BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II

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I remember being a bit disappointed by this sequel but given that that was a long time ago I thought I would give it a second chance.

Sadly, I still think it’s a bit of a let-down. 

The main problem is the climax. 

Although it is undeniably kind of cool and fun that it takes place simultaneously with that of the first film, this has the drawback of drawing attention to the fact that this film is struggling to come up with an exciting ending in its own right.

In the first film there is a genuine urgency. Marty and Doc are really up against it, having to get back to the present and get Marty’s parents-to-be to fall in love, both before the lightning strikes.

Whereas here all Marty and Doc have to do is recover the almanac from Biff - how challenging can that be?  

And there is zero urgency because they only need to do this before Biff starts placing bets. 

And should they fail they can try again because they have a time machine. 

This instalment just isn’t as much fun as the original - as Pauline Kael puts it “it’s fast and furious but low in spirit”. The story is a more complicated one which requires more work from us to keep track of timelines and so forth.

The opening scenes in 2015 rapidly become a bit of a downer, especially seeing what has happened to Marty and Jennifer. 

When you stop to think about it, it’s a bit weird that the event Doc wants so urgently to change is Marty Jr going to jail, rather than the car accident which is the fundamental root cause of the family’s problems.

The scene where Michael J Fox plays several members of the McFly family is a bad idea, poorly executed.

The fact that Jennifer spends most of the film asleep is not great either.

Despite all these gripes, this film is still a superior piece of entertainment. It’s just that it inevitably suffers by comparison with the original out-and-out classic.

RATING: ✓ Cheers

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