common themes:

-actors really shine this time
-more dialogue, less energy from action
-impressive cinematography by Robert Richardson
-it's a better film than Volume 1

as of 11PM 4/14-
there are two negative revies on rottentomatoes.com compared to 26 positive reviews.

Stella Papamichael: Between visually arresting fits of violence, Tarantino achieves compelling stillness. Punctuating each 'chapter' of the film is a scene of conversation through which he builds incredible tension with minimal gestures and pinpoint deliberate dialogue.

Kevin Laforest: After staging the coolest damn exploitation flick in "Vol. 1", now Tarantino is pulling the curtains back and revealing the heart and soul of his story and characters.

Gabriel Shanks: it is style where KILL BILL truly triumphs. Shovel loads of dirt hit the ground with sound effects like claps of thunder, scenes are illuminated by flashlights to enhance the visceral terror...even the eating of rice becomes an aural and visual triumph.

Joshua Tyler: I never quite connected with Volume 1. Sure I enjoyed it and perhaps it has even grown on me a bit more over time. But ultimately it seemed like Tarantino was more interested in giving himself an incurable case of the giggles than telling a revenge story with some depth. Kill Bill Volume 2 changes all that, proving not only to be a great film on its own, but making Kill Bill Volume 1 better in the process. Tarantino never should have split this movie up.

J. Hoberman: As Vol. 1 mainly synthesized blaxploitation and yakuza, so Vol. 2 largely oscillates between spaghetti western and old-school chopsocky. The presiding deities are Sergio Leone and King Hu.

Petere Travers: Tarantino has made the hottest mix tape in the history of cinema. Like a master DJ, he samples every lowdown, B-movie genre that formed him, from kung fu and samurai flicks to anime and spaghetti westerns, then filters it through his imagination to create something totally Tarantino: a blast of pure movie oxygen.

Kirk Honeycutt: Here is a movie that not only pays homage to a host of action-movie styles but rigorously explores its pulp fiction for visceral truths that link culture and cinema. Here's a movie that both academics bundled in film theories and teenagers on hot dates will find supercool.

J. Hoberman: Tarantino's persona has long grown stale, but his enthusiasm remains fresh. Kill Bill is less labor of love than religious shrine. The extravagant recycling of Ennio Morricone, the references to obscure '70s sockadelia, and the elaborate cameos are the equivalent of shooting the movie in Aramaic.

David Foucher: What's eminent about the picture beyond its plotting, however, is the stylistic urges of its auteur. Tarantino continues blending pop culture from multiple time periods and locales with calculated abandon, indelibly creating, from the ashes of religions and fabrics gone by, a physiognomy for his work that is elegantly unique. Pacing is surreal and languid, with perceptive hangovers from the Asian influence of the first film interwoven with idioms and characteristics of the American West - cultures not dissimilar, and rendered surprisingly hip for mass appeal. And in Tarantino's world, subtext has always reigned; revenge may be best served cold, but the driving, destructive nature of the human forces which conceived its ordained path - those are hot as coals, and true as hell.