I will also make a quick mention of Gordon Liu who is great in his role as the cruel Pai Mei, the martial arts master who belittles Beatrix at every turn but he eventually gains her respect, which he shows his appreciation by flicking his long silver beard!  

Liu, who says all his lines in Madarin, also has some great moments particularly his first scene with Beatrix where he taunts and teases her and he says such things as "I despise the Goddamn Japs!" and also how "You're so called skills are quite pathetic! I asked you to demonstrate what you know and you did! Not a goddamn thing!". So, as the two of them spar again, Pai Mei effortlessly blocks all her moves, so Beatrix angrily picks up a rock and tries to hit him but he disables and twists her arm behind her back. So, Pei Mai says "How does that feel? Excruciating, isn't it?" and Beatrix painfully shouts "Yes!" and Pai Mei says "If I want I could snap your arm right off" and Beatrix pleads "No, please don't!". Pai Mei then relents and let's her go and says "That is the beginning!" so Beatrix falls to the ground and grabs her arm painfully and Pai Mei asks her "Is this the power you wish to have?" and Beatrix gasps and says "Yes!" and Pai Mei says "Very well, you're training will begin tomorrow" and he swishes his beard and walks away.  

And later as Beatrix struggles to punch the wooden wall block, Pai Mei taunts her again and says "Its the wood that should fear your hand, not the other way round!  No wonder you can't do it, you acquiesce to defeat before you even begin!" and he swishes his beard again and walks off. 

Last of all is the scene where Beatrix tries to eat rice with chopsticks but due to her pain in her hands from training, she can barely pick up the rice and she angrily throws the sticks down and picks up the rice with her hands to eat. However, Pai Mei then picks up the bowl and tells her "If you want to live like a dog, live out in the gutter" and he throws the rice away and tells her "If you want to live like a human, pick up those sticks!". So, Beatrix painfully and slowly picks up the rice with the chopsticks and eats it and Pai Mei once again gives an approving swish of his beard.   

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Finally getting onto Quentin Tarantino as the director he does a great job here again with Volume 2 and here he shows off his filmmaking skills yet again with some great camerawork and striking cinemaphotography from Robert Richardson.  Tarantino also pays homage to the kung-fu films of the 1970s which he clearly illustrates in the flashback scene where Beatrix begins her training with Pai Mei and uses some amusing close-up shots when the camera zooms in on a character (in this case Pai Mei).  

Tarantino also provdes a fine soundtrack to the film aswell as he has selected an eclectic and effective mix of tracks such as Malcolm McLaren's "About Her" when Beatrix lies on bed with her daughter B.B.  It also features other well used tracks by Ennio Morricone for several scenes in the film such as the scene where Beatrix escapes her coffins. Not to mention, Tarantino also used some music that was composed by fellow filmmaker, Robert Rodriguez and orchestrated by rapper and composer RZA also known from the Wu-Tang Clan hip hop band.

FLAWS 

As for Volume 2's flaws...... well it get's most things right so there isn't too much worth quibbling over, although I would have to say there are still one or two niggles, such as the fact the film does feel just little bit long and there are certain scenes which are drawn out, particularly when Beatrix and Bill finally confront one another and it features that silly speech where Bill basically compares Beatrix to Superman, as someone pretending to fit into the world as someone they are not.  Its a pretty longwinded way for Bill to make his point to Beatrix and in the end it just feels like a pretty nerdy monologue written by Tarantino himself.  

The film is also a bit guilty of some ridiculous moments such as the one where Beatrix breaks free of her coffin and climbs up out of the earth to above ground. Now, realistically even if she could punch through her coffin lid (which is hardly the case!) she would have been crushed to death by the weight of all the soil that would fall ontop of her. So, the chance of her even surviving the heavy weight of the earth itself collapsing on her is extremely unlikely never mind punching her way out of her coffin!  

I also thought that their final fight scene was a bit of a letdown as well as its over in about 10 seconds and ends up with Beatrix killing Bill (indeed!) with the five-point palm exploding heart technique, which in a way is a bit of anti-climax after all the very impressive fight scenes on offer in the two films leading up to this point. Also the final moments of the film feel a bit drawn out where Beatrix lies on the floor in the bathroom sobbing over the death of Bill before she leaves for her new life with B.B.   

