Back To The Future Part 2

Back to the Future Part 2 is really like its successor. I hold this movie in such high regard because it was such a quintessential part of my childhood that its hard for me to really be objective and say this movie is good or bad. I hold the Back to the Future trilogy up there with the Star Wars trilogy, or the Indiana Jones movies, I find them very hard to be objective.

However, I have read and seen enough reviews of this movie and watched it enough times with as an objective lens as I can to point out some of the pitfalls with this movie. Not necessarily bad things about it, just the pitfalls and the moments that maybe didn't work out as much as the first movie.

The first being that Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale never actually planned to make Part 2.

The ending was originally just supposed to be a funny ending to a pretty well rounded movie. But with the success of the first one, the two directors were really handcuffed into not only making a sequel but starting a sequel exactly where they left off. Zemeckis has even said if he had known they were doing a sequel he would have never put Jennifer (played this time by Elizabeth Shue) in the Delorean.

And when you look back at the film, Jennifer spends a lot of the movie passed out because the truth is the directors didn't really know what to do with her throughout the film. Overall, she's pretty pointless.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back to the Future Part 2 starts exactly where Back to the Future 1 left off. Marty (played by Michael J Fox) and Jennifer are whisked away by Doc Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd) and they go into the future in 2015. But instead of the future being one where we don't have hover boards and Donald Trump is running for President, its a wacky really creative version of 2015 that, whether it was intentional or not, did predict a lot of funny stuff in our future.

Doc tasks Marty to change the actions of his son and change the course of their lives. The funny part is Marty's son is played by Michael J Fox and looks exactly like him. You may call it cheap but I think in the vein of this movie's humor, its pretty damn funny. The same goes for Biff (played by Thomas F Wilson) and his grandson Griff.

And then something kind of brilliant happens.

In a weird turn of events, they end up at the McFly house in 2015 and Michael J Fox plays... everyone. He plays his son, he plays his daughter, he plays him 30 years older. And its hilarious.

The whole time they're in 2015 is a lot of fun. It might have gone on a little bit longer than it needed to but I think, especially the first time you see it, its fun to see this wacky future and the things we thought were going to be reality in 2015.

But that's not even the main story. The main story is that old Biff figures out that Marty and Doc have a time machine and when Marty buys an Almanac to place bets in the past and make money, Biff steals it and the time machine, goes back to 1955 to give it to younger Biff and changes the timeline.

So when Doc and Marty go back to 1985, they find themselves in a Hill Valley that is run by Biff Tannen. And remember how I said Donald Trump wasn't running for President in 2015? Well in this alternate timeline Donald Trump runs Hill Valley and we get to see what the US will be like if we elect that man.

I'll cool it on the political talk but not before saying that the writers based this version of Biff off Donald Trump. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Anyways, Doc and Marty need to figure out when Old Biff gave Young Biff the Almanac and stop this horrible timeline from taking place.

This really gives way to one of the coolest explanations of alternate timelines and the consequences of time travel probably in a movie. When I'm done talking about the plot of this movie, I'll probably talk about some of the not so great things about this movie because there are some not so great things about this movie. However, I still look back to the explanation Doc gives to Marty in the garage of his laboratory and I really enjoy it.

Despite everything else, Back to the Future 2 was able to expand on the subject matter we had already become familiar with in the first movie, time travel, and make it even more interesting.

The movie was still able to make the subject matter interesting and keep me curious on the adventures that they could have moving forward. Well done Back to the Future, well done.

So they eventually figure out that Biff went back to 1955 when the lightning hit the clock tower and then Marty and Doc jump through time AGAIN, to get back to the events of the first movie but have their own adventures that they need to get through in tandem with the events of the first movie.

This was another thing that was done very well in this movie. It was fun to see Marty go on this adventure in tandem with the events of the first movie and doing all he can to reach his objective

while not trying to disturb all the progress already made. The movie was definitely a technological success because it was trying things with taking film and dubbing over it with new material as well as the idea of having one person play two people on the screen at the same time.

Regardless of any issues this movie has, you cannot deny this it was creative and really worked well with what it had. It may not be the best of the trilogy but it definitely earns points for creativity.

So let's talk about why this is probably the third best of the trilogy.

In case you didn't notice, the explanation of this plot is all over the place. First they're in 1985, then they go to 2015, then they go to 1985 but its an alternate timeline, so they have to go back to 1955 and kind of retread what they did before. While the scenes in 2015 and the alternate timeline were interesting, the scenes in 1955 are just okay and felt a little forced. I'm not sure where else they could have gone but it doesn't feel very new. After seeing this movie a couple hundred times I always fall asleep at the same point and its during the scenes in 1955. Like I said, I like the duality of those scenes but if you watch the Back to the Future trilogy like I do, back to back to back, you realize that you already watched this a couple hours ago.

Overall, the story is muddled. Its very fun, but its muddled.

I talked about the characters in my first review and not much changes to be honest. Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd still bring it. Lea Thompson is still very good. The only odd man out is Crispin Glover. I mentioned it a little bit in my first review but Glover had a salary dispute with the studios and did not appear in Part 2. But if you didn't know that, you would have no idea that wasn't him. That on top of the archived footage from the first movie really made the movie feel at least a little bit complete despite not having Glover in the film. Fun fact, Glover sued the producers of the film for using his likeness and won... worth it though.

The one big problem with any of the characters is with Marty and how he suddenly doesn't like being called chicken.

I think a lot of people will agree, the fact that Marty doesn't like being called chicken is a huge part of the film and it really comes out of no where. They needed to find some way to delve deeper into the character, and I think by the end of the trilogy it actually works, however, it just seemed random knowing what we know of Marty from the first film.

Like I said before, a lot of the issues of Back to the Future 2 stem from the fact that the directors were forced to create a movie from a gag ending. I don't think that means that they didn't put effort into this movie because you can tell, a lot of effort was put into it. The movie is still very funny and it still has a classic feeling about it. I think the fact that Back to the Future is a trilogy and it wouldn't feel complete without the second one helps give it that feeling. Are there issues with the movie? Of course there are. But its just another adventure with some really lovable characters.

Its totally reasonable to put this as the one that is your least favorite. I would also totally get it if you liked this one more than the 3rd one (I wouldn't understand if you thought this one was the best one but that's not the point.

Whether its the hover board sequence, or the multiple roles done by Michael J Fox, there is a lot to love about this movie. Especially in a time when we have a Back to the Future Day and had a huge celebration in 2015 for the day that Marty to the future, this movie was no doubt important to the pop culture world.

Since the Back to the Future movies are leaving Netflix, I'll be watching and reviewing Back to the Future Part 3 very soon. I will talk about a lot of the call backs and the fun stuff to wrap up the trilogy. Believe it or not this might be the first time I set off to watch a full trilogy or franchise and actually finish it.

But for now, Back to the Future is definitely a movie worth watching. Its a little bit of a quickly crafted sequel with the materials that the first movie gave it so its not as polished and perfect as the first movie, however its still a classic and definitely not a movie to skip, especially if you're binge watching the trilogy.

But what do you think of Back to the Future Part 2. Where does it fall in the ranking of the trilogy? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I've been dropping a lot of Kimmel clips, maybe he'd like to hire me, ;) Here's a bit they did with the original cast on Back to the Future Day. Enjoy!