Director - Robert Zemeckis
This is the perfect film to watch over a cup of tea and a bowl of Muesli, and it allows me to talk about sequels. For where Back To The Future used the immortal line of "Roads, where we're going we don't need roads" to hint at a second story (it could have never happened) - this film is dropping blatant hints everywhere. Carefully setting up the situation to lead up to the 3rd film.
- Doc Brown mourns the fact that he'll never be able to visit his favourite era - the American West
- The time circuits are faulty, continually flickering between the selected date and 1885
- In the Biff Tannen museum we are introduced to Biff's great-grandfather: Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen, fastest gun in the West.
And whilst part 2 does build up perfectly to the third film, it fails to resolve itself as a single entity. This is a regular problem for middle films in trilogies, especially when parts 2 and 3 are being filmed at the same time (as was the case for this) - rather then reaching an ending, the film ends at a cliff hanger with a big flashing "TO BE CONCLUDED". We're not watching Lost here, its a family friendly blockbuster (albeit still with a lot of swearing! You could crow bar a lot of 'Shits' into a PG in them days), we don't want to be teased and taunted. I can only imagine how the audience felt when they realised they'd have to wait a year to see the end of this story line. At least part 1 had the decency to finish the arc and cheekily start a new one in the final 5 minutes.
It also adds a whole new dynamic to Marty's character. A crippling weakness which was not even touched on in the first film at all.... Marty can not turn something down if he is called a chicken. That's a pretty big character flaw, and it appears to get him into every single piece of trouble he has ever had in his entire life. Why haven' we seen this before?..
but what of the film itself? In the blurry drug and liquor addled recesses of my mind, part 2 is the least clearly remembered of the films. And upon re watching it, it kind of becomes clear why.
Part 1 is a hilarious 50s comedy about nearly shagging your mum
Part 3 may be the weakest but its a western... and westerns are cool.
Part 2 is just a bit higgledy piggledy and therefore comes out slightly confused.
I mean I only remembered that it was set in the future. But there are actually 3 sections to this film and each section is a gradual improvement on the section before it: So I'm going to break it down in to 3 parts and discuss them individually.
1) The Future - 2015
If Robert Zemeckis has got it right, we're going to get the following stuff in the next 7 years:
- Self lacing shoes
- Flying Cars
- Holographic Cinemas - and another 6 Jaws films (shark still looks fake)
- Hover Boards
- .... um... Elijah Wood will regress back to childhood and wear a sieve on his head
- ...... to be honest the list reached its peak and continuing it is pointless. Hover Boards have been scientifically proven to be the sweetest most gnarly thing ever put on screen. Ever. They are - to paraphrase Mr S. Dogg - The Bizzle. The best thing about them was that Robert Zemeckis conned people into thinking they were real and that Mattel had let them have some prototypes of a toy they had never released due to it being too dangerous. Good times.
In Part 1, Marty accidentally ends up in 1955 and accidentally stops his parents getting together. Thus potentially ruining his chance of existing. It is far fetched but makes sense in the world of the film and there is a genuine sense of urgency and of deadline. In Part 2 they go to the future to deliberately stop his son getting arrested. This is in the future.... there is no urgency.... Why doesn't Doc Brown just tell Marty what will happen and then Marty can sort it out in his own sweet time over the 30 years between now and then. He can make sure Marty Jr isn't out on that day. Hell, he could even move from Hill Valley. That'd solve the problems...
Luckily that bit of plot is quickly dealt with by the excellent hover board chase and we can move on to the second plot. The better plot. For this is Biff's movie - from the first scene where Biff (the Hopeless 1985 version) glowers menacingly at the flaming DeLorian tracks... we know this is his Movie, and his plot is excellent premise. What would happen if you travelled from the future (aging Biff with the pimpest cane ever), found your teenage self and gave yourself enough knowledge on future sporting events to become stupidly rich?
And so, as Doc and Marty return to 1985, believing themselves to be successful in their futile mission, we reach part 2 of this film.
2) Dystopian 1985
I love views of dystopia and I find it very amusing that Biff used his riches to essentially abolish the police, kill off a few people, turn Hill Valley into a dump and swagger about in a dressing gown smoking cigars. He is the epitome of the swaggering preening 80s megalomaniac bastard and for that he must be saluted and praised.
However besides that, not much happens. This bit is just full of nice little touches - especially James Tolkan as a cigar chomping shotgun toting version of Mr Strickland...
And worst of all Biff fails his Evil genius exam by falling for the same trick that every Bond and Scooby Doo villain falls for. I feel sullied for saying we should salute and praise him. He explains his plans. Down to the last detail. So that Marty knows exactly where and when he got given the Sport Almanac (this plot's Maguffin). THE FOOL! THE FOOL!
So off we go back to....
3) The Past - 1955
Unbelievable, that old Biff could have chosen that particular date. It could mean that that point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance. Almost as if it were the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence.
So, it is with great personal joy that we return to 1955. Firstly because the clothes are so much better then and secondly because I can once lust for Lea Thompson without her looking old (2015) or strange (Dystopian 1985). She really is very pretty.
This is clearly the best bit of the film (fact not opinion) as Marty has to get the sports almanac off Biff without being seen by himself who is still in 1955 because of the first film. There are some genuinely tense moments which have been lacking from the rest of the film and some surprisingly smooth interaction between Marty and Marty and Doc and Doc... The Special effects work well, even compared with today's examples and there is a glorious nostalgic thrill watching the Marty from this film watch scenes from the the first film or interact with himself.
And finally I want to mention Wesley Mann in the amazing role as the guy who thinks Biff had his wallet stolen. A truly memorable character.
So, in conclusion, this film is flawed as it is a set up to the final 3rd act (and it even ends with a trailer for part 3) - but the Back To The Future franchise is so fun and the concepts between are so clever that you kind of forgive it all.... Almost a shame that Part 3 isn't on the list.