The film's final credits sequence is also a bit naff and is accompanied by Robert Rodriguez's typically Spanish music and features a pretty cheesy moment where we finally get to Uma Thurman in the cast list and we cut to a shot of Beatrix driving her car and it says "Uma Thurman as The Bride, aka Beatrix Kiddo, aka Black Mamba, aka Mom".  Yes we get it Quentin, you don't have to spell all her nicknames out for us!

Anyway, so that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, its hard to say that Vol 2 is better than Vol 2 as they are basically the same film but what it does do is a fine job at humanising Beatrix's character more and fleshing it out to appear more than her being a ruthless killer. The film also has some impressive fight sequences with the Pai Mei scenes and of course the intense battle between Beatrix and Elle. The performances are again also excellent here with Uma Thurman terrific again as the Bride and David Carradine is also great as Bill and additionally Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen and Gordon Liu all give sold support. Tarantino also makes good use of the tracks he chose for the film that include liberal doses of Ennio Morricone and Malcolm McClaren's "About Her" being a great choice. 

The film is arguably a little less tight and less well paced than Vol 1 and some scenes do drag a little bit but that aside, this is still a highly enjoyable film and well worth watching as well as a worthy conclusion to the film itself. So, I will rate Vol 2...

9.5 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back in July sometime with another post.

Until then, its bye for now! 

 

Kill Bill Vol 1 "You didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, since its June, I figured I would do another post and this one will be a revisit of an older one I did ages ago for Kill Bill Vol 1. I also recently rewatched Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2, so figured it would be a good idea to do a revisit of the reviews. 

So, with that said, let's take another look at this movie and see how it is 22 years on from its release...

And the usual is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!  

STORY  

So beginning with a bit more about the plot of Vol 1, which starts with the blood spattered "bride" (Uma Thurman) who lies on the floor of a church in El Paso Texas, after her groom to be and her friends have been ruthlessly gunned down, by her former lover Bill (David Carradine) and his team of assassins, the Deadly Viper squad (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah).  Just before Bill puts a bullet in his bride's head, she tells him that she is pregnant with his baby.  

The story then cuts to four years later where The Bride arrives at the house of one of the Viper squad, Vernita Green (Vivica Fox) where they both engage in fierce hand to hand combat, which is interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, after which they both stop fighting and talk.  The Viper gang has since been disbanded and now Vernita lives a more ordinary suburban life and Vernita persuades the Bride into having a knife fight at night.  Vernita however then tries to kill the Bride with a gun hidden in a breakfast cereal packet, but the Bride manages to dodge the bullet and kills Vernita by throwing a knife into her chest, which the daughter witnesses and the Bride apologises for doing so in front of her and if she still feels angry about it later in life, she will be waiting. 

The story then shows in flashback that the Bride had indeed survived the bullet, as she lies in a coma for four years in a hospital and one night one of the Viper gang, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) tries to kill her by using a lethal injection, but is called off by a phone call from Bill.  One night the Bride suddenly awakens from her coma, just before a hospital worker, Buck (Michael Bowen) enters with a trucker and offers him to use the Bride for sex (for money of course) only then for the Bride to spring to life, killing the trucker and then Buck, after which she steals Buck's truck.  

The bride then travels to Okinawa to find the legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) and she asks that he make her a sword, which he eventually does after she drops Bill's name.  After a month or so, Hanzo finishes the sword and the bride leaves with it, to start her bloody revenge against the Deadly Viper squad, starting with O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) who is by now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza and she follows them to a Japanese restaurant.  

What ensues is a very bloody (not to mention very spurty!) fight sequence as the bride takes on O-Ren's bodyguards, her crazed 17 year associate Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and also the "crazy 88" who are O-Ren's hit squad, and ultimately O-Ren herself who she faces in the film's final confrontation....

THOUGHTS  

Kill Bill for me personally is easily one of Quentin Tarantino's best films, as it is a brilliant combination of different styles of film, from action to thriller, to western, to eastern to anime and Volume 1 really pulls the viewer into that world straight away with its dazzling and violent imagery.  And the film opens in such a dramatic way with the bride panting heavily as we see her bloody face as Bill stands over her he wipes her face before he puts a bullet in her head it sets the tone of the film perfectly as we know already its a revenge tale and its going to get very nasty pretty quick.     

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning; this section contains spoilers!)

Moving onto performances, the cast are all on excellent form here. 

Starting with Uma Thurman who gives a terrific performance in the main role as the Bride and she must go through just about every emotion there is an actress during both films, but in Volume 1 she is also for the most part very stern, steely and focused in her quest for revenge despite one or two moments where she allows for the odd bit of levity.  

