Four years after the success of Back to the Future, Zemeckis decided to make two more. The first
sequel, Back to the Future Part II
picks up exactly where the first film left off. With almost everyone reprising
their roles, plus Flea as Needles, the film grossed over $300 million and was
the third-highest grossing film of 1989.
Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) takes Marty (Michael J. Fox)
and Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) to 2015 to save his son from trouble. Successful,
they find the elderly Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) stole the DeLorean and
made his younger self rich. Now with 1985 made into a dystopia, Marty has to
return to 1955 to set right what once went wrong.
Yes, this film has launched a few memes that have gotten very
old, very fast. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. In fact, it’s almost as
good as the first.
The future portion of the film looks very good and it’s
quite noticeable that a lot of effort went into making it look like it actually
is the future. And the clock tower still
not being fixed is an amusing addition. The DeLorean also has a couple great
additions, like using trash as fuel and it being able to fly. Once again, just
how these work isn’t explained, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s future tech!
The alternate 1985 is also great. Everyone’s had the dream
of being able to control the country or world and this shows what would happen
if someone so self-absorbed and narcissistic as Biff did so. It also displays
the relationship between the abuser and the abused quite well in how Biff
controls Lorraine. And since Biff controls everything, she can’t go anywhere anyway.
In going back to 1955, Marty has to stay out of sight from
his past self, currently working on the events of the first movie. However, the
movie never strains itself in how he continues to avoid himself.
There is a slight continuity error though. In the first
film, Doc wants to see who wins the next few World Series and make a bit of
money. But in this one, he explicitly condemns it and says he didn’t invent the
time machine to win at gambling. He might have had development between films but
everything else about him is the same.
Not better than the first, but still passes the Edge of
Satisfaction.
#2
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