Cowboy Bebop: Knockin'
on Heaven's Door
Don't come
a'knockin
by Face
February 24, 2004
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 Vincent appears to have alterior
motives
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The original Cowboy
Bebop T.V. series had a seductive style and a swaggering attitude
that seemed to ooze out of every crack and cranny. A cool, almost
celestial nonchalance teamed up with profoundly stunning animation, and
newage trend-setting music to create 26 charming episodes starring a
misfit quartet of antiheroes. Many of those episodes didn't end with
discernible resolutions, but they never ended without an innovative
touch of stylish splendor. Sadly, once the cool opening credits pass,
it is obvious Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door lacks the
irresistable charm which was rife throughout the series.
The movie takes place before the end of the T.V. show (around episode
22). The whole crew is back in action, and even newcomers will be able
to grasp the movie's sidetracking plot line. Spike and Jet are scoring
a small load of woolongs at a local convenience store as the movie
opens, and Faye is on the tail of a pubescent hacker. After leaving the
racetrack, Faye immediately responds to a lead given to her by Ed. As
she chases the suspected criminal, the truck he was driving explodes,
spreading a chemical weapon throughout the city. Martian officials
immediately place a 300,000,000 woolong price on the perpetrator's
head, and naturally, the Bebop cadre can't help but try their
hand at the case. As each member begins their own investigation, they
realize the complexity of the situation, and the possible implications
if the disturbed mastermind (Vincent) isn't stopped.
While Vincent definitely fits right in with the swank Bebop
attitude, his tumultuous monograph painfully jostles about for much of
the two-hour long film. Inordinate amounts of time is spent vigilantly
tracking down Vincent's past secrets, and much of it fails to connect
with any forethought. This foolishly wasted time could have been spent
giving Jet and Ed a little bit more of an on-screen presence, instead
of having them mindlessly meander about. In the end, it truly doesn't
matter who gets the most screentime; all four of them have their
coolness progressively disembowled as they stodgily muddle around a
ho-hum plot premise better suited for an American buddy-cop
movie-crapfest -- what a shame. There are also quite a few rip-roaring
combact encounters such as a fabulously choreographed aerial skirmish,
but they are nothing more than complimentary eye-candies, and utterly
inconsequential action sequences wasted in spendthrift.
However, Bebop's offbeat vehemence is noticeable in the finer
edges of extraneous finesse, especially in Yoko Kanno's stellar
rockin'-country soundtrack, and equally in the characters' jazzy
hautiness. There is something fundamentally irresistable about watching
Spike foolishly jeopardize his own life. Nevertheless, underneath its
stylish facade there is a fruitless attempt at depth left awkwardly
vacant.
As a Cowboy Bebop fan, I can only feel disappointment from this
lackluster movie adpation. At nearly two-hours, it feels like an
overlong and unspectacular letdown. Perhaps, Jet was right when he
suggested the crew had gotten themselves in over their head with a case
that is simply too outspread to deal with... |
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| Director: |
Shinichiro Watanabe
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| Genre:
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Action/Sci-Fi
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| Episodes:
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1 Movie
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| Released:
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9/1/2001
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| Production: |
Bandai Visual
Sunrise
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| Also known as: |
N/A
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| Links: |
| ANN
Profile |
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