[Blarg]

It would be better seen as one very long movie, but I still wouldn't give it a 4 on that basis.

It would have to be re-cut, so we didn't have one half so lifeless and void of character and so completely outshone by the second half.

I'm thinking that the way Tarantino envisioned the film, if he did indeed originally envision it as a single very long film, was not with the editing it has now. It's far too unbalanced. I think he popped the first one full of action sequences to help make the other one still sellable, and because if you put half the plot and background in one movie and half in another, you'd have two incomplete films that both felt very confusing. Coming to the second one a while after having watched the first, especially, would have been an uncomfortable experience -- starting in the middle with half the plot hazy or forgotten. And for anyone seeing the second who hadn't seen the first, the second would be totally incomprehensible.

Thus, the unfortunate structure we have at present. I wouldn't be surprised if Tarantino re-edits them significantly when he releases them as a combined set. It's just the kind of flashy, controversial thing he'd like to do, too. If it happens, I bet the new film is much better.