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#657 - Back to the Future Part II
Robert Zemeckis, 1989
A teenage boy and an old scientist travel to the future to solve a problem only for a bitter old man to steal their time machine in order to manipulate history to his benefit.
The original Back to the Future was such a well-crafted example of blockbuster escapism that crafting any kind of follow-up would prove quite the challenge. Back to the Future Part II, which was shot simultaneously with concluding episode Back to the Future Part III, at least gives it quite the try by building a continuation that involves a familiar time-travel trope; that of a person using their knowledge of the future to change their past for the better. The film picks up where the first one left off, with Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) traveling to the distant future of 2015 in the hopes of resolving a problem with Marty's future family. Along the way, Marty acquires an almanac full of sports statistics that he intends to bring back to 1985 and use for financial gain. Unfortunately, Marty's plan results in embittered former bully Biff Tannen (Thomas J. Wilson) catching on to his time-travel shenanigans; to this end, Biff decides to steal the DeLorean and give the sports almanac to his teenage self, thus guaranteeing himself financial success. From there, the plot becomes about Doc and Marty not only putting together the pieces but also trying to figure out how to stop Biff from succeeding in his ruthless scheme.
I've written before about how there are sequels that threaten to contradict the logic established in the source film, yet I've also noted how doing so does not automatically result in a film being bad. Back to the Future Part II is arguably another example of this, with its initial plot about Doc and Marty (and Marty's girlfriend Jennifer, though her near-total lack of relevance to the plot shows a lack of foresight on the part of writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale) coming across as extremely unnecessary and ill-advised, especially considering Doc's professed interest in not misusing time-travel for personal benefits. Of course, the flimsy reasoning behind the plot (and the continuous examples of how it invalidates the original film's internal logic) are barely felt as the film progresses through a recognisable series of time-travel vignettes ranging from the film's colourful concept of 2015 to the Biff-altered dystopia of 1985 before returning to the original film's 1955 setting. If anything, the problem is that the film has trouble maintaining the same level of narrative momentum that made the original so great, especially when it spends a bit too much time on Marty very slowly realising that 1985 looks just a little bit different than he remembered it. One could also pick apart the decision to start the film off with the unforgettable 2015 sequence before being made to rehash the finale of the original film by, well, setting it during the finale of the original film (even if the lax time-travel rules established in the series do guarantee some degree of unpredictability as to how events will unfold).
Just as the original Back to the Future made its improbable premise work thanks to a blend of impressive art direction and a comedic angle driven mainly by solid characterisation, so too does Back to the Future Part II compensate for its various narrative shortcomings. The scenes depicted in the 2015 section of the film have understandably become the stuff of legend because of how vividly they depict a cartoonish yet vaguely plausible future, filling the frames with outlandish predictions for what will constitute food, entertainment, and history in the decades following the film's release. Fox and Lloyd once again manage to bring back the same blend of straight-faced anguish and conflicted enthusiasm respectively, even if the former's role here is ultimately defined by one very informed insecurity about being called "chicken" while the latter's eccentricity is tempered by one very sudden sense of responsibility towards the usage of his admittedly dangerous technology. Other performances are understandably limited; Lea Thompson doesn't get too much more to do as either Marty's heavily-aged mother in 2015 or his heavily-enhanced mother in alternate-1985. Wilson, on the other hand, once again gets the opportunity to chew some serious scenery as he plays several different versions of Biff ranging from his familiar teenage bully self to his cranky old man self and (most notably) his megalomaniac alternate-1985 self.
While Back to the Future Part II is most definitely an example of diminishing returns, it's not like it had much chance against its iconic predecessor. At the very least, its imaginative depiction of a not-too-distant future has carried its reputation as a superior piece of work to the Western-themed Part III. There's also something to be said in the ways that it attempts to graft a new storyline onto the original film in a way that does not feel obtrusive and does admittedly result in the odd impressive moment (such as one instance where two different Doc Browns carry on a conversation regardless of the plausibility of such a situation). The same capacity for science-fiction that is not so much ingenious as clever shines through enough so that the resulting film at least makes for pleasant entertainment regardless of how little sense it makes. If anything, the thing that makes Back to the Future Part II work is that it makes just enough sense so as to not drag an audience out of the picture, and even if it does, it's still got quite the captivating visuals to help us forget (and, of course, Alan Silvestri's iconic score). Only recommended to people who've seen the original, of course.