Thurman has several highlights throughout both Volumes and one of the first scenes that comes to mind is the one where she wakes up from her coma, she looks down at her stomach at a wound where presumably her aborted child was taken from, and she screams and sobs uncontrollably.  Its a great moment in Uma's performance and the most distressing moments in the film and for that brief moment the Bride has to deal with her grief all at once, before she is interrupted, by the sleazy hospital worker, who has profited from her inert body for sex.  

This also does of course lead into the moment where the Bride kills the trucker and then stabs Buck and jams his head in the door and slams it several times and she notices the tatoo of his name on his knuckles and she says "Your name is Bud, right?  And you came here to fuck, RIGHT???!!!" before finishing him off.   

Uma also get's some good lines as the Bride such as the scene where climbs into Buck's truck and looks at her inert feet (one thing I have to say is Uma has ugly feet!) and she says to herself "Now wiggle your big toe" and then she narrates "As I sat in the back of Buck's truck, trying to will my limbs out of entrophy I could see the faces of c**** that did this to me and the dicks responsible!".

Another good scene for Uma is at the start where the Bride engages in an intense fist fight with Vernita and they have to stop the fight when Vernita's daughter arrives home from school.  And after they talk in the kitchen and Vernita tries to kill the Bride, who kills her with a knife, the daughter walks back in, impassive, the Bride says to her "It was not my intention to do this in front of you, for that I'm sorry.  But take it from me, your mother had it coming!  If later when you're all grown up, if you still feel raw about it.... I'll be waiting".  

Then there is the moment where the Bride narrates and says of O-Ren who was one of the assassins at the chapel that day. So, the Bride narrates "Four years ago she played her part in the massacre of 9 people in El Paso, Texas.  But she made one fatal mistake.  She should have made it ten!".  

Another good scene is where Uma as the Bride get's to show a little of her human side where she travels to Okinawa to meet Hanzo and Hanzo asks why she came and she said she is here to meet "Hatori Hanzo" which sends a shiver down Hanzo's spine.  And the two of them talk in Japanese and the Bride says "I need Japanese steel!" and Hanzo says "Why do you need Japanese steel?" and the Bride coldly says "I have vermin to kill!" and Hanzo "You must have some big rats if you need Japanese steel" and Bride says "Huge!".         

Then there is her great fight scene against the Crazy 88 where the Bride slices and dices O-Ren's men and as she deals with the last one, who is a small guy, terrified, in a fun moment she cuts down his blade and grabs him and bends him over and whips his butt with her blade yelling "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR FUCKING AROUND WITH THE YAKUZAS!!!  GO HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!!!". The Bride then addresses all the maimed Yakuza who groan in pain and lie in their own blood and she yells to them in Japanese "Those of you are still alive, you can live but leave your limbs with me! They belong to me now!". Then we see the badly wounded Sophie tried to crawl away but the Bride calls out to her loudly "Except YOU, Sophie! You stay RIGHT THERE!". 

David Carradine is especially good as Bill, the man himself, who has a world weary charm but also shows that he's a killer and a vicious bastard through and through.  You never of course see Carradine in Vol 1 as you only sees his hands and hear his voice and Carradine's voice really lends a weighty gravelly tone to the character, which works perfectly.  

Carradine's best scene comes where he talks with Elle on the phone, whilst she is at the hospital ready to kill off the Bride.  And Carradine get's some good lines in the scene where Bill says to Elle "Y'all beat the hell out of that woman, but you didn't kill her.  And I put a bullet in her head and her heart kept on beating.  We've done alot of things to lady and if she ever wakes up, we'll do whole lot more.  But one thing we won't do is sneak into her room in the night like a filthy rat and kill her in her sleep.  And the reason we won't do that thing is because.... that thing will lower us!".    

Lucy Liu is also great as the deadly and foxy O-Ren Ishii, and her best scene is where she stampedes down the table in her conference room and beheads one of her impertinent associates (complete with blood fountain spurting!) and calmly tells her people that if you have problem with her, tell her so. 

