Why did I think the movie was average compared to the reviewers here who thought it was great? Let's compare it to the show and see:
Story:
Cowboy Bebop: 9/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 6/10
Anyone who remembers the Cowboy Bebop series knew that the storyline was more detailed while simultaneously comedic. The drama and comedy blended together made the series a good anime. It's story revolves around a group of four bounty hunters who *desperately* seek for money by taking criminals to the cops. Spike was a stubborn, pigheaded cowboy and Jet was officially commanding. As for the other main characters, Faye Valentine is dreamy and hotheaded, Ein was naive, and Ed was technically hyper and mischievous. After the three main characters joined in, the hunters seemed to split into two teams; they did before Faye and the others got in, but it was too complex for poor Spike to handle, so you should be happy that he's got a team quite like ones in a scavenger hunt or something. His team takes you to a certain place where the bounty heads are placed and he kicks their butts to make it easier to capture. The other team obviously *tries* to capture the bounty heads while Spike's team tries to set things right, that's usually on Edward's team.
Knockin' On Heaven's Door, I'd say seemed to start off with an interesting plot, but it has a lot of references to other movies and therefore, it seemingly takes place between episodes Cowboy Funk and Brain Scratch. If you are watching the show right now and haven't got up to episodes 22 or 23 yet, then you might as well wait until you get in touch with those episodes before you touch the movie.
Art:
Cowboy Bebop: 8/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 7/10
This really depends on what style of person you are. The music in the Cowboy Bebop series seemed to act like the music that were released between the 1950s and 1970s so if you are an old person between senior and middle aged, then you might be impressed with the art's activity as it *does* seem to remind people back-in-the-day (well, for me... yeah). The art and animation in Cowboy Bebop The Movie seemed to do well in its improvement. Bones had made it and Tristar Pictures and they make well thought out movies. Spike seemed to look a little different in his facial expressions as well as Ed and Jet, but the rest seemed to be just fine. The supporting characters are well, new and they seem to fit the style of the Cowboy Bebop movie.
Sound:
Cowboy Bebop: 10/10
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door: 7/10
These are both perfectly related so the VA in this film come from the series. I always thought Knockin' On Heaven's Door had better Animation/Art than Cowboy Bebop did, but I'd have to say that Hollywood studios seems to make hit T.V. series into movies which are usually, well, not topping the series and other people think the series are much better than the movie(s) they're making off of it. "I think it's time to blow this thing and get everyone and stuff together. O.K., three, two, one, let's jam!" The opening theme song "Tank" on Cowboy Bebop is considered to be the most awesome anime openings to ever hit the history of anime and I was wondering why it wasn't featured in the movie at some point. Knockin' On Heaven's Door had a lot of country music rather than jazz (at least from what I remember) and I was like... "Eh, they should've stayed on the jazz style." Although, the voice actors for both series are top-notch. Steven Blum was as good as Koichi Yomada, who played Spike making him look like a stubborn cowboy. Jet's VA sounded grumpy. Faye's VA sounded sexy. And Ed's VA fitted her perfectly with the sound of a "YAO!" and stuff like that.
Character:
Cowboy Bebop: 10/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 7/10
Like I said above, I explained how the characters were compared to the series in compact with the movie and how their personalities were. Although I think Cowboy Bebop had better supporting characters than the movie does, although Electra was a good one.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, well, can't really say, I thought adding an apparent BF for Spike is kind of irritating, although not too much since if they were lovers, she would make the perfect girlfriend. And I was wondering why nobody mentioned Vicious in the movie. Vincent is a new villain for Spike and Spike, apparently got affected from his nanotechnology didn't seem to show his feelings for him as he did with Vicious because every time he confronts him, something bad happens.
Overall:
Cowboy Bebop: 10/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 6/10
O.K., so I compared the series to the film and it's totality seems to hit the series more (which I thought was better.) I don't dislike the film, but I was quite disappointed when I flipped through the channels, awaiting for it to come on and spent almost two hours watching an apparent average movie or some movie that people don't really care too much about. The story mainly revolved around bio terrorism than it did with bounty hunters. Nanotechnology, and other stuff just didn't top the series. I mean, I know Spike and his mates are supposed to be ghetto, and I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm sorry to say that the series had its potential while the movie was just "I don't give a darn." I'm not bossing anyone around to avoid the movie; you saw what I wrote, and opinions are opinions, so if you liked it, good. if you didn't like it, I'm very sorry. But if you thought it was average (or sparingly not better than the series), then you'll see what I'm talking about. it was pretty good in my opinion, but like I said: average, which makes me want to write a review about it and send it out to the public.
