I really didn't think there would be a third movie in the Bill and Ted franchise. There were rumors here and there, but that's where it went. Considering the way sequels, remakes and reboots have been going in recent years, it didn't really upset me to think that they might leave this franchise as it was in 1991 with Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. It's bad that because of the way movies have been going in recent years, people are wondering if this movie is woke. My answer to that question is yes and no.
Put yourself in the shoes of Bill S Preston Esquire (Alex Winter) or Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves). You have a time traveler from the future named Rufus tell you that you two are going to write the song that unites and saves humanity. At the time, these two guys were wanna be rock stars with a fantasy in their minds. They didn't have the ability to play music. They really didn't have the ability to pass the big history test and they might fail High School.
When Rufus comes into their lives, they are living an amazing adventure. At that point, it hasn't really sunk in that they have to write the song that unites humanity. They're traveling through time to pick up historical figures to help them with their history test. Then, they have an adventure where they get killed and have to find their way back from hell. Even at that point, they're only just realizing that they need to get serious about their music if they're ever going to write the song.
There are two points of contention that people who are going to cry "woke" will point out about this movie. The first is that at the end of Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey, they have two babies named Bill and Ted. It's clearly implied that they are boys. In fact, the writer even admitted that they were boys, but he had a problem writing these characters as boys. He felt a gender swap was needed in order for him to write characters who were interesting. Personally, I disagree with that. I don't think that the young ladies did a bad job in their roles, but I can see where people will already start having the "woke alarm" go off over their heads. By the end of the movie, they might even need new batteries for that alarm.
The other thing about the ending of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey is that the two clearly formed a successful band. We see the montage at the end of the movie showing the exploits of the Wyld Stallyns. It's not clearly depicted at the end of the movie that they have written the song that saves humanity, merely that these guys went on to become successful. It wasn't some flash-in-the-pan run of a few months or a year. At least, that's the way the ending of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey explains it. The writers have said that they weren't the ones who wrote that part, and they don't consider it canon.
We can dismiss that part as an end of the movie joke. You see the end of movies sometimes talk about such and such went on to become this and so and so went on to become that. Usually, that's meant to be a joke of some sort. The way it's explained in this movie is Bill and Ted had a hit and had some success, but then they collapsed under the pressure of having to write the big song. How do you write a song that's supposed to save humanity? No song of this nature has ever been written, and these two were told they were going to do that when they were teenagers.
The basic idea of this movie is that though Bill and Ted are good-natured, laid-back sort of dudes, they don't have the ability within them to write that sort of song. I'm a little bit disappointed that this is the route they took with it. We went along with the joke in the first two movies and took the ride with Bill and Ted. Yeah, these guys are slackers, goofballs or whatever you want to call them. But those of us who enjoyed the ride believed that one day they would do it. Rufus couldn't be wrong, could he?
We travel nearly 30 years into the future to catch up with Bill and Ted. They're still trying to live the rock and roll dream, but nobody wants to hear them play. They are on the verge of finally breaking up the band when it happens. The daughter of Rufus pays them a visit. Rufus was played excellently by George Carlin in the original movie, but sadly he passed away. I like the idea that the writers paid tribute to him by keeping his presence in this movie. We even have a really nice scene early in the movie to remind us of George. This visitor from the future is named Kelly. That's the name of George's daughter, and her father is Rufus.
Kelly's mother is now the supreme leader in the future. She has to make the big decisions, and she wants to meet with Bill and Ted. She wants to know why they haven't written the song. Then, they get the ultimatum. They need to write this song within a little over an hour and perform it, or the world as we know it is going to be no more. Talk about pressure. These two couldn't handle it for years, and now they're supposed to come up with a song under this kind of pressure? It seems hopeless.
Bill and Ted devise a plan. They are going to take the phone booth time machine and go into the future. Their aim is to steal the song from themselves. There's just one problem with that scenario, which is funny to watch. If they haven't written the song by then, were they going to actually write it in the future? You can pretty much guess how this is going to work out for them, but it's played for laughs.
Bill and Ted's daughters are not your typical "woke women" of the movies we see these days. They actually adore their fathers, and they want to help them. They can see their families falling apart and their mothers getting ready to leave their fathers. When Kelly pays the present day another visit, the daughters come up with a plan. While their fathers are off trying to get the song from themselves, they are going to travel through time to get musicians to play in the band that will perform the song that saves humanity.
At this point, the daughters have total faith in their fathers. We're not seeing a couple of girls in the woke culture bringing down the patriarchy or any of that sort of thing. They love their fathers, and they want to do what they can to help them. The writers themselves say this is a love letter from fathers to daughters and daughters to fathers and a family movie.
One might talk about whether this is woke or not, but if you don't see it as love for family, you're not paying attention. We even get to see some payoff between Ted and his father. They have their own troubled relationship from the previous movies that finally goes in a positive direction.
It's a good story, and it very much feels like a Bill and Ted movie. I might disagree with a few of the choices that the writers took. However, I get what they were going for. They did things that might appeal to the woke crowd, while also attempting to stay true to the story and make both audiences happy. I don't think I've seen anything like this attempted in the woke era. I think the cynical crowd who is opposed to the woke culture and woke agenda that is affecting popular franchises will reject this movie once we get to how the song comes about.
I can't comment much more than that without spoiling the movie. I had a hunch it would go that way, but they handled it with respect to the characters that we love. I like this movie. It holds up well against the first two. It didn't have a point in it when I wasn't engaged, and it appealed to me emotionally. Keanu Reeves looks a little bit older these days, but he he's 30 years older. What do you expect? Alex Winter looks about the same as ever and really did a great job in the role of Bill.
The girls playing the daughters weren't exactly female versions of Bill and Ted, but definitely similar. Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine did well, and the supporting cast were all good in their roles. I can't mention this without talking about William Sadler in his role as death. He was just as enjoyable to watch in this movie as he was in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. I like the cast, and there wasn't anybody in there that I thought hurt the movie. Even the robot played by Anthony Carrigan, who discovers his humanity, was enjoyable to me.
It didn't go exactly as you would think it was going to go after watching the first two movies. The writers changed it up, and that's going to upset some people. However, it was still a pleasant movie that stayed in the spirit of what came before it. I can think of a few other movie franchises that failed in that endeavor and pretty much gave a middle finger to their core audience.
I think for the people who are anti woke, I'd say just watch the movie for what it is and realize that it wasn't talking down to the male characters or belittling them. They still had an important role in the end. I recommend the movie. It wasn't as good as the other two, but it wasn't bad. It's an hour and a half of entertainment that takes you away from what's going on in the world. Considering what we're experiencing these days, this movie almost seems timely.