So, in the scene after O-Ren beheads her adversary, Tanaka she says to the table in Japanese "To show you how serious I am, I will speak in English". So, O-Ren switches to English and says calmly "As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, to question my logic. If you're convinced a path of logic I've taken isn't the wirse, then tell me, but allow me to convince your first otherwise and I promise you right here and now, no subject discussed shall be ever taboo, except of course the subject that was just under discussion. The price of you pay for bringing my Chinese or American heritage, as a negative is, I collect your fuckin head" and she holds up the head of Tanaka "just like this fucker here! So, if any of you sonsabitches got anything else to say NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!". So, after a tense pause, O-Ren says "I thought not" and she drops Tanaka's head and says "Gentlmen, this meeting is adjourned".  

Later on Lucy has a good fight scene with Uma, as O-Ren and the Bride engage in battle, also before the Crazy 88 arrive we hear the sound of their motorcycles grow louder from the distance after the Bride has killed off a handful of O-Ren's bodyguards.  And O-Ren smiles and says to the Bride looking down from her balcony "You didn't really think it would be that easy did you?" and the Bride smiles back saying "You know for a second there, I thought it would".  And O-Ren says "Silly rabbit!" and they both say together "tricks are for kids!".    

And lastly is the moment during O-Ren and the Bride's sword battle where, O-Ren gravely injures the Bride, who goes down. So, O-Ren smiles and says "Silly little caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords. You might not be able to fight like a samurai but you can at least die like one". So, the Bride slowly get's up and with determination says "Attack me with everything you have!" and as they clash swords again, the Bride manages to cut O-Ren's heel. So, O-Ren surprised says to the Bride in Japanese "For ridiculing you earlier, I apologise" and the Bride says "Accepted. Ready?" and they cross swords for the last time.  

Sonny Chiba is also very entertaining as Hattori Hanzo, once a great swordswith, who vowed never to make another sword again, and now spends his time as a Sushi chef, arguing with his suborindate employee.  And his scenes with Uma are fun to watch, especially when she first arrives in Okinawa and he demands he assistant to get the Bride some sake, who says he's busy, and Hanzo sighs saying "Lazy bastard!  Get your ass out here!".  

And later when Hanzo shows the Bride his collection of swords and she takes one of them out of its sheath and he says to her "Funny you like Saumrai swords... I like baseball!" and he throws a baseball at her, which the Bride slices in half with precision.  And the Bride then reminds him that her vermin is a former student of his and "given the student you have a rather large obligation!" leading Hanzo to quietly go over to the window and writing Bill's name in the frosted window before telling her "You can sleep here.  It will take me a month to make the sword.  I suggest you spend that time practicing".  

Vivica A Fox is also very good in her role as Vernita Green, one of the Bride's would-be killers, who left her for dead at the chapel and the Bride later confronts at her home. 

So, Fox has some good moments in her sequence that include the one where Vernita after she stops her intense fight with the Bride asks her "Would you like some coffee?" and the Bride says "Yeah". So, they go into the kitchen where Vernita makes coffee and says "I suppose its too late to accept an apology" and the Bride says "You supposed correctly". So, Vernita says "Look, if I could go back in a machine and changes things I could but I can't. All I can tell you is that I'm a different person now". So, as they talk, the Bride asks her "When do you want to die?" and Vernita says "How about tonight bitch?" and the Bride grins and says "Splendid!". 

So, Vernita suggests they meet at midnight and dress in all black nearby her house and she says "Now, I have to fix my daughter's cereal". So, the Bride says "Bill always said you were the best he'd ever seen with an edged weapon" and Vernita grins and says "Fuck you, bitch! Bill never qualified that such, so you can my kiss ass, Black mamba! Black mamba, I shoulda been motherf***** black mamba!". The Bride teases her and says "Your choice of weapon? You can stick with the butcher knife if you want" and Vernita smiles and says "Very funny bitch! VERY FUNNY!" and we hear a gunshot fire, as Vernita hid a gun in a cereal packet, which misses the Bride, who then kicks her coffee mug across the room and throws a knife at Vernita, which hits her in the chest and she falls down dead.  

And lastly Daryl Hannah also is very good in her brief role as the evil and sly Elle Driver, who wears and eyepatch on one eye and her character appears more in Volume 2.  And after seeing Daryl give some pretty so-so performances in films from the 1980s such as Roxanne, and Wall Street, what she does do really well in this film is ham it up, and shows that she is in her own way a capable actress.  

