#there was a recent-ish comic that follows directly from Bogus Journey and it was amazing

[reachexceedinggrasp]

So I watched Bill & Ted 3 and it was cute, I laughed out loud four or five times. It was very tonally and atmospherically similar to the first film... just its... vibe. Very like the first one. Which I guess is great for people who love that movie, but my deep and abiding love for Bill&Ted really comes from Bogus Journey, not Excellent Adventure. I love the characters and quote it on the regular, but the first film I think is more funny and endearing than it is good as a film. The story is stretched pretty thin to sustain feature length, the pacing is uneven, it’s all a bit rambling and amateurish. Whereas Bogus Journey is actually brilliant. I’ve mentioned before, but I watched it properly for the first time a couple years ago and unexpectedly sobbed uncontrollably at the ending because it was so nice.

The unrelenting, unaffected optimism of these goofy films is extremely moving to me, that ending just epitomised what makes them great.

And, as I was pretty confident would happen given the writers’ own opinions about the sequel, this movie walks back and retcons my favourite part of Bogus Journey for... no real reason. The ultimate solution it arrives at is... not awful... I guess... but it’s just not what you want. I get what they were going for and it’s a sweet idea, but the ending of Bogus Journey will stand as the ending for me. Face the Music just wasn’t worth it to lose that. The direction they took the story makes perfect sense to get a third film out of the premise without wildly altering the feel, but I didn’t like it much. And I don’t like that B&T become their own villains in the future; the whole conceit of the characters is their insuppressible good nature. It doesn’t make sense they would persevere for 25 years basically unchanged, but 5 more leaves them so embittered they are radically, radically altered. When they were their own villains in Bogus Journey it was because they were evil robots. And even evil robot Bill and Ted are totally devoid of bitterness or resentment because they’re still Bill and Ted. Like, that was part of what made it so funny.

There’s a robot in this which could have been great and was a funny idea, but is extremely underdeveloped as both a concept and a character. He comes off as kind of a discount version of Death. Who is also in the film anyway.

I must commend the actress playing Ted’s daughter, because she is doing a fucking bang-on impression of him that’s full of subtle ‘Tedness’ details that shows she legit studied his performance in the originals. And she doesn’t go over the top, it’s not a caricature, it’s just exactly right for a B&T movie. They even gave her Keanu’s coveted ‘Ted Hair’, which really made me laugh when I realised.

Alex Winter slides right back into the shtick, pretty much flawlessly, which is really amazing considering he hasn’t acted in decades. (Speaking of which, everyone- WATCH FREAKED.) Although they toned down the bodacious language, which... guys, no. Do not. I think they were afraid it wouldn’t work any more and would be embarrassing, but you have to go with it. Be fearless.

But yeah. Amusing. Not an addition to the ‘verse I want to take on board, though. Won’t be adding it to ~the canon~.

Rufus’ daughter is pretty pointless and isn’t given much chance to be funny. Ursula’s mum from George of the Jungle was an inspired casting decision as Rufus’ wife and the new Most Important Person in the World, also wasted.

So it’s roughly equal to the first film in overall quality with much weaker characters (the historical figures definitely don’t get to shine nearly as much though you’d need to add ten+ minutes to give them enough time to do so and it was probably a good idea not to drag it out), but it is still funny and endearing. I did love the running joke that Ted is awkward with himself