Robert Zemeckis, 1989
A teenage boy and an old scientist travel to the future to solve a problem only for a bitter old man to steal their time machine in order to manipulate history to his benefit.
The original Back to the Future was such a well-crafted example of blockbuster escapism that crafting any kind of follow-up would prove quite the challenge. Back to the Future Part II, which was shot simultaneously with concluding episode Back to the Future Part III, at least gives it quite the try by building a continuation that involves a familiar time-travel trope; that of a person using their knowledge of the future to change their past for the better. The film picks up where the first one left off, with Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) traveling to the distant future of 2015 in the hopes of resolving a problem with Marty's future family. Along the way, Marty acquires an almanac full of sports statistics that he intends to bring back to 1985 and use for financial gain. Unfortunately, Marty's plan results in embittered former bully Biff Tannen (Thomas J. Wilson) catching on to his time-travel shenanigans; to this end, Biff decides to steal the DeLorean and give the sports almanac to his teenage self, thus guaranteeing himself financial success. From there, the plot becomes about Doc and Marty not only putting together the pieces but also trying to figure out how to stop Biff from succeeding in his ruthless scheme.
I've written before about how there are sequels that threaten to contradict the logic established in the source film, yet I've also noted how doing so does not automatically result in a film being bad. Back to the Future Part II is arguably another example of this, with its initial plot about Doc and Marty (and Marty's girlfriend Jennifer, though her near-total lack of relevance to the plot shows a lack of foresight on the part of writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale) coming across as extremely unnecessary and ill-advised, especially considering Doc's professed interest in not misusing time-travel for personal benefits. Of course, the flimsy reasoning behind the plot (and the continuous examples of how it invalidates the original film's internal logic) are barely felt as the film progresses through a recognisable series of time-travel vignettes ranging from the film's colourful concept of 2015 to the Biff-altered dystopia of 1985 before returning to the original film's 1955 setting. If anything, the problem is that the film has trouble maintaining the same level of narrative momentum that made the original so great, especially when it spends a bit too much time on Marty very slowly realising that 1985 looks just a little bit different than he remembered it. One could also pick apart the decision to start the film off with the unforgettable 2015 sequence before being made to rehash the finale of the original film by, well, setting it during the finale of the original film (even if the lax time-travel rules established in the series do guarantee some degree of unpredictability as to how events will unfold).
Just as the original Back to the Future made its improbable premise work thanks to a blend of impressive art direction and a comedic angle driven mainly by solid characterisation, so too does Back to the Future Part II compensate for its various narrative shortcomings. The scenes depicted in the 2015 section of the film have understandably become the stuff of legend because of how vividly they depict a cartoonish yet vaguely plausible future, filling the frames with outlandish predictions for what will constitute food, entertainment, and history in the decades following the film's release. Fox and Lloyd once again manage to bring back the same blend of straight-faced anguish and conflicted enthusiasm respectively, even if the former's role here is ultimately defined by one very informed insecurity about being called "chicken" while the latter's eccentricity is tempered by one very sudden sense of responsibility towards the usage of his admittedly dangerous technology. Other performances are understandably limited; Lea Thompson doesn't get too much more to do as either Marty's heavily-aged mother in 2015 or his heavily-enhanced mother in alternate-1985. Wilson, on the other hand, once again gets the opportunity to chew some serious scenery as he plays several different versions of Biff ranging from his familiar teenage bully self to his cranky old man self and (most notably) his megalomaniac alternate-1985 self.
While Back to the Future Part II is most definitely an example of diminishing returns, it's not like it had much chance against its iconic predecessor. At the very least, its imaginative depiction of a not-too-distant future has carried its reputation as a superior piece of work to the Western-themed Part III. There's also something to be said in the ways that it attempts to graft a new storyline onto the original film in a way that does not feel obtrusive and does admittedly result in the odd impressive moment (such as one instance where two different Doc Browns carry on a conversation regardless of the plausibility of such a situation). The same capacity for science-fiction that is not so much ingenious as clever shines through enough so that the resulting film at least makes for pleasant entertainment regardless of how little sense it makes. If anything, the thing that makes Back to the Future Part II work is that it makes just enough sense so as to not drag an audience out of the picture, and even if it does, it's still got quite the captivating visuals to help us forget (and, of course, Alan Silvestri's iconic score). Only recommended to people who've seen the original, of course.