Hannah only really has one scene in the film which is a memorable one where Elle attempts to kill off the Bride while she is in her coma in hospital but Bill phones her and calls it off.  So, in the scene Elle stands over the Bride's inert form in hospital and says to her "This is my gift to you" as she is about to inject poison into her but her phone goes off and she says "For fuck's sake!" and she answers it to hear Bill on the other end. So, Bill tells Elle "We're going to abort" and and Elle shouts "Oh, you don't owe her SHIT!" and Bill says "Will you lower your voice?!" and Elle says in a hushed tone "You don't owe  her shit!". So, after the call Elle says to the inert Bride "I bet you thought that was pretty fuckin funny didn't you?!  Word of advice, shithead.  Don't you ever wake up!".   

DIRECTOR 

As for Quentin Tarantino direction wise I don't think he has made a better film as his mix of skilfull camera work, and brilliant use of Japanese anime, and superb photography from Robert Richardson all add up to a visual treat for the viewer. Tarantinto took upon himself to make the decision to split Kill Bill into two films to avoid cutting any scenes out of the film(s) themselves and this is certainly one of the tautest films he's made in his career.  

MUSIC  

As for the music, Tarantino skillfully chooses some great tracks for the film starting with Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", the cheesy but highly effective use of the theme from "Quincy".  I also can't forget to mention the catchy 5, 6, 7, 8's "Woo-hoo" which is annoying but at the same time it is also strangely quite enjoyable.  In general Tarantino has a like for 1970s funk music, and plenty of it permeates throughout the whole film, abd he uses it very well, especially tracks like "Ray Fan Ray" by Isaac Hayes in the anime scene with O-Ren killing one of her targets as an assassin.  Naturally Tarantino threw in the theme from the "Green Hornet" during the scene where the Bride drives the streets of Tokyo as she follows O-Ren and her entourage.  And lastly there is of course the track "Battle without honor or humanity" by the Japanese musician, Tomoyasu Hotei, which became very popular as a result of the film and is used well in the slo-mo scene of O-Ren and her bodyguards walking into the restaurant where the Bride will later do battle with O-Ren and her men.  

FLAWS (Warning: this section contains spoilers!) 

Getting onto the flaws of Volume 1.... well its a great film so overall nothing too glaring but what I would say is from a character point of view, what the bride has to endure is pretty horrendous, and Tarantino seems almost delight in putting his characters through the unbearable and the downright harrowing.  This is perfectly highlighted in the scene where the Bride is being used for sex whilst she lies in a coma in hospital, which is quite horrific in itself and it again it kind of highlights a rather mysognistic tone to the film, which could be levelled at some of Tarantino's other work.  

I also felt in a way that the Bride's character was less likeable in the first film and more difficult to relate to as she is largely more as a remorseless killer than anything else, who is consumed with revenge and its only in the scene where the Bride meets with Hanzo in Okinawa we get to see some of her charm start to emerge.  Volume 2 would however go on to address this but in a way it does serve to potentially alienate some viewers.  

Another concern could also come from the level of violence in the film as it is pretty OTT in terms of the blood as in the big bloody fight scene with the Crazy 88, its almost like the actors were fitted with sprinkler attachments so the blood could fly anywhere at all!  Despite that though Tarantino does somewhat succeed in making it all entertaining and overall it isn't too disturbing to watch but the Crazy 88 bloody battle is certainly not a scene for those with a weak stomach. 

Tarantino also skilfully cuts between colour and black and white once it starts to get really bloody (and then back again) and he amusingly uses the catchy song "Nobody but me" by the Human Beinz, which undercuts the harshness of the violence onscreen, which again highlights Tarantino's maxim that he sees violence as a form of entertainment. 

You could also argue that in the hospital scene where the Bride kills the man who pays to have sex with her and then the hospital ward worker who effectively pimped her out, its surprising the cops weren't ever called to the scene. I mean it was presumably during the night when this happens but the Bride does spend 13 hours in the hospital worker's truck, so if they wanted to conduct a police hunt for her, she wouldn't be too difficult to find! Especially if she wasn't able to walk by this point if they discovered her there. In the end though, it is just a film.

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Kill Bill Vol 1 is a terrific film from Quentin Tarantino and one of his very best works with a great mix of visual style and content as well as a great performance by Uma Thurman as the Bride. The film also has some great action scenes, which were cordindated by renowned choreographer, Yuen Woo-Ping (who did the Matrix films) and a great soundtracks featuring many memorable tracks. So, after 22  years, this is still a great film and well worth checking out as well as one of Tarantino's greatest achievements.

So, I will rate Kill Bill Vol 1:

10 out of 10     

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with Vol 2.

Until then its bye for now!