After nearly 30 years since their previous adventure in the afterlife and becoming superstars in their universe, Bill and Ted had yet still written a song that would unite the world and fix time and space and have become washed up ever since. With only a very limited amount of time to repair reality from being collapsed, the duo must figure out how to make that special song with the help from old friends, historical figures, their future selves and even their daughters. The long-awaited third entry had been circulating on the internet for more than a decade as the project went on and off development. While it has finally been released, it clearly shows that it had been a long work in progress. While I think the story itself is pretty good as a follow-up to the series, the issue is that it constantly feels messy and unfocused. From the storylines relating with the duo, their daughters, their wives and even the involvement of the future, too much is happening that it barely gives the viewer to breathe. Perhaps if it only focused on Bill and Ted and perhaps having adventures with their future selves, it would be fine. Having all four of these storylines though, no matter how much they connect to each other, makes the story very cluttered. It also doesn't help that the film constantly breaks the rules and logic given by the previous films. I won't go into it much, but from the rules of the afterlife and the established lore of the future and the events of the previous film, the third film practically ignores what the series had set up after all of this time. Then again, perhaps I might be overanalyzing the film and should just enjoy it for what it is, as the tone is very much in spirit to the franchise as it does go in weird directions and the films were never meant to be taken seriously to begin with. The humour does has its moments, but I felt that it had the least amount of laughs in the series. Whether it's due to the tone being much more lighthearted than before or the lack on focus in the story to allow hilarious sequences and set-ups to play out, there's not that much times where I laughed with this film compared to the previous films.
Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves fit perfectly back as Bill and Ted, the two air-headed rock stars. Not only do they manage to look like their respective characters as middle-aged adults down to the hairstyles and clothes, but their personalities are practically preserved. Reeves though does a much better job in recapturing that energy and charisma though as it's hard to recognize the actor from his second wave popularity in the media as he just slipped back into the character that pioneered his career. Newcomer actresses, Samara Weaving and Bridgette Lundy-Paine, are actually really good as the daughters for their respective parents, basically acting and looking as the iconic duo, but female and less air-headed in their decision making. From there on, there are a multitude of characters that are just too many to list. From the returning characters that include Ted's father, brother, Missy, the princesses, and William Sadler's Death, to the historical figures such as Jimi Hendrex, Louis Armstrong and Mozart, to the future characters such as Kristan Schaal's Kelly, Holland Taylor's The Great Leader, and the insecure killer robot known as Dennis, all of the actors are clearly having fun in playing these either over-the-top or grounded roles. Although a few characters can come across as annoying or unmemorable, the real highlights from the cast are Winter and Reeves reprising their roles with Weaving and Paine backing them up to have a nice, fun chemistry.
Dean Parisot, best known for his work on "Galaxy Quest", takes charge in the director's chair to attempt to recreate that sense of low-budget cult adventure feel that the previous films in the 80's/90's had. Although it was a noble effort, the truth is that the film does actually feel cheaper that the previous films in a few ways. The first two films might be independent in their release, but they did attempt to put as much money as they can for some nice sets, locations and general scale of the film. Although Parisot is working with a $25 million-dollar budget, the film tends to use some cheap sets, standard locations and CGI for the most part. With the exception of a mansion set-piece and the location of Hell, the rest of the film feels pretty safe and standard. Even the costumes designs are underwhelming as the future people are wearing less elaborate attire and the robot himself looks like a padded-up person with make-up rather than an actual robot. I know that it might be just for the tone and humour sake, but it just feels lazy if the last film had more uniquely designed robots that felt more realistic. With all of that said, Parisot does manage to exceed in other aspects of the film. The cinematography by Shelly Johnson is very good with some nice uses of wrap-arounds and establishing shots. It's also a very colourful movie with lots of sunny daylight, some unique location lighting, and even some of the character's wardrobe adding variety. The music by Mark Isham is enjoyable and the music the characters create themselves not only feel natural to their personalities, but are honestly nice to listen to. Lastly, even though the CGI isn't great per se, it's adequate for the very modest budget they are attached to. On top of that, there are actually some nice visual effect shots when it only inhabits the screen with the landscape of Hell and the final shot of the movie. Overall, Parisot does manage to put together a pretty solid production for the respective vision. However, if he put more attention to making the film feel as cinematically presented or ambitious as possible with their limited budget much like the previous films, Parisot's job would have been excellent to say the least.
"Bill & Ted Face The Music" might not be the greatest return or conclusion to the franchise, but it's far from being a forgettable attempt. While the story is very messy and unfocused, the humour might be the weakest from the series in terms of memorable set-pieces, the production values could have been used more perfectly with more ambition, and sets as well as costume design do feel lazy compared to previous films, there's plenty to enjoy about the third entry. From the unapologetic, light-hearted tone, Winter and Reeves doing a stand-up job in recapturing these iconic roles, Weaving and Paine making good impressions of the youthful daughters, the entire supporting cast clearly giving it their all and having fun with their respective roles, Johnson's decent cinematography, the colourful aesthetic, Isham's likeable score and original music that ties into the film, and a few effective uses of CGI and sets. It might be the weakest entry in the trilogy even if you remove your nostalgia glasses, but it's still fun to watch and, at the very least, offers a product that feels like it's out of this timeline.
Verdict: 6.5/10. Above average and might not be completely worth the rental price, but if you love Bill & Ted or any zany adventure, chances are that you won't mind.
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