Bill & Ted Face The Music (2020)

 

Thirty years after a most triumphant history assignment saved not just their friendship, but also, like the future, Bill and Ted have still not written the prophesied song that will save the world.  They've grown increasingly more and more desperate in their efforts to capture the magic, a quest that has led to commercial failure, and increasing strain on their respective marriages.  About the only thing that is working out is their relationship with their daughters, probably because the two young women are very much made in the images of their fathers.

Unfortunately, even as Bill and Ted seem further and further from success, the need to write the song has never been more urgent.  In fact, they're about to learn that they literally have only a matter of hours to complete their fabled composition, or the entire world will end.

No pressure, then!

However, Bill and Ted have learned a thing or two about time travel in their previous adventures, and it occurs to them that when you have a time machine, you can simply leap into the future to where you have already written the song, then bring it back.  Problem solved, right!?

Well, as you might expect, it's not going to be quite that easy.

It has been almost thirty years since the last Bill & Ted film, and the premise - "what happens when Wyld Stallyns don't write their prophesied song?" - is an intriguing one, so I was quite enthusiastic to see this film.  Surely, I thought, if they finally got everyone to come back for this script, it must be something special?

Alas ... not really.

Much like with the 2014 Veronica Mars film, I think the biggest flaw of Bill & Ted Face the Music is that it succumbs to the temptation to do squeeze in far too many call-backs to the original films (series, in the case of VM).  There's so much going on that none of it gets any space to breathe or develop, and at the same time, none of it really feels fresh or new.  The entire sub-plot involving their daughters, for instance, is essentially just a homage to Excellent Adventure (and also a waste of the two very talented people playing those roles).

Alas, after a thirty year quest to find that magic song, this film doesn't hit the right notes.