Written by: Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale (characters), Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale (story), Bob Gale(screenplay)
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Elizabeth Shue
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
Marty travels to 2015 and must go back to 1955 to fix the future... again.
Verdict
This trades in on the nostalgia from the first movie. It rehashes whole scenes from the original, with the best part being the brief "future 2015." It's unoriginal compared to the first movie. It's half of an idea without a conclusion. It feels rushed, lacking the subtle easter eggs the first one included. The original Back to the Future (1985) deftly weaves multiple story lines while remaining clever and fun, but this feels like a clumsy remake.
It depends.
Review
Few movies make it this explicit that you need to watch the first one. This picks up with the final scene of the first movie, but the scene was re-shot with Elisabeth Shue instead of Claudia Wells who did not reprise her role as Marty's girlfriend. Obviously the writers regret having Marty's girlfriend at the end of the first movie. She's rendered unconscious early on basically discarded so she won't get in the way.
Crispin Glover did not reprise his role as Marty's dad. Due to a contract dispute Glover's role was greatly reduced and sole new scene is shot with a look-a-like. Glover stated his pay was half of Lea Thompson's and Thomas F. Wilson's due to his criticisms on the original's ending. Glover did successfully sue Zemeckis and Gale over the re-use of his scenes from the first movie.
The only way to one up going to the past is going to the future. We see an imagined 2015 briefly, but the actual 2015 brought no flying cars, hover boards, or self drying jackets.
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| Back to the Future II - A little bit of future, a lot of the original. |
As impressed as I was upon re-watching the first Back to the Future, (read my review) I was just as disappointed in this. It's hard to match the first, but this is a clip show of the first. The arc in this is typical, starting with Marty wanting to make a quick dollar with information from the future. The one redeeming quality is the depiction of the future.
The future scenes take queues from the first movie, re imagining the 1955 diner scene and Marty's escape from the original on a skateboard, but this time with a hover board and a retro '85 diner theme. Even grandpa Bif remarks that the sequence "seems familiar." While the future is a fun look at what could have been, and now didn't pan out, it just hides the lack of an original story. This movie trades in subtle humor and clever ideas for over the top slapstick humor.
We even get a reference to Midnight Cowboy (1969), when Marty hits the hood of a car, stating "I'm walking here." Was that needed?
After seeing the future we go back to the past. Grandpa Bif somehow drives the Delorean back to 1955, meets himself without ripping a hole in the space time continuum, and creates a dystopian future ruled by Bif. Marty's girlfriend is rendered unconscious by meeting herself, yet it doesn't faze Bif. The logical answer is that the movie didn't want to include Jennifer.
The movie dodges the obvious paradoxes with Doc Brown mentioning alternate realities. Marty and Doc Brown have to go to 1955 to fix the future.
This doesn't just take queues from 1955, it pulls numerous clips from the first film. When you do it right the first time, there is no need to change it. So why even make this movie with so few new ideas unless it's just for the money?
This really sets up the third with Marty watching a Clint Eastwood movie that will be later referenced in the third film. Part II and Part III were shot back to back and released a year apart.
This isn't a bad movie, it's just such a step down from the first. It's literally a shadow of the first movie, trading big on nostalgia and the love the first movie generated. The big finish for this movie reuses the big finish from the first. It's a conclusion that's devoid of emotion. We get a preview for the third movie, because this one just wants our money and our money in the future.
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