Last night I braved the cooling air and headed over to the movie theater in Harvard Square to check out the US release of the Cowboy Bebop movie. I'd downloaded a fansubbed version of it a while back and had seen it already, but I was kind of keen to see it with the dub voices that I enjoyed so much during the series. I also wanted the chance to see it on the big screen with better sound than the fansub I had.
Overall, the movie was good. Not great, but good. Probably even a bit better than good. Let's say very good. The plot was decent. In general terms it's about some bad guy who's got some freaky virus and is threatening to unleash it upon Mars. Of course, the crew of the Bebop get involved because there's a huge bounty on the guy (and Faye witnesses his first attack). I'd say my only major problem with it was the pacing. There were a few scenes that felt like they could have been trimmed slightly and tightened things up. But beyond that there isn't too much negative to say about the movie.
The dub cast is back for the movie and does just as good a job as they did in the series. The soundtrack is great (I've had the CD for months now). And some of the action sequences in the movie are amazing (there's an dogfight scene that's really cool, and I enjoyed the fight scene at the end a lot). Overall, if you enjoyed the TV series, you'll probably at least like the movie. I also think it would work well for someone who hasn't seen the TV series. I give it four out of five stars.
