I’m not really looking forward to a third Bill and Ted film, if it’s ever made (less likely all the time, it seems).
I liked the first two. I desperately miss the goofy optimism of those films. But I’ve seen a few other memorable film series capped off after a long hiatus, and I’ve been deeply disappointed.
The most recent example of this was “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” There are many people who love this film, and I certainly don’t begrudge them their tastes. But as an old guy (and yeah, if you’re old enough to join AARP, you’re officially old), I was disappointed by this film’s proud contempt for storytelling technique. Characters’ histories and motivations mean next to nothing in this film. There are large subplots that serve only as irrelevant digressions. You can’t even claim that this is all in service to larger story arcs, because most of the story arcs have been ruthlessly slashed away.
Okay, maybe this wasn’t so much contempt for storytelling as it was contempt for everything in Star Wars canon. But it felt like contempt or obligatory cynicism or a tacit belief that sepia-toned grittiness is all that could possibly be plausible. And frankly, I encounter too much of that crap in my daily life – if these things are realistic, then I could use a lot less realism in my films.
Do I really want to see Bill and Ted as fat, balding, 50-something divorced has-beens who drink too much and feel like their best years are behind them? No, thanks.
“I was disappointed by this film’s proud contempt for storytelling technique. Characters’ histories and motivations mean next to nothing in this film.”
I’m always surprised by this assertion, especially in the Luke Skywalker context. I don’t know if you feel this way, but many are horrified that Luke threw away the lightsaber, and was initially unwilling to help. But this is the most classical and Star Wars-y storytelling possible. Firstly, that was Obi Wan Kenobi’s arc in the original, secondly, in the Joseph Campbell Monomyth/Heroes Journey (that the first Star Wars was based entirely on), the step after “Call to Action” is “Refusal”. The hero is unwilling, and must be CONVINCED to enter the adventure. So it’s exactly classical storytelling.
Anyway, maybe you aren’t referring to that element specifically, but it seems to be the most common criticism among those who feel older character motivations were “thrown away”.
P.S. Bogus Journey is Awesome. Hard to get better than Bill and Ted robots, but the whole Bergman/Death/Hell subplot is truly amazing. And the closeup of the electric football player spinning pointlessly in a circle captures what Hell was like to 6 year-old Me…
I’m not sure if it is Men in Black or The Matrix that is the documentary.
MiB certainly explains that Trump is really a hair piece looking alien controlling a human body, while The Matrix explains why I feel like I see the same people over and over in real life.
This is a thread about Bill & Ted, but you spent 170 words to not clearly explain why you didn’t like an entirely unrelated film.
What has LJ got to do with this? A purported B&T sequel isn’t being made by the same studio as LJ, isn’t being produced or written or directed by the same people. Why would the one have any bearing on the other, except in some vague “sequels bad because one sequel bad” trolley logic?
You began trying to make a point about sequels coming after a long gap being a bad idea, but LJ was the third Star Wars film to be released in three years, so your example makes no sense. You began trying to make a point about sequels coming after a long gap being a bad idea, but Crystal Skull and Godfather III were just lying there and you didn’t mention them, so your example makes no sense. You began trying to make a point about sequels coming after a long gap being a bad idea, but The Color of Money, The Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, Blade Runner 2049, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Creed all exist, so your entire premise makes no sense. It’s almost as if the quality of a film depends on things like story and plot and acting rather than how long it’s been since an earlier film in a series.
Right. Because obviously that’s the ethos of the first two films, and obviously that’s the ethos a sequel would describe. Even though early script pitches portray nothing of the sort. Projecting much? You clearly haven’t seen anything with Keanu Reeves recently; fat and balding he ain’t